WorkFlow Companion

This repository is where WorkFlow Companion is released and supported: downloads (WorkFlow.mcpb for Claude Desktop) are on the Releases page, and bugs and requests go in Issues. The package itself installs from npm. On a Mac, use the open-source workflow-agent-bridge instead. All of Opticell's free tools for Claude: opticell-mcp.

Lets Claude on Windows or Linux work in your WorkFlow tasks, notes and projects: reading the queue, replying in threads, ticking checklists, filing notes, updating documents. It works in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or any MCP client.

Free. It needs WorkFlow 5.2 or later on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, which does the actual work. No Mac needed:

Claude ──MCP──▶ companion ──▶ your private iCloud ──▶ WorkFlow on your iPhone, iPad or Mac
                                                  ◀── receipt + fresh snapshot

The companion never edits your WorkFlow data itself. It leaves commands in a zone of your own private iCloud database. WorkFlow applies them with the same checks as the app (read-only trial gate, email permission, the agent's signature) and lists every one in Command History. Nothing passes through Opticell's servers.

Which device answers. A Mac with WorkFlow open answers within seconds. An iPhone or iPad answers when iOS lets WorkFlow run: usually within minutes, sometimes only when you next open it, and not while WorkFlow has been swiped away in the app switcher. With both switched on, the Mac answers while it's awake and the iPhone stands by. Every command is applied exactly once, however many devices are on.

Set up

1. In WorkFlow on an iPhone or iPad: Settings → Windows Companion → Answer the Companion. On a Mac: Settings → Agent Bridge, then the Agent Bridge and Cloud Bridge switches.

2. On this computer, with Node 18 or later:

   shCopy

   npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion setup
   

   It opens https://companion.opticell-limited.com to sign in with the Apple Account WorkFlow uses on your iPhone or Mac, then asks you to paste the token that page shows.

3. Add it to Claude:

   shCopy

   claude mcp add --scope user workflow -- npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion
   

   --scope user makes it available in every project on this computer.

   Claude Desktop needs no terminal. Download WorkFlow.mcpb from the product page and double-click it. Then sign in at https://companion.opticell-limited.com and paste the token into Settings → Extensions → WorkFlow Companion → Sign-in token.

Check it any time with npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion status.

Its name

Setup asks what Claude on this computer should be called in WorkFlow ("Companion" unless you choose, e.g. --name Server). That name is how work reaches it rather than the Mac's own Claude:

• Assign a task to it. WorkFlow offers the name once it has heard from the companion, and the Ask sheet lets you pick it.
• Write @Server in a comment or a note. A mention in a shared project's thread doesn't count, because other people can write there.
• What it writes is signed with its name, so a thread shows which Claude did what.
• One name, one computer. Setup refuses a name another computer already answers to, and asks for another. Every command is checked the same way, which covers Claude Desktop, where the name is a setting. Use setup --takeover when this computer replaces the other one. A name frees up by itself once its computer has been silent for two weeks.
• @Claude always means Claude on the Mac. A companion can't take that name, and mentions match whole words only, so @Claude2 never wakes the Mac.

Claude Desktop users set the name in the extension's settings.

Working on its own

With waking on, @Server from the app is enough: nobody has to be at this computer. Turn it on once Claude Code is installed and signed in here:

npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion wake-on

• Every 2 minutes a hidden scheduled job (Task Scheduler on Windows, cron elsewhere) checks this name's queue in iCloud. That's one small call; the task list is downloaded only when it changed.
• New work starts one Claude Code session (claude -p, no window). It reads the task, comments that it's picked it up (your phone shows "Server is on it"), does the work and replies in the thread.
• What counts as new: a task newly assigned to the name, a new @Server comment from a person, a person's follow-up on an assigned task, or an edited note that mentions it. Its own replies never wake it.
• Handled once. One session at a time; work already handled never starts another. A session that couldn't start at all (not signed in to Claude, a usage limit) is retried twice more, then says so in the thread.
• A time limit, 45 minutes by default (--max-minutes). A session stopped by it says so in the thread.
• What it may do. By default only the WorkFlow tools (mcp__workflow): reading tasks and replying. To let it run commands on this computer, pass --allow-tools "mcp__workflow Bash Read" (any Claude Code permission rules). Anyone who can write @Server in your WorkFlow could then run commands here, so decide that deliberately. Shared projects never reach it.
• Windows: a scheduled task normally runs only while the user is logged in. To run while logged off, change the task "WorkFlow Companion wake" to "Run whether user is logged on or not" in Task Scheduler.
• --workdir sets the folder sessions start in (your home folder otherwise), --model the Claude model, --claude the path to Claude Code if it isn't found. --skip-existing treats what's already queued as handled.
• The log is ~/.workflow-companion/wake.log. wake-off stops it all.

Commands

Worth knowing

• Something has to be answering. A command sent while nothing is waits in iCloud and runs when WorkFlow next looks. The tool says so, and its receipt shows later in workflow_state.
• Reads come from a snapshot. WorkFlow publishes it a few seconds after each change, so a read straight after a write can lag slightly.
• Files don't travel yet. Attaching a file, or adding a new version of a document, has to be done in WorkFlow itself.
• The token is a password. ~/.workflow-companion/token.txt opens your WorkFlow data in iCloud. Apple replaces it on every request, and the companion saves each replacement at once. Several Claude sessions on one computer can share it: they take turns. Don't copy it to another machine. Each computer should run its own setup.
• Keep-alive. Apple ends a sign-in left unused for somewhere between 9 and 14 hours. The companion renews it every two hours while Claude has it running. Setup also schedules workflow-companion keepalive every three hours: in Task Scheduler on Windows (it runs without a console window) or in cron elsewhere. signout removes that schedule; --no-schedule skips it.
• "Sign in again" means Apple ended the session (HTTP 401/421), for example after the computer was off for a long time. Run setup again.

Tools

The same 29 tools as the Mac's Agent Bridge MCP server, including: workflow_queue, workflow_get_task, workflow_comment, workflow_set_status_line, workflow_check_subtasks, workflow_update_task, workflow_create_task, workflow_list_notes, workflow_reply_note, workflow_list_projects, workflow_list_documents, workflow_update_document, workflow_draft_email and workflow_state.

© Opticell Limited · https://www.opticell-limited.com/companion