FocusRelay MCP server

FocusRelay — Fast Swift OmniFocus MCP Server and CLI for macOS

Plan your day and keep OmniFocus up to date with AI

FocusRelay is a fast, native Swift MCP server and CLI that helps AI assistants read and safely update OmniFocus using documented OmniFocus APIs.

Install with Homebrew · See what it can do · Star FocusRelay · Contribute

Ask about the work already in OmniFocus, review the answer, and make approved changes without clicking through long task lists.

Ask. Review. Update.

FocusRelay is designed for targeted questions and compact answers, so the assistant does not need your entire OmniFocus database for routine requests.

Try prompts like:

change.”

• “Help me process my OmniFocus inbox in a small batch.”
• “How many flagged items do I have?”
• “Show me the first three available tasks in my inbox.”
• “Find my task called [task name], flag it, and verify the change.”
• “Set [task name] due tomorrow at 5 PM in my local timezone and verify the

In clients that expose MCP server prompts, select processinbox. In OpenCode, run /focusrelay:processinbox to start the guided workflow. CLI-based agents can retrieve the exact same instructions with focusrelay workflow get process_inbox; use focusrelay workflow list to discover available workflows without loading their full text.

These workflows were tested with multiple MCP-capable models in OpenCode. Updates target stable OmniFocus IDs and can verify the saved result. If names are duplicated, ask to see the candidates before changing anything.

The current release can:

approval-first inbox workflow;

• guide supported MCP clients and CLI-based agents through a bounded,

state, completion, estimates, and text search;

• find and count tasks using dates, flags, tags, projects, availability, inbox

review intervals;

• review projects, folders, tags, task counts, and stalled work;
• update names, notes, flags, dates, estimates, tags, project settings, and

timestamp and next-review semantics;

• mark active and on-hold projects reviewed using OmniFocus's native review

• drop, restore, complete, reactivate, and move existing tasks;
• complete, reactivate, change status, and move existing projects;
• preview a proposed change and verify the saved result.

The current release updates existing tasks and projects. Creating or deleting items is not supported; creation is tracked in #82 and #83.

Why FocusRelay?

Keep the assistant focused

FocusRelay exposes nine model-facing tools: seven read tools plus edittasks and editprojects for supported changes. Combining seven editing tools into two reduced the full catalog from 14 tools to 9 and cut context usage by 7–13% in controlled model tests, leaving more room for the user's actual work. Internal diagnostics stay in the CLI, count commands avoid returning long item lists, and field selection keeps responses compact.

Native Swift speed at real-library scale

FocusRelay is compiled as native Swift and installed with Homebrew, with no Node.js or Python runtime in the request path. Single-pass filtering and early-stop pagination keep focused inbox reads near one second in testing at thousands-of-tasks scale. The same core powers a CLI for precise, low-context queries.

Run where OmniFocus understands its data

The Swift server dispatches work to a lightweight bridge plug-in that runs inside OmniFocus’s Omni Automation context. It uses documented APIs and native statuses, keeping results aligned with OmniFocus without reading its private database.

Make changes you can check

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.