@privacytracker/mcp

Model Context Protocol server for PrivacyTracker. Exposes the local privacy library — apps, privacy labels, change history, AI policy summaries — to any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cline, etc.).

This is a read-only proxy. It talks to a running PrivacyTracker instance over its existing HTTP API; it does not touch the SQLite database directly and never mutates state.

Prerequisites

• A running PrivacyTracker instance (local pnpm dev, Docker, or remote install).
• Node.js 20 or newer on the machine running the MCP client.

Install

You don't need to clone this repo to use the server — every MCP client can spawn it via npx:

npx -y @privacytracker/mcp

For local development from a clone:

pnpm install
pnpm build
node dist/index.js

Configuration

The server reads three environment variables:

Variable	Required	Default	Notes
PRIVACYTRACKER_BASE_URL	no	http://localhost:3000	Origin of the running PrivacyTracker instance. No trailing slash.
PRIVACYTRACKER_ADMIN_TOKEN	conditional	—	Required when the upstream server has AUDITOR_ADMIN_TOKEN set, OR when the MCP server is reaching it across a non-local hostname. Sent as x-auditor-admin-token on every request.
PRIVACYTRACKER_TIMEOUT_MS	no	30000	Per-request timeout.

A 401 response from the server triggers a clear MCP error explaining which side of the token contract is wrong.

Claude Desktop config

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "privacytracker": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@privacytracker/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PRIVACYTRACKER_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "PRIVACYTRACKER_ADMIN_TOKEN": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and the privacytracker server will appear in the tools menu.

Available tools

All tools are read-only and map 1:1 to existing PrivacyTracker API endpoints.

Tool	Description
list_apps	Every tracked app with identity + change counts. Optional grouped view.
get_app	Full privacy dossier for one app (privacy types, categories, last snapshot, policy summary).
search_apps	iTunes Store search by name and/or bundle id. Returns App Store URLs.
get_changelog	Universal cross-app change feed with filtering (app, time, type, category) and pagination.
get_app_changelog	Full changelog for one app in chronological order.
get_history_stats	Per-quarter category trend and change-event sparkline for one app (Q1 2021 forward).
get_policy_status	Privacy-policy AI run status for one app (idle/running/done/error + log).
get_policy_version_diff	Line+word diff between a policy version and its predecessor.
compare_apps	Side-by-side privacy comparison of two apps (tracked or untracked URL).
get_notifications	30 most recent privacy-change notifications + unread count.
get_sync_status	Background sync scheduler state (running, last/next run, interval).

Available resources

URI	Description
apps://list	Flat JSON list of every tracked app.
app://{appId}	Full privacy dossier for one app. Replace {appId} with the numeric Apple track ID.

Local development

pnpm install
pnpm dev          # tsx watch mode
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm lint
pnpm build

To smoke-test against a running PrivacyTracker instance:

PRIVACYTRACKER_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 pnpm start

The server speaks JSON-RPC over stdio. Use the MCP Inspector for interactive exploration:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

Versioning

This package versions independently of PrivacyTracker itself. Tag a release (v0.x.y) on main and the publish workflow ships it to npm automatically.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.