# Full Disk Access for Checklist Features

Apple Notes MCP works almost entirely without any special disk permission. **One
feature area** needs **Full Disk Access (FDA)** for the process that runs the MCP
server:

- **`get-checklist-state`** — reads a note's checklist done/undone state.
- **Checklist annotations in `get-note-markdown`** — the `[x]` / `[ ]` prefixes on
  checklist items.

Everything else (creating, reading, searching, updating, moving, deleting notes;
folders, accounts, attachments, stats, export, etc.) works **without** Full Disk
Access.

## Why it's needed

Apple Notes stores checklist items as a paragraph style inside a gzipped protobuf
blob in its SQLite store, `NoteStore.sqlite`. AppleScript's `body of note`
interface strips that state — it can't tell you whether a checklist item is
checked. To recover it, the MCP reads the SQLite store directly.

That database lives in a macOS-protected directory:

```
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/NoteStore.sqlite
```

Reading anything under `~/Library/Group Containers/` requires **Full Disk
Access** for the host process — without it, macOS denies the read and the MCP
cannot parse checklist state. (The MCP only ever **reads** this database; it never
writes to it.)

## How to grant Full Disk Access

1. Open **System Settings** (or **System Preferences** on older macOS).
2. Go to **Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access**.
3. Click the **+** button (you may need to unlock with Touch ID / your password
   first), and add the application that **hosts** the MCP server — i.e. the app
   that actually launches `node`:
   - **Claude Desktop** → `/Applications/Claude.app`
   - **Terminal** (if you run Claude Code from a shell) → `/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app`
   - **iTerm** → `/Applications/iTerm.app`
   - **VS Code** → `/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app`
4. Make sure the toggle next to the app is **on**.
5. **Fully quit and reopen the host app.** macOS only applies the new permission
   to processes started *after* the change — a reload or restart-server is not
   enough; the host application itself must be quit (⌘Q) and relaunched.

> **Grant FDA to the right app.** FDA applies to the process that spawns the
> server, not to `node` or to Notes.app. If you launch Claude Code from iTerm,
> grant it to iTerm; if you use Claude Desktop, grant it to Claude. Granting it to
> the wrong app has no effect.

## Verifying it worked

Run the **`doctor`** tool. It reports a dedicated **Full Disk Access** check as
`ok` / `warn` / `fail` with the reason, so you can confirm the grant took effect
without guessing. You can also just call `get-checklist-state` on a note that has
a checklist — if it returns items with `[x]`/`[ ]` state, FDA is working.

## Without Full Disk Access

The server degrades gracefully — nothing crashes:

- `get-checklist-state` returns a clear error explaining that database access is
  needed (and points here).
- `get-note-markdown` still returns the note as Markdown, but checklist items
  appear as plain list items without the `[x]`/`[ ]` annotations.
- **All other tools work normally.**

See also: [Known Limitations](../README.md#known-limitations) and
[Creating Checklists](../README.md#creating-checklists) in the README.