Mac window manager your AI agent can drive: layouts, workspaces, snap zones, screenshots.
Quick Install
Automated & IDE SetupCopy the AI prompt to install this server into Claude Code, Cursor, or another agent — or use 1-click editor setup below.
Manual Client & Custom JSON ConfigExpand JSON ▾
Client Config & Setup
Choose your client or environment
Target File:
💡 Paste the JSON block into your client's configuration file under mcpServers, then restart the application.
Documentation Overview
Plonk
A toolbox for your Mac, behind one menu bar icon.
Windows, workspaces, screenshots, OCR, a ruler, keep-awake, pointer tools,
shortcuts, voice and agents — native, local and modular.
To plonk is to set a thing down exactly where it belongs.
One app instead of eight menu bar icons
Plonk is a small suite of macOS tools that share one interface, one command palette and one automation surface. Use all of it, or switch off every module you do not need.
Capture and understand the screen. Take a region, window or full-screen screenshot, annotate it, pin a live crop, copy otherwise unselectable text with on-device OCR, or measure an interface in points and pixels.
Keep the Mac and your workflow moving. Hold sleep off until a timer, time of day or process exit; find the pointer, add crosshairs or click rings; inspect the front app's real shortcuts; and run anything by name from one palette.
Arrange the desk. Draw snap zones, save workspaces that remember each monitor, move windows by drag, shortcut or voice, and let app rules put new windows where they belong.
Let an agent use the same tools. Plonk ships an MCP server and CLI for layouts, workspaces, screenshots, OCR, measuring, keep-awake and the rest. The app stays the source of truth, and the whole surface remains on your Mac.
It is early. Version 0.4.x, one author. Shortcuts, zone files and workspaces are settled. The MCP tool names and the HTTP API are not, and can still change between minor versions. CHANGELOG.md says what moved.
Install
macOS 13 or newer, Apple silicon.
Grant Accessibility when it asks, then relaunch. Screen Recording is asked for separately, the first time you capture. Nothing else: no Full Disk Access, no Automation, no Keychain.
Plonk is signed but not notarized, so macOS holds a copy you download by hand. The cask takes care of that for you.
Running it alongside Rectangle or Magnet is fine, as long as their shortcuts do not collide.
Checking what you downloaded. Notarizing an app means paying Apple for a developer account, and this project does not have one, so Plonk is signed with a certificate it made itself. That means macOS cannot tell you who built the app. There is a check that answers a more useful question, and you can run it yourself: was this exact file built by GitHub from the source in this repository?
Put the number from the file name in place of <version>. The command comes
with the GitHub CLI, which is brew install gh. It
prints the commit and the workflow run that built the archive. If the file was
altered after it was built, or was not built from this repository at all, the
command fails and tells you so.
Every release also carries a small Plonk-<version>.zip.sha256 file. Put it
beside the zip and run shasum -a 256 -c Plonk-<version>.zip.sha256 to confirm
the download arrived complete and unchanged. That file is signed the same way
as the zip, so gh attestation verify works on it too. The attestation itself
is also on the release as Plonk-<version>.zip.sigstore.json, for anyone who
wants to check it offline with gh attestation verify --bundle or with
cosign instead of asking GitHub.
Installing by hand, Intel Macs, tiling managers, and removing it
Why macOS holds a downloaded copy. The certificate is self-signed rather than an Apple Developer ID, because notarizing needs a paid Apple account and this project does not have one. macOS cannot vouch for who built it, and says so. The cask skips that check by clearing the quarantine flag for you.
That is a check skipped on your behalf, so here is a stronger one to run before you open anything:
It prints the commit and the GitHub Actions run that built this exact archive. Apple's stamp would tell you a build passed a malware scan. This tells you the binary came from the source in this repository, with no laptop in between.
Without Homebrew. Download [the latest release][rel], unzip, drop Plonk.app into Applications, then clear the flag yourself, which is all the cask does:
Or do the Gatekeeper detour once: open Plonk, dismiss the warning, then System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, Open Anyway.
If you move or rename Plonk.app later, macOS ties the old grant to the old path and windows of newly launched apps stop being seen. Remove Plonk from Privacy & Security, Accessibility, and grant it again.
On an Intel Mac. Releases are built for Apple silicon only, so the download will not run. Building from source ought to work, see Build, but nobody has tried it and a report either way is welcome in [issues][hw].
