How Persistence Works vs Mac Control MCP | AllMCPs
Side-by-Side Model Context Protocol Comparison
How Persistence Works vs Mac Control MCP
In-depth architectural comparison of the How Persistence Works and Mac Control MCP MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.
At a Glance & Executive Verdict
How Persistence Works
OS Automation · Remote HTTP/SSE
Quality: 33/100 (Emerging) | Auth: No auth required
Mac Control MCP
OS Automation · Local stdio
Quality: 55/100 (Good) | Auth: No auth required
Verdict Summary: Choose How Persistence Works if you need specialized OS Automation tools running via a hosted cloud SSE transport. Choose Mac Control MCP if your workspace requires OS Automation integration with local subprocess execution. Both servers can be configured concurrently in your client's mcpServers manifest.
Which MCP Server Should You Choose?
Choose How Persistence Works when:
You need dedicated capabilities in the OS Automation domain.
You prefer remote streaming HTTP/SSE transport architecture.
Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
No explicit tool names declared in metadata yet. Check project README on main listing page.
Mac Control MCP Tools (10)
capture_screen
main display (or a rectangular region within it) to a PNG file, returns the file path + width/height. Simple, synchronous, no size limits applied.
capture_screen_v2
main display only, but stores the PNG as a content-addressed artifact under `~/.mac-control-mcp/artifacts/<sha256>.png` and returns `{content_ref, bytes, sha256}`. Defaults to `inline=false` and downscales to `max_dimension`/`max_bytes` (4000px / 4MB by default) specifically to avoid blowing up an…
capture_window
screenshots one specific window by PID (optionally filtered by `title_contains`), not the whole display.
capture_display
screenshots one specific physical display by its index from `list_displays`, for multi-monitor setups.
Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations
Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).
How Persistence Works is categorized under OS Automation and uses a remote streaming HTTP/SSE transport. In contrast, Mac Control MCP belongs to OS Automation using local stdio subprocess. Select How Persistence Works when you need capabilities focused on os automation and Mac Control MCP when you require tools for os automation.
lists actionable elements for a PID (a flat, practical "what can I click" view).
find_element
returns the *first* element matching a role/title filter for a PID.
find_elements
same matching as `find_element`, but returns *all* matches, not just the first.
query_elements
regex search over role/title/value (falls back to case-insensitive substring on invalid regex); use when a plain role/title filter isn't precise enough.
get_ui_tree
walks the *full* accessibility tree of a process, including containers, and assigns stable element IDs for follow-up calls. Heavier than `list_elements`/`find_element(s)`, but the only one that gives you structure/hierarchy.
ax_tree_augmented
like `get_ui_tree`, but does one OCR pass and geometrically joins OCR-derived labels onto AX nodes that have no native label. Use it specifically for Electron/Chromium/Canvas apps where the native AX tree is sparse and unlabeled; it's the expensive option (an OCR pass), so reach for `get_ui_tree` f…