An MCP server over your dictation history
Parlo's MCP server lets an AI tool like Claude Desktop or Claude Code search your dictation history directly, on your Mac. It exposes three read-only tools: search_dictations, get_dictation, and list_dictations, running locally over stdio. Settings installs it into Claude Desktop with one click, or gives you a command for Claude Code. It is Mac only today.
What is an MCP server?
The Model Context Protocol, MCP, is an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems. An MCP client like Claude Desktop or Claude Code can call a small set of tools instead of copying and pasting notes. A server exposes those tools, and the client reads the results directly.
What does Parlo's MCP server let you do?
Parlo for Mac runs its own MCP server locally, over stdio. A connected AI tool can search and read your dictation history without you exporting anything by hand. This is a Mac-only feature.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| search_dictations | Keyword search; every word in your query must appear |
| get_dictation | Fetches one dictation by its id |
| list_dictations | Lists recent dictations, newest first, with pagination |
These are the same three tools every connected client sees, and all three are read only. None of them can edit or delete a dictation. What you can ask depends on the client, but the server itself only ever offers search, get, and list over your own history.
What can you filter a search or list by?
search_dictations and list_dictations both accept optional filters, so a connected AI tool can narrow results before it ever reads them:
| Filter | Applies to | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| since / until | Both tools | Limits results to an ISO-8601 date range |
| mode | search_dictations only | Limits results to one dictation mode |
| limit | Both tools | Caps how many results come back |
| cursor | list_dictations only | Pages through results past the first page |
A search still requires every word in your query to appear somewhere in the dictation. There is no fuzzy or close-enough keyword matching; that is what the filters above are for.
What does a request from Claude actually look like?
A worked example shows how the pieces fit together. Say you ask Claude, "what did I dictate about the client renewal last week?" Claude can call search_dictations with the query "client renewal," a since date a week back, and a small limit. It gets back the matching dictations with a short snippet of each. If Claude needs the full text of one result, it calls get_dictation with that dictation's id. If you instead ask "show me my last ten dictations," Claude calls list_dictations with a limit. It pages further back with the cursor from a previous call, if there are more results than fit on one page.
What should you expect the first time you connect?
The one-click install and the copyable command both fill in the path to Parlo's MCP server for you. You do not need to know where Parlo is installed. Once a client is connected, it sees Parlo's three tools the same as any other tool it has. It decides on its own whether a question fits search_dictations, get_dictation, or list_dictations, rather than answering from its own memory.
How do you connect Claude Desktop?
- Open Parlo for Mac and go to Settings.
- Find the MCP section and use the one-click install for Claude Desktop.
How do you connect Claude Code?
Settings also shows a copyable command for Claude Code:
claude mcp add parlo -- <path> --mcp-stdio
Run it in a terminal to register Parlo's MCP server with Claude Code. The <path> is filled
in for you from Settings.
Is my dictation history safe to expose this way?
The server runs locally, over stdio, on the same Mac as your dictation history. There is no network hop between Parlo and the connected client. The client launches the server as a local process and talks to it directly. What a connected AI tool does with the results is between you and that tool. It is the same as pasting text into it by hand, except you skip the copy and paste step.
Why does this pair well with searchable history?
Parlo's dictation history already has a keyword search, and search_dictations exposes that same search to a connected AI tool. Every word in your query has to appear in the dictation, the same rule the app's own search panel uses. It is not a search by meaning. The semantic search that ranks notes by closeness in meaning, not just exact words, lives in the iOS app feed and the Mac Notes window. It is not in the MCP server.
That still pairs well with an MCP client. You can ask Claude a question in plain language. Claude decides which keywords, dates, or mode to pass to search_dictations, then reads back the matching dictations directly. You never have to open the app or type a search yourself.
What this is not
This is not a cloud service and not an account. It is a local server on your Mac, reachable only by an MCP client you set up yourself, over the tools listed above. It is Mac only: there is no MCP server on iOS today.
What are the honest limits of this feature?
Three tools is the whole surface: search, get, and list, all read only. There is no tool that writes a new dictation, edits one, or deletes one. A connected AI tool cannot change your history, only read it. It is also Mac only today, so an iPhone-only tester has nothing to connect yet. If Parlo is not running on your Mac, or the client is not configured to launch it, a connected tool sees no server at all. It never sees a broken one.
Frequently asked questions
Can Claude change or delete a dictation through this server?
No. All three tools are read only, search, get, and list. There is no tool to edit or delete a dictation.
What can Claude do with Parlo's MCP server?
It can search your dictation history, list recent dictations, and fetch one dictation in full, using the tools Parlo exposes.
Is the MCP server available on iOS?
No. The MCP server is a Mac-only feature, run from Parlo for Mac.
Does it need the cloud?
No. Parlo's MCP server runs locally over stdio on your Mac, connecting a local AI tool to your local dictation history.
Can I filter a search by date?
Yes. search_dictations and list_dictations both take an optional since and until date range, and search_dictations can also filter to one dictation mode.