CalDAV MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol server for managing iCloud Calendar
events, including native support for multiple VALARM reminders on one event.
iCloud Calendar is the only provider officially supported and manually validated in the
first release. The server works with any MCP client that supports stdio or Streamable
HTTP.
This independent project is not affiliated with, authorized, sponsored, or approved by Apple Inc. Apple and iCloud are trademarks of their respective owner.
- About
- Features
- MCP tools
- Tech stack
- Installation
- Configuration
- MCP client setup
- Verification
- Limitations
- Contributing
The server connects one configured account to iCloud through CalDAV. It discovers the account's calendars and exposes normalized read and write operations through MCP.
Updates preserve the complete iCalendar resource, including unknown properties, Apple
extensions, VTIMEZONE, recurrence exceptions, and alarms omitted from a patch. Writes
use opaque resource identifiers and ETags instead of assuming that a CalDAV filename
matches an event UID.
Calendar resources are processed in memory. The server has no telemetry and no application database, and raw iCalendar is returned only when explicitly requested.
- Discovers calendars available to the configured iCloud account.
- Lists events in semi-open time ranges and expands recurring occurrences.
- Creates timed, all-day, and recurring events.
- Supports zero, one, or multiple display alarms per event.
- Emits the Apple alarm extensions expected by iCloud Calendar.
- Reads events by opaque resource ID or by calendar ID and UID.
- Applies partial updates while preserving omitted and unknown iCalendar data.
- Uses ETags for optimistic concurrency on updates and deletions.
- Rejects isolated recurrence mutations instead of changing the complete series.
- Redacts credentials, raw calendar content, and CalDAV paths from logs and errors.
- Runs as a non-root container with a read-only root filesystem configuration.
- Supports
stdioand Streamable HTTP MCP transports.
Lists the calendars discovered for the configured account. Each result includes an
opaque calendar_id, display name, description, timezone, and best-effort write status.
Lists events in a semi-open interval and expands recurring occurrences. The maximum range is 366 days, the default page size is 100, and the maximum page size is 500. Results use a deterministic chronological order. Pagination cursors are opaque and do not represent a snapshot when events are modified during traversal.
Example input:
{
"calendar_id": "opaque-calendar-id",
"start": "2026-09-01T00:00:00Z",
"end": "2026-10-01T00:00:00Z",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin",
"limit": 100
}Reads an event by resource_id, or by a calendar_id and UID pair. Raw iCalendar is
excluded by default and can be requested with include_raw_ical: true for controlled
diagnostics.
Creates an event and reads back the representation stored by the server.
Timed event with two alarms:
{
"calendar_id": "opaque-calendar-id",
"summary": "Buy Shinkansen tickets",
"start": {
"date_time": "2026-09-06T03:00:00+02:00",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin"
},
"end": {
"date_time": "2026-09-06T03:30:00+02:00",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin"
},
"description": "Smart-EX",
"location": null,
"alarms": [
{ "minutes_before": 1440, "action": "DISPLAY" },
{ "minutes_before": 0, "action": "DISPLAY" }
],
"rrule": null
}All-day event with an exclusive end date:
{
"calendar_id": "opaque-calendar-id",
"summary": "Trip",
"start": { "date": "2026-09-06" },
"end": { "date": "2026-09-08" },
"alarms": []
}Recurring events accept an RFC 5545 rule without the RRULE: prefix:
{
"calendar_id": "opaque-calendar-id",
"summary": "Weekly planning",
"start": {
"date_time": "2026-09-07T09:00:00+02:00",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin"
},
"end": {
"date_time": "2026-09-07T09:30:00+02:00",
"timezone": "Europe/Berlin"
},
"rrule": "FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=MO;COUNT=10"
}Patches an event or complete recurring series. Omitted fields are preserved, null
removes a nullable field, and alarms: [] removes all alarms. An optional
expected_etag prevents overwriting a newer server version.
Deletes an event or complete recurring series, optionally requiring an observed ETag. Deleting a single expanded occurrence is not supported in the current release.
- Node.js 24+
- TypeScript with strict project rules
- Model Context Protocol TypeScript SDK
- tsdav
- ical.js
- Zod
- Vitest
- pnpm
- Docker
- An iCloud account with Calendar enabled.
- Two-factor authentication enabled for the Apple Account.
- An app-specific password.
- Docker and Docker Compose for container deployment, or Node.js 24+ and pnpm for a local installation.
The recommended installation uses the published multi-architecture image:
ghcr.io/lukegskw/caldav-mcp:latest
Download the Compose example:
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lukegskw/caldav-mcp/main/compose.example.yamlProvide the Apple Account email and app-specific password, then start the service:
export CALDAV_USERNAME='user@example.com'
export CALDAV_PASSWORD='xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx'
docker compose -f compose.example.yaml up -dTo publish a different host port, set:
export CALDAV_MCP_PUBLISHED_PORT=18100
docker compose -f compose.example.yaml up -dThe latest tag follows the newest successful build from the default branch. For a
controlled deployment or rollback, replace it in the Compose file with a published
version or immutable sha-* tag.
The Streamable HTTP endpoint will be available at:
http://<host>:8100/mcp
The host port can change without changing port 8100 inside the container. No
persistent volume is required; calendar data remains in iCloud.
