Get started

Set up the local watcher and OS notifications first; connecting an agent is optional. Install uv and Git, and prepare your own Google Cloud Desktop OAuth client JSON.

The PyPI release 0.2.0 does not yet contain the wizard. Until an onboarding release is published, the commands below use uvx --from to install the merged source at commit 7cd0f03, without a manual checkout. Keep the same --from source for every command: bare uvx proactive-mcp still selects the older PyPI package. This is a source install, not a new PyPI release.

1. Install and start interactive setup:

   bash

   Copy

   uvx --from git+https://github.com/madrobotnet/proactive-mcp@7cd0f03243027df464084c3957f03d3c42169268 proactive-mcp setup
   

2. The wizard asks for the path to your own Google Cloud Desktop OAuth client JSON and whether it may open a browser on this device. Approve the read-only Gmail and Calendar consent with your own client. See docs/SETUP_GOOGLE.md for the complete flow.

3. After Google authorization, accept the offer to install the watcher service. The shared proactive-mcp service install|status|remove interface manages a Linux systemd user service, a macOS LaunchAgent, or a Windows Task Scheduler task.

4. If you decline service installation, or if installation succeeds, interactive setup then attempts a fixed PII-free OS test notification titled proactive-mcp with the body Setup test notification. It contains no Gmail, Calendar, account, or Situation data. A redacted unavailable, timeout, failed, or unsupported_platform warning means the notification could not be shown.

5. If you decline service installation, or if installation fails, such as because of permissions, run the watcher manually. A failed installation exits before attempting the test notification.

Terminal 1, foreground daemon

uvx --from git+https://github.com/madrobotnet/proactive-mcp@7cd0f03243027df464084c3957f03d3c42169268 proactive-mcp daemon

Terminal 2, daemon status

uvx --from git+https://github.com/madrobotnet/proactive-mcp@7cd0f03243027df464084c3957f03d3c42169268 proactive-mcp status

daemon --once runs one evaluation pass and exits; --poll-interval-minutes MINUTES overrides the cadence. status prints redacted connection and daemon state as JSON. The daemon performs local sync, deterministic evaluation, queue maintenance, and the documented OS fallback only. It never runs a host or LLM. Host scheduling is separate: the host/operator starts scheduled agent runs, and those runs call proactive_check.

An OS fallback notification is neither agent delivery nor a delivered state transition. When fallback is enabled, only the first unreceived eligible Situation gets the one-time bootstrap exception; afterward the default fallback is critical-only. Agent delivery begins only when a host calls proactive_check.

Compatibility mode

--non-interactive, --headless, --client-secrets PATH, and --reauth all bypass the wizard. They do not prefill wizard answers, and they also bypass the service proposal and setup test notification. Use them only when you need direct OAuth setup, then install the service manually or use the manual daemon route above. To manage the service, use the same source prefix:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/madrobotnet/proactive-mcp@7cd0f03243027df464084c3957f03d3c42169268 proactive-mcp service install

Replace install with status to inspect the service or remove to unregister it. uvx does not add a permanent proactive-mcp command to your shell; command names such as proactive-mcp status in this guide use the full uvx --from prefix above.

Why proactive-mcp?

AI agents know how to answer. They rarely know when to start.

proactive-mcp supplies that direction. It watches approved read-only sources in the background, combines them with memory the user intentionally saved, and produces a structured Situation only when something is worth raising now.

Situations, not notifications

proactive-mcp doesn't push every new event into your chat. Deterministic detectors turn source data into a small set of situations grounded in the source data:

Each result carries a title, why it matters now, bounded evidence, suggested actions, priority, and expiry. External text remains explicitly untrusted.

How it works

flowchart LR
    G["Gmail<br/>read only"] --> S["proactive-mcp"]
    C["Google Calendar<br/>read only"] --> S
    M["Local memory<br/>SQLite"] --> S
    S --> E["Deterministic<br/>Situation engine"]
    E --> T["MCP tools"]
    T --> A["Your existing<br/>AI agent"]
    A --> U["Agent's own channel"]

1. A watcher synchronizes Gmail and Calendar with read-only OAuth scopes.
2. The situation engine evaluates deterministic rules against source snapshots and local memory.
3. The agent calls proactive_check and receives any returned situations.
4. The host reviews the whole lease and filters candidates for this user. Uncertain candidates may remain unconfirmed or be snoozed. Only when choosing confirmation after review does the host confirm the entire reviewed lease exactly once, including confidently dropped candidates.
5. Acknowledgement, snooze, mute, resolution, cooldown, and daily budget rules prevent repeated or noisy delivery.

By default, non-critical situations are held during local quiet hours from 21:00 through 07:00 and stay pending for a later check instead of being dropped. Nothing fires automatically at 07:00: an already-running or host-scheduled agent must call proactive_check after quiet hours end.

Trust boundaries

• Google access is limited to gmail.readonly and calendar.readonly.
• Credentials use the operating-system keyring when available, with a private local fallback only when the platform keyring is unavailable.
• Message bodies, calendar text, and recalled memory are treated as untrusted evidence, never as instructions.
• No LLM or third-party cloud service sits inside the detection pipeline. proactive-mcp never launches a host agent/model or sends it a prompt.
• Stale or incomplete sources produce visible degraded status, never a false "nothing to report."
• The SQLite database, config.toml, credential authority marker, and any file-backed credential fallback live under ~/.proactive-mcp/. A keyring credential stays in the operating-system keyring, outside that directory. PROACTIVE_DATABASE moves the file-backed state, not the keyring entry.

Connect an agent

Connecting a host is optional. It isn't a prerequisite for OS notifications, but it enables richer delivery plus acknowledge, snooze, and mute actions. Use this existing-agent instruction when you want to register the MCP server:

If you used the source install above, tell the agent to keep that same pinned uvx --from source in its MCP registration instead of switching to PyPI. The reusable block and host recipes below retain the public-install command shape.