Apple TV MCP: A local MCP server that lets AI agents control — and see — your Apple TV

Open apps, navigate tvOS, control playback, type searches, adjust volume, manage power, and take screenshots so a multimodal agent can actually inspect what happened.

You:
Open YouTube and search for OpenAI.

Agent:
→ opens YouTube
→ takes a screenshot
→ sees the current interface
→ navigates to Search
→ types "OpenAI"
→ takes another screenshot
→ verifies the results

Apple TV MCP turns your Apple TV into a locally controlled, visually observable device for MCP-capable AI agents.

No hosted backend. No custom Apple TV app. No cloud account.

Why Apple TV MCP?

Most Apple TV automation is blind.

A script can press Right or Select, but it usually has no idea what appeared on the screen afterward.

Apple TV MCP combines semantic control with point-in-time visual observation.

The result is a feedback loop an AI agent can actually use:

screenshot
    ↓
model sees tvOS
    ↓
chooses an action
    ↓
press / type / open
    ↓
screenshot again
    ↓
verify

Semantic tools are still preferred whenever possible. Screenshots make the difference when the task requires navigating an interface that does not expose a direct API.

Install in seconds

Apple TV MCP requires Python 3.14.

Recommended

uv tool install appletv-mcp

Or:

pipx install appletv-mcp

Then pair your Apple TV:

atvremote wizard

Configure Apple TV MCP:

appletv-mcp configure

Check the setup:

appletv-mcp doctor

And start the MCP server:

appletv-mcp serve

From source

git clone https://github.com/trevor-nichols/appletv-mcp.git
cd appletv-mcp
uv sync --locked
uv run appletv-mcp configure
uv run appletv-mcp doctor
uv run appletv-mcp serve

What can it do?

Apple TV MCP exposes fourteen tools grouped around what an agent actually wants to accomplish.

See

• Take a screenshot of the current Apple TV screen
• Read device, connection, playback, and media state
• Inspect available Apple TV capabilities

Apps

• List installed applications
• Open an application by name
• Open an application by bundle identifier
• Open deep links and custom application URLs

Navigate

• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Select
• Back
• Home
• Menu
• Other supported remote actions

Remote navigation is intentionally treated as non-idempotent. Apple TV MCP does not blindly replay navigation commands after an uncertain connection failure.

Playback

• Play
• Pause
• Toggle play/pause
• Stop
• Next
• Previous
• Seek to an absolute position
• Skip forward or backward

Text

Type directly into a focused tvOS text field.

This is useful for:

• Search
• Usernames
• App navigation
• Query entry

Volume

• Read volume when available
• Set an absolute volume level
• Adjust volume relatively

Power

• Turn the Apple TV on
• Turn the Apple TV off

Power operations use different retry semantics so a reconnect attempt cannot accidentally wake a device immediately after a successful power-off command.

Give your agent eyes

The optional screenshot backend is what makes Apple TV MCP more than a remote control.

The MCP tool:

apple_tv_screenshot

returns the current Apple TV screen as native MCP image content.

That means a multimodal MCP client can call the tool and inspect the returned image directly.

For example:

Agent:
apple_tv_screenshot()

→ sees the Apple TV Home Screen
→ sees YouTube highlighted

apple_tv_press(button="select")

apple_tv_screenshot()

→ sees the YouTube interface

The model does not need access to a local screen.png path and does not receive base64 inside a text response.

The PNG itself is returned through MCP.

Screenshots are point-in-time

Apple TV MCP does not continuously watch the screen.

A screenshot describes what was rendered at the moment it was captured.

If the agent performs another action afterward, the previous screenshot may already be stale.

The intended pattern is:

observe
→ act
→ observe
→ verify

Enable screenshots

Screenshot support is optional.

Apple TV control continues to work normally without it.

Install the separate helper:

uv tool install appletv-screenshot

The screenshot system uses a separate Apple developer / RemoteXPC pairing from the pairing used by pyatv.

Pair for developer access:

pymobiledevice3 remote pair

Then configure the screenshot helper for one Apple TV:

appletv-screenshot configure --udid <UDID>

Verify everything together:

appletv-mcp doctor

A healthy installation will report both Apple TV control and screen capture.

The screenshot helper has its own configuration, dependencies, and lifecycle. pymobiledevice3 is not imported by the main appletv-mcp package.

