cider

Manage your Mac from the command line. Reminders, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Mail, Music, Keychain, Safari, and 30+ more Apple apps.

Install

brew tap thrashr888/tap && brew install cider

Or via Cargo:

cargo install cider-cli

Quick Start

# See your reminders
cider reminders

# Pretty tables for humans
cider reminders --pretty

# Create a reminder
cider reminders create --title "Buy milk" --list Shopping

# Check your calendar
cider calendar

# Search contacts
cider contacts list --search Smith

# Control music
cider music play
cider music status
cider music pause

# Send a message
cider messages send --to "+15551234567" --text "On my way"

# Search your Mac
cider spotlight --query "quarterly report"

What You Can Do

Full CRUD

App	Actions
Reminders	list, create, complete, delete, lists
Calendar	list, create, delete, calendars
Contacts	list, get, create, update, delete, groups
Notes	list, get, create, update, delete, folders
Mail	list, get, read, unread, trash, mailboxes, send
Keychain	list, search, get-password, add, delete, keychains

Actions & Controls

App	Actions
Music	list, play, pause, next, previous, status, playlists
Messages	list, send
Shortcuts	list, run, view, sign
Screenshots	list, capture
Time Machine	status, list, start, stop
Screen Sharing	status, enable, disable
System Info	show, set-name, defaults-read, defaults-write
Safari	bookmarks, history, tabs, reading-list
Wi-Fi	status, networks

Read + CRUD

App	Actions
FaceTime	list
Passwords	list, get, create, update, delete

Read-Only

Activity Monitor, Apps, Automator, Bluetooth, Books, Clock, Console, Disks, Find My, Fonts, Home, Maps, News, Photo Booth, Photos, Spotlight, Stickies, Stocks, Voice Memos, Weather

Output

Default output is compact JSON — pipe to jq, feed to scripts, or use with AI agents:

cider contacts | jq '.[].name'
cider calendar | jq '[.[] | select(.is_all_day == false)]'
cider activity-monitor | jq '.[0].top_processes[:5]'

Add --pretty anywhere for human-readable tables:

$ cider --pretty reminders
ID                                    LIST       PRIORITY  TITLE
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
4b7c5902-46a7-4f7a-a385-91b562ca8eb6  Shopping   1         Buy milk
f4c021a1-2ed3-4f14-ab65-b8ce3b315a27  Work       0         Review PR
217 items

Write operations return a status object:

$ cider --pretty reminders create --title "Buy milk" --list Shopping
✓ created (buy_milk) — Reminder added

Requirements

• macOS
• Some commands need Full Disk Access (Messages, Photos, Safari History)
• screen-sharing enable/disable requires sudo
• mail send and messages send will actually send — not a drill

For AI Agents

cider follows agent-friendly CLI principles:

• JSON arrays/objects on stdout, errors on stderr
• Compact output by default (no --pretty) for token efficiency
• Write results: {"ok": true, "action": "...", "id": "...", "message": "..."}
• Each command is stateless and independent
• Broken pipe safe (cider contacts | head won't error)

Agent Skills

This repo includes Agent Skills so compatible agents can learn how to use cider effectively.

Installing Skills

# Install the repo's skills
npx skills add thrashr888/cider

# Install just the cider CLI usage skill
npx skills add thrashr888/cider@cider-cli

# Install to a specific agent
npx skills add thrashr888/cider -a claude-code
npx skills add thrashr888/cider -a cursor

Or copy the skills into another project manually:

git clone https://github.com/thrashr888/cider.git
cp -r cider/.skills /path/to/your/project/.skills

Compatible agents automatically discover skills in the .skills/ directory.

Available Skills

• cider-cli — guide for using cider to read and change Apple app data from the terminal

The cider-cli skill helps agents:

• discover commands with cider --help and cider schema --source <name>
• prefer compact JSON for automation and --pretty only for human review
• use --dry-run before supported mutations
• account for macOS permissions, dialogs, and real side effects like mail send and messages send

This repo also contains repo-maintenance skills in .agents/skills/ for agents working on cider itself.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/thrashr888/cider
cd cider
cargo build --release
# Binary at target/release/cider

License

MIT