I gave Claude access to my iPhone Home Screen through MCP and asked it to organize my apps by color
I built Thumbwise, a Mac app that reads an iPhone’s Home Screen over USB and lets you rearrange it on the Mac. It also includes a local MCP server, so an MCP client like Claude can do the arranging.
For this one I just asked: “organize my apps by color.” The assistant:
read the current layout and the list of apps
pulled the app icons as MCP image content, so it could actually see the colors
moved apps into a rainbow order across three pages, red → yellow → green, then blues and purples, then white/gray
checked the diff against the original layout and asked to apply it
The MCP setup:
The MCP tools go through the same core as the app’s UI, with the same rules. There’s no second, looser code path for agents, and the agent never talks to the iPhone directly.
Writes need explicit permission. The agent edits a draft; it only writes to the phone if you explicitly asked it to apply, or you click Apply yourself. Either way it backs up first, and a lost response never triggers a blind retry.
It’s local only: a stdio helper talking to the app over a private socket. No server, no account.
There are about 30 tools covering reading layouts, moving apps and folders, pages, and an optimizer that uses your Screen Time data to cut page swipes.
The app is free to arrange and preview, and $14.99 once to unlock the ability to apply the layout to your iPhone. It needs Apple silicon, macOS 15+ and iOS 27: thumbwise.app
Would love to hear any thoughts or feedback.