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Peekaboo

by openclaw (community)

macOS CLI and optional MCP server that enables AI agents to capture screenshots of applications or the entire system, with optional visual question answering through local or remote AI models. 3,271 GitHub stars and 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

3,271·6 tools·Released AUG 2025·MIT
brew install peekaboo
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macOS CLI and optional MCP server that enables AI agents to capture screenshots of applications or the entire system, with optional visual question answering through local or remote AI models. 3,271 stars and 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

Reviewed by M. Nouriel · MAY 2026

INSTALL THIS SERVER

{ "mcpServers": { "peekaboo": { "command": "peekaboo", "args": [ "mcp", "serve" ] } } }
PrereqInstall via `brew install peekaboo`. Grant Screen Recording permission in macOS Privacy & Security. Path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS).
{ "mcpServers": { "peekaboo": { "command": "peekaboo", "args": [ "mcp", "serve" ] } } }
{ "mcpServers": { "peekaboo": { "command": "peekaboo", "args": [ "mcp", "serve" ] } } }
{ "mcpServers": { "peekaboo": { "command": "peekaboo", "args": [ "mcp", "serve" ] } } }
{ "mcpServers": { "peekaboo": { "command": "peekaboo", "args": [ "mcp", "serve" ] } } }

6 TOOLS AVAILABLE

screenshot
Capture a screenshot of the screen, window, or app
Read
list_apps
List running macOS applications
Read
list_windows
List open windows with bounds and titles
Read
visual_qa
Ask a visual question about a screenshot via local or remote VLM
Read
get_focused_app
Retrieve the currently focused application
Read
capture_region
Capture a specific screen region by coordinates
Read

OUR ASSESSMENT

Strengths
  • 3,271 GitHub stars.
  • 100 commits on main in the last 30 days. Top cadence among macOS automation MCPs.
  • MIT license.
  • Built-in visual QA via local or remote VLM.
  • Native Swift implementation; integrates with macOS APIs directly.
Weaknesses
  • macOS-only.
  • Screenshot capture requires Screen Recording permission in macOS Privacy & Security settings.
  • Visual QA requires a separate VLM endpoint (Claude, GPT-4V, local Llava, etc.).
Security Notes

Screenshot capture inherits the macOS user session permission. Treat the agent flow as having access to anything visible on the screen. Visual QA may send images to a third-party VLM endpoint; pin the endpoint to a local model for sensitive content.

Best For

macOS-specific QA flows where the agent inspects on-screen state; design review agents that compare expected vs actual UI; debugging flows where the agent verifies what the user sees on screen.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Language
swift
Transport
stdio
Clients
Claude DesktopClaude CodeCursorVS CodeWindsurf
License
MIT
GitHub
openclaw/Peekaboo · ★ 3,271
npm
peekaboo
Last Release
peekaboo (Homebrew latest)MAY 8, 2026
First Released
AUG 1, 2025

ADOPTION METRICS

// GitHub Stars
3,271

// Reading this3,271 stars on openclaw/Peekaboo. 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

// Popularity Rank
#7
Globally · #7 in Dev Tools

// Reading thisPairs with Windows MCP, XcodeBuildMCP, Mobile MCP, Chrome DevTools, Playwright in dev-tools. Peekaboo owns the macOS-screenshot-with-VLM slot.

SOURCES & VERIFICATION

We don't take any single directory's word for it. Before scoring, we cross-reference 4 public MCP sources, install the server ourselves against the clients we cover, and record when we last re-verified.

01
Discovered
Manual submission
First indexed MAY 8, 2026
02
Cross-referenced
4 directories
PulseMCP, MCP.so, Glama, Smithery
03
Verified against
Claude Desktop
Installed and tested across clients
04
Last re-checked
MAY 8, 2026
Weekly re-verification
// How other directories see it

The same server, 4 different lenses. We reconcile these signals into our editorial score, which is why our number sometimes diverges from a directory-aggregate star count.

SourceTheir ratingTheir star countTheir downloadsLast synced
AutomationSwitch This page4.4editorial3,271MAY 8, 2026
PulseMCP— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 8, 2026
MCP.so— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 8, 2026
Glama— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 8, 2026
Smithery— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 8, 2026

// Counts are directory-reported; we don't adjust them. Discrepancies usually come from different snapshot times or star-caching.

// Get in touch

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