The same hardened container configuration can be started directly:
docker run -d \
--name caldav-mcp \
--restart unless-stopped \
--read-only \
--user 10001:10001 \
--cap-drop ALL \
--security-opt no-new-privileges:true \
--tmpfs /tmp:size=16m,mode=1777 \
-e CALDAV_PROVIDER=icloud \
-e CALDAV_USERNAME \
-e CALDAV_PASSWORD \
-e CALDAV_MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
-e CALDAV_MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 \
-p 8100:8100 \
ghcr.io/lukegskw/caldav-mcp:latestBuilding locally is optional. Prefer the published image unless you need to modify or audit the container build.
git clone https://github.com/lukegskw/caldav-mcp.git
cd caldav-mcp
docker buildx build --load -t caldav-mcp:local .git clone https://github.com/lukegskw/caldav-mcp.git
cd caldav-mcp
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
cp .env.example .env
pnpm build
pnpm start -- --transport stdioIn stdio mode, stdout is reserved exclusively for MCP messages. To run Streamable HTTP
locally:
CALDAV_MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http pnpm startAll settings use the CALDAV_ or CALDAV_MCP_ prefix.
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
CALDAV_PROVIDER |
No | icloud |
Provider policy. iCloud is the supported profile. |
CALDAV_URL |
No | https://caldav.icloud.com |
CalDAV discovery URL. |
CALDAV_USERNAME |
Yes | None | Apple Account email. |
CALDAV_PASSWORD |
Yes | None | App-specific password, not the account password. |
CALDAV_MCP_TRANSPORT |
No | stdio |
stdio or streamable-http. |
CALDAV_MCP_HOST |
No | 0.0.0.0 |
HTTP bind address. |
CALDAV_MCP_PORT |
No | 8100 |
HTTP listening port. |
CALDAV_MCP_LOG_LEVEL |
No | INFO |
Application log level. |
CALDAV_MCP_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS |
No | 30000 |
CalDAV request timeout. |
The core retains an experimental generic provider policy and configurable URL to keep
Apple extensions isolated from the shared iCalendar implementation. No compatibility
with other providers is currently claimed.
Secrets must be supplied through the deployment platform or environment. Never commit
.env, pass credentials as MCP tool arguments, or include them in diagnostic reports.
For any MCP client that accepts Streamable HTTP server definitions, configure the URL:
mcp_servers:
caldav:
url: http://<host>:8100/mcpIf the client shares the Compose network, use the service name and internal port:
mcp_servers:
caldav:
url: http://caldav-mcp:8100/mcpFor clients that launch local stdio servers, configure the command to run
node /absolute/path/to/caldav-mcp/dist/main.js with the required environment
variables.
Claude Desktop launches local stdio servers as subprocesses. Running the published
container this way keeps the app-specific password on the client machine and opens no
network port, which matches the transport guidance in Limitations.
Add the server to claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"icloud-calendar": {
"command": "/absolute/path/to/docker",
"args": [
"run",
"-i",
"--rm",
"--env-file",
"/absolute/path/to/caldav-mcp.env",
"-e",
"CALDAV_PROVIDER=icloud",
"-e",
"CALDAV_MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio",
"ghcr.io/lukegskw/caldav-mcp@sha256:<digest>"
]
}
}
}-i is required. Without an attached stdin the client cannot speak MCP to the
container. --rm removes the container once the client stops it.
Supply credentials through --env-file rather than -e. Arguments passed to
docker run are visible in the host process list; the contents of an env file are not.
The file holds the variables described in Configuration:
CALDAV_USERNAME=user@example.com
CALDAV_PASSWORD=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
Pin the image by digest instead of latest, so that restarting the client cannot
silently start a different version:
docker pull ghcr.io/lukegskw/caldav-mcp:latest
docker images --digests ghcr.io/lukegskw/caldav-mcp
Restart Claude Desktop completely after editing the configuration file.
Create and locate the configuration file through Settings -> Developer -> Edit
Config. Do not assume a path. When Claude Desktop is installed from the Microsoft
Store, Windows redirects %APPDATA%\Claude into the package container and the file
lives at:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_<package-id>\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
In that case dir %APPDATA%\Claude reports nothing. Server logs are written next to the
configuration file, in logs\mcp-server-<server-name>.log.
Use the absolute path to docker.exe, because PATH inside the package container is
not reliable. where docker prints it, typically
C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\bin\docker.exe. Backslashes must be escaped
in JSON.
Configuration formats differ between MCP clients. Consult the client's documentation for its exact schema and reload or restart it after changing the server definition.
Check the container state and logs:
docker compose -f compose.example.yaml ps
docker compose -f compose.example.yaml logs caldav-mcpThe container should report healthy. The TCP healthcheck validates the server process,
not iCloud credentials.
Run the repository verification suite:
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm format:check
pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test:unit
pnpm test:integration
pnpm buildFinally, connect with an MCP client and confirm that all six tools are listed. Before a release, run the dedicated iCloud manual validation against a test calendar.
- One iCloud account is configured per server process or container.
- The Streamable HTTP endpoint has no authentication in the current release. Restrict it to a trusted LAN, VPN, or private container network; do not expose it directly to the internet.
- Individual recurrence occurrences are read-only. Updating or deleting the complete series is supported.
- Only
ACTION:DISPLAYalarms are created. - Individual iCalendar resources are limited to 5 MiB.
- Event list ranges are limited to 366 days and pages to 500 results.
- Events may contain at most 20 alarms.
- Attendee scheduling is outside the current scope.
- Providers other than iCloud are not officially supported.
See troubleshooting for discovery, authentication, ETag, and Apple extension guidance. Review SECURITY.md before reporting a security issue or attaching diagnostics.
Contributions are welcome. Before opening a pull request:
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm format:check
pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm build
docker buildx build --load -t caldav-mcp:test .Changes to CalDAV writes or iCalendar serialization must preserve ETag checks, opaque
resource boundaries, unknown properties, recurrence exceptions, and alarms omitted from
patches. TypeScript changes must continue to satisfy the rules in
.codex/rules/typescript.md.
MIT. See LICENSE.