apple notes, readable by claude

vintage reads the actual Notes database — full note bodies from the compressed store, attachments, folders, share state — not the slow AppleScript surface most tools scrape.

notes land in the same local graph as your messages, mail and calendar, linked to people, so claude can answer "what did we write down about the trip?" with the note plus the conversation around it.

vintage runs entirely on your Mac: it reads the local Apple databases, builds one person-graph index, and serves it over cli and mcp. no cloud, no account, nothing leaves the machine.

try it

brew install systemoperators/tap/vintage
vintage index sync
claude mcp add vintage -- vintage mcp --stdio
vintage notes            # or browse in the terminal

what claude sees

every note with its full body and folder path
attachments and images (ocr text with the engine)
shared-note participants as person links
notes surfaced next to messages/mail from the same person

honest limits

creating notes is an engine feature ($49 once) — it writes through the private api, not applescript
password-locked notes stay locked; vintage does not touch them

questions

does this use applescript?

no. reading parses the notes database directly (fast, full fidelity). writing — with the engine — goes through the same private framework apple’s own apps use.

is my notes content uploaded anywhere?

no. indexing and serving both happen on your mac.

local. no account. never phones home. · everything vintage does · the engine