Apple Notes API: what exists and what to use instead

People ask me whether Apple Notes has an API. It doesn't, not in the way Notion or Evernote do. Here's what does exist on a Mac and an iPhone, what each can and can't do, and what to use when you need more.

Which one should I use?

Find what you want to do, and the right column is your answer.

What exists

The action names above are the ones the Notes app offers Shortcuts on macOS 26.5, read from the app itself; Apple describes Shortcuts' recent additions in What's new in Shortcuts. On devices with Apple Intelligence, the Use Model action can put a model, including ChatGPT, between those actions: for example, ask it to summarize some text and append the result to a note.

AppleScript, and Python on top of it

On a Mac, the Notes app answers AppleScript. This lists every note's title, reads the first note's body (it comes back as HTML) and makes a new note in the Notes folder:

tell application "Notes"
	set titles to name of every note
	set firstBody to body of note 1
	make new note at folder "Notes" with properties {name:"Groceries", body:"<h1>Groceries</h1><div>Milk</div>"}
end tell

Python has no Notes library of its own; it runs the same script through osascript. The first time, macOS asks whether your terminal may control Notes, under Privacy & Security, Automation.

import subprocess

script = 'tell application "Notes" to get name of every note'
out = subprocess.run(["osascript", "-e", script], capture_output=True, text=True)
print(out.stdout)

Locked notes don't open this way, and the script runs only on a Mac that's on and signed in.

Write an AppleScript for the Notes app on macOS that [what you want, for example: appends today's date and a line of text to the note called "Work log"]. Notes stores note bodies as HTML, so read and write the body as HTML. Then show me how to run it from Terminal with osascript.

What people build on it

Most “Apple Notes API” projects on GitHub are MCP servers that drive the Notes app with AppleScript, so Claude Desktop or Claude Code can search and edit notes on that Mac. Can Claude read your Apple Notes? goes through those options and their limits, and Apple Notes MCP servers compared sets the main servers side by side. Exporters that turn every note into markdown files are the other common kind; exporting Apple Notes to Markdown covers those and the built-in export.

Amber Notes uses the same two doors when it imports: AppleScript to read your notes, and, if you ask it to keep your pins, the notes database, which is why that option asks for Full Disk Access. It only reads; nothing in Apple Notes changes.

What to use when you need a real API

If you want something outside your Mac to read and write your notes, whether that's ChatGPT on your phone, a script on a server or a coding agent, the notes need to live in an app that has an API of its own. Notion and Evernote have one. Amber Notes, the notes app for iPhone and Mac that I make, has an MCP server built in, which is the kind of API AI apps speak:

• Tools to search, read, create and edit notes, with precise edits (edit_note, append_to_note, set_checklist_item) instead of rewriting a whole note.
• Sign-in with OAuth and your approval in the app, read only or read and edit, or an access token for scripts, Claude Code and Codex.
• Every change keeps the previous version, so a bad edit can be put back.

Settings

ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex and Incredible can all use it. The Amber Notes MCP server page has the address and every tool, and moving from Apple Notes takes one import on your Mac.

Questions

Checked against the app on 1 October 2026.