For deeper screenshot setup and transport troubleshooting, see:

sidecars/appletv-screenshot/README.md

Quick start

The complete happy path is:

# Install
uv tool install appletv-mcp

# Pair for Apple TV control
atvremote wizard

# Choose the Apple TV
appletv-mcp configure

# Optional: install visual observation
uv tool install appletv-screenshot

# Optional: developer pairing for screenshots
pymobiledevice3 remote pair
appletv-screenshot configure --udid <UDID>

# Verify
appletv-mcp doctor

# Run the MCP server
appletv-mcp serve

Connect your MCP client

Apple TV MCP uses local stdio MCP transport.

Any MCP client capable of launching a local stdio server can use it.

A typical configuration looks like:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "appletv-mcp": {
      "command": "appletv-mcp",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

If Apple TV MCP is running from a cloned repository instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "appletv-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/absolute/path/to/appletv-mcp",
        "run",
        "appletv-mcp",
        "serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The server does not expose an HTTP endpoint and does not require OAuth.

Tools

The screenshot tool is the only tool that returns image content rather than a structured result.

How it works

Apple TV MCP keeps control and visual observation intentionally separate.

                         AI Agent
                            │
                            ▼
                      Apple TV MCP
                      /           \
                     /             \
                    ▼               ▼
              semantic control   screen capture
                    │               │
                  pyatv      appletv-screenshot
                    │               │
                    │         pymobiledevice3
                    │               │
                    │          RemoteXPC / DVT
                    │               │
                    └──── Apple TV ─┘

Control

Apple TV control is provided through pyatv.

Apple TV MCP adds a semantic application layer on top for:

• deterministic app resolution
• capability checking
• connection lifecycle
• safe retry behavior
• non-idempotent command protection
• normalized MCP results

The stable Apple TV identifier is authoritative.

The last known IP address is only an optimization. If the Apple TV changes addresses, Apple TV MCP can rediscover it by identifier and update the preferred host.

Vision

Screenshots use the separate appletv-screenshot helper.

The helper uses pymobiledevice3 to reach Apple's developer services over RemoteXPC and request a screenshot through DVT.

Its default transport strategy is:

macOS:
native → userspace → tunneld

Linux / Windows:
userspace → tunneld

The normal Wi-Fi userspace path does not require root or a permanently running tunnel daemon.

The helper exists as a separate process so its protocol stack, dependencies, pairing records, and failure modes remain isolated from Apple TV control.

pymobiledevice3 is confined to the separately distributed appletv-screenshot helper. The main appletv-mcp package does not import or bundle it; the two processes communicate through a narrow command-line/file contract.

Designed for agents

The MCP interface intentionally exposes semantic operations rather than raw Apple protocols.

An agent should think:

open YouTube
pause playback
seek to 2:00
type "Severance"
set volume to 35%
take a screenshot

not:

send Companion command
call MRP endpoint
construct RemoteXPC request

When a semantic operation exists, use it.

Visual navigation is the fallback for interfaces that require it.

Privacy and security

Apple TV MCP is designed to remain local.

• No hosted Apple TV MCP backend
• No cloud account
• MCP uses local stdio transport
• Apple TV pairing credentials stay on the user's machine
• RemoteXPC pairing records stay with the screenshot helper
• Credentials are never MCP parameters
• Credentials are never returned to the model
• Keyboard text is not emitted into normal logs
• Screenshots are captured only when explicitly requested
• Screenshot bytes are not logged
• Screenshots are stored only in a private temporary directory during capture
• Temporary screenshot files are deleted after the MCP result is created
• Screenshot capture does not run automatically after commands
• The helper is launched without a shell
• No DRM circumvention is attempted

Debug mode also keeps raw pyatv protocol logging disabled because low-level Companion traffic can contain sensitive keyboard and pairing payloads.

Protected video

Streaming applications may protect video using DRM.

In that case, screenshots can contain:

black video
blank video
redacted video

while menus or playback controls remain visible.

That is expected.

Apple TV MCP does not interpret a black protected video region as proof that:

• playback failed
• the Apple TV turned off
• screenshot capture failed

and it does not attempt to bypass DRM.

Limitations

Apple TV MCP intentionally has a narrow initial scope.

One Apple TV

Each server configuration controls one Apple TV.

Multi-device routing is not currently part of the public MCP interface.

Screenshots are not video

apple_tv_screenshot captures one frame at a time.

There is no:

• continuous stream
• background screen monitoring
• screen recording
• automatic screenshot loop

Focus is visual, not semantic

pyatv does not provide a universal signal for the currently highlighted tvOS element.

