Stem

Apple Music for your AI tools.

Stem is a native macOS MCP server that lets AI tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf search, play, and manage Apple Music through natural language.

No API keys. No browser auth flows. One command to install, one prompt to set up.

What it does

Tool	Description
search_catalog	Search Apple Music for songs, albums, or artists
get_song_details	Get full metadata for a song
get_album_details	Get album info with track listing
play_song	Play a specific song by catalog ID
play_pause	Toggle playback
skip_next / skip_previous	Track navigation
get_now_playing	Current track info and playback state
get_queue / set_queue	Read or replace the playback queue
get_library_playlists	List your playlists
get_recently_played	Recent listening history
create_playlist	Create a new playlist
add_to_playlist	Add songs to a playlist
ping	Health check

Requirements

• macOS 14+ (Sonoma or later) on Apple Silicon
• Apple Music subscription (for playback; catalog search works without one)
• An MCP-compatible AI tool (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
• For building from source: Xcode 16.3+ / Swift 6.1+

Install

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install seayniclabs/tap/stem

From source

git clone https://github.com/seayniclabs/stem.git
cd stem
swift build -c release
codesign --force --sign - --entitlements Sources/Stem/Stem.entitlements .build/release/Stem

The binary is at .build/release/Stem.

First-time setup

Run the setup command to grant Apple Music access:

stem setup

This triggers the macOS permission prompt. You only need to do this once.

Add to Claude Code

claude mcp add stem -- $(which stem)

Or add manually to ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stem": {
      "command": "/path/to/stem",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Usage

Once connected, just talk to your AI tool:

• "Search Apple Music for Tycho"
• "Play Everlong by Foo Fighters"
• "Create a playlist called Focus and add these tracks"
• "What's playing right now?"
• "Skip to the next track"

How it works

Stem uses Apple's MusicKit framework to interact with Apple Music natively on macOS. It communicates with AI tools over stdio using the Model Context Protocol (JSON-RPC).

AI Tool  --stdio/JSON-RPC-->  Stem  --MusicKit-->  Apple Music
                                    --ApplicationMusicPlayer-->  Music.app

Auth is handled by macOS — the binary has an embedded bundle identifier (com.seayniclabs.stem) and the MusicKit entitlement. Users just click "Allow" once when prompted. No tokens, no refresh logic, no config files.

Building

swift build           # debug build
swift build -c release  # release build

Stem requires Swift 6.1+ and targets macOS 14+.

License

MIT

Credits

Built by Seaynic Labs.