Next to a tiling manager. yabai and Amethyst own every window on screen and will pull windows straight back out of a zone. Run one or the other.
Removing it. brew uninstall --cask plonk, or quit Plonk and drag it to the
trash. Then delete ~/Library/Application Support/Plonk/. The login item goes
with the app, and nothing was written anywhere else.
The tools
The modules share settings, shortcuts, the menu bar, the command palette and the same local API. Turning one off removes its page, menu items, shortcuts, manager and agent routes while keeping its settings for later.
| Screenshots and annotation | Capture a region, window or full screen at native resolution, then add pen strokes, arrows, shapes or highlights before saving |
| On-device OCR | ⌃⌥T copies words from a screenshot, paused video, dialog or locked PDF without uploading a pixel |
| Screen ruler | ⌃⌥R reads clearances and dragged distances in both macOS points and physical pixels |
| Live crops | Pin a changing part of the screen above everything else. It streams live and is never written to disk |
| Pulse | Keep the Mac awake by timer, schedule, open app, charging state or process lifetime. It uses real power assertions and hands sleep back when the session ends |
| Pointer tools | Find the cursor, add configurable crosshairs or click rings, and jump the pointer to the next display |
| Shortcut guide | Read every shortcut the front app actually exposes through its menus instead of relying on a stale cheat sheet |
| Zones and workspaces | Draw window places, save apps and documents as a desk, and return everything to the correct displays. Workspace details |
| Voice, CLI and agents | Run the same tools by name, from speech, the plonk command or twenty-two MCP tools. Recognition for common voice commands stays on-device |
All but the shortcut guide can be switched off, from Tools in the menu bar dropdown or the Tools page. Off means gone: out of the sidebar, out of the menu, its shortcuts released, and its tools refused to agents until it is back on. The same switches cover zones, workspaces and voice, so desk arrangement can stand down while the rest of Plonk keeps running.
If you are coming from Rectangle, Magnet, Loop or Raycast, the familiar window
shortcuts can come with you. One button imports Rectangle bindings and existing
rectangle:// scripts need one substitution. Coming from Rectangle
has the details.
Longer versions: Zones · Workspaces · Hotkeys · Everything else · Coming from Rectangle
For agents
An agent gets the same toolbox as the menu bar: capture or read the screen, measure an interface, control an awake session, inspect the desk, arrange it and save the result.
Twenty-two tools cover state, capture, OCR, measuring, keep-awake, layouts, workspaces and zones. Several agents can connect at once, each registering itself, with an optional mode that locks changes to the active one.
Setup, if you want the plonk CLI or an agent driving it (Node 18+):
Related MCP Servers
Reviews
No reviews yet — be the first to share how this listing worked for you.
Frequently Asked Questions about Plonk
AllMCPs Directory Badge
Showcase your server listing on GitHub or your project documentation. Embed this dynamic SVG badge to highlight official listing status and live engagement.
Badge Style:
Live Dynamic SVG Preview
Markdown (GitHub README)
[](https://allmcps.com/mcp/plonk)HTML Embed
<a href="https://allmcps.com/mcp/plonk"><img src="https://allmcps.com/api/badge/plonk?style=directory" alt="Plonk on AllMCPs" /></a>Technical Specs & Signals
CategoryDeveloper Tools
27Quality signal: Emerging · 27/100How this signal is calculated ▾
Server availabilityNot measured
Not scored for repo-hosted servers — we can't reach the running server, only its GitHub page. Hosted MCP endpoints are health-checked live.
Verified ownership8/20
Documentation & tools11/30
Adoption & activity1/15
Community engagement0/10
A guidance signal from public completeness & health data — not a user rating. New listings start lower and rise as they add docs, get verified, and grow adoption. Signals we can't observe for a listing are skipped, not counted against it.
Own this project?
This directory is pre-filled from public sources. Claim via GitHub README, site badge, or DNS TXT to unlock edit access and the Official badge and attach your website — proof is checked automatically, then reviewed by our team.
Free dofollow backlink: add your website and place the AllMCPs badge on it — no claim needed. We detect it automatically and keep it verified as long as the badge stays live.
Claim & get free dofollowShare & Embed
Add our SVG badge (dark/light directory styles) or embeddable widget to your site.