An agent can use screenshots to infer focus where appropriate.

media_app is not foreground_app

Apple TV status may identify the application associated with current media metadata.

That does not independently guarantee which application is visually in the foreground.

Apple developer services can change

Screenshot support relies on Apple developer protocols exposed through pymobiledevice3.

tvOS changes may require future compatibility updates.

Screenshot support is optional

Every non-screenshot Apple TV MCP tool works without the screenshot helper installed.

Configuration

Apple TV MCP stores application configuration in the platform-standard config directory.

Typical settings include:

{
  "device_identifier": "...",
  "device_name": "Living Room",
  "preferred_host": "192.168.1.10",
  "scan_timeout_seconds": 5.0,
  "command_timeout_seconds": 15.0,
  "screen_capture": {
    "command": "appletv-screenshot",
    "timeout_seconds": 20.0,
    "max_image_bytes": 33554432
  }
}

Pairing credentials are not stored in this file.

If an MCP host launches processes with a minimal PATH, set screen_capture.command to the absolute path of the screenshot helper.

Existing configuration files from Apple TV MCP v0.1 remain compatible.

Doctor

Run:

appletv-mcp doctor

to diagnose the complete installation.

It checks areas such as:

configuration
pyatv storage
Apple TV discovery
stable device identity
connection
capabilities
screenshot helper
screenshot helper contract
screen-capture target
real screenshot capture

Screenshot support is optional.

If the helper is not installed, Doctor reports it as skipped rather than treating Apple TV control as broken.

Troubleshooting

Apple TV not found

Confirm:

• the Apple TV is powered on
• the computer and Apple TV are on the same local network
• atvremote wizard completed successfully

Then rerun:

appletv-mcp configure
appletv-mcp doctor

Apple TV IP changed

That is expected.

Apple TV MCP identifies the configured device by its stable identifier rather than trusting an old IP address.

App will not open

Use:

apple_tv_list_apps

to see the applications currently exposed by the device.

Application-name matching is deterministic rather than fuzzy.

Text entry fails

A text field must already be focused on the Apple TV.

Screenshot helper not found

Install it:

uv tool install appletv-screenshot

or configure Apple TV MCP with its absolute path.

Screenshot target is not configured

Run:

appletv-screenshot configure --udid <UDID>

Screenshot pairing fails

Developer screenshot pairing is separate from atvremote.

Run:

pymobiledevice3 remote pair

Screenshot is black

Protected content may intentionally hide its video frame.

Try opening a tvOS menu or application interface and capture again.

Development

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/trevor-nichols/appletv-mcp.git
cd appletv-mcp

Install:

uv sync --locked

Run the complete root quality gate:

uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pyright
uv run pytest
uv build

The screenshot helper is a separate Python project:

cd sidecars/appletv-screenshot
uv sync --locked
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pyright
uv run pytest

The root package deliberately does not depend on or bundle pymobiledevice3.

Live tests

Normal tests use fakes and do not require Apple hardware.

Read-only Apple TV integration tests are explicitly opt-in:

APPLE_TV_INTEGRATION_TESTS=1 uv run pytest -m live

Tests that can change Apple TV state require an additional opt-in:

APPLE_TV_INTEGRATION_TESTS=1 \
APPLE_TV_LIVE_WRITES=1 \
uv run pytest -m live

Never enable the live-write suite against a device you do not intend to control.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

Before opening a pull request:

uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pyright
uv run pytest
uv build

If your change affects the screenshot helper, run its independent quality gate as well.

Please preserve the project's core architecture:

control      = pyatv
observation  = external screenshot helper
MCP          = semantic interface presented to the agent

Avoid exposing raw Apple protocol details through the MCP contract unless there is a clear semantic reason.

License

This repository contains two separately distributed components.

Apple TV MCP

appletv-mcp is licensed under the MIT License.

It does not import, bundle, or distribute pymobiledevice3.

Apple TV Screenshot

The optional appletv-screenshot helper under sidecars/appletv-screenshot/ is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

The helper directly uses pymobiledevice3, which is also licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

The two components communicate through a one-shot subprocess interface.

See LICENSING.md for the repository-wide map.

Built for a simple idea

AI agents are much more useful when they can verify the effects of their actions.

Apple TV MCP gives them both sides of that loop:

control the Apple TV
        +
see the Apple TV

So instead of blindly pressing buttons, an agent can interact with tvOS, inspect the result, and decide what to do next.