About Pages Native
Pages Native is an MCP server for creating and editing native Apple Pages documents, aimed at Codex users and compatible MCP hosts on a logged-in Mac. It keeps documents in `.pages` format and uses preview-and-apply revision guards for many edits.
Key features
- 01Create and edit native Pages documents
- 02Compose documents from saved prototypes
- 03Preview and apply guarded edits
- 04Batch up to 10 native outputs
- 05Recipe history, comparisons, and restoration
Use cases
- 01Fill tagged placeholders in a Pages document
- 02Build a new document from a saved prototype
- 03Preview a batch of document outputs before applying
- 04Compare recipe versions and restore an earlier state
MCP support
Pages Native provides 36 MCP tools for Pages documents and templates, text, tables, objects, exports, backups, and previews. Many mutations require a preview followed by an apply request with the expected revision.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
We haven’t collected a package or remote endpoint for this server. Follow the instructions in the project README.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEPages Native
Native Apple Pages documents for Codex and MCP. Author: Viames Marino · MIT.
Version 0.5.0. Native acceptance passed 76 checks on one Mac with Pages 14.5 and macOS 27.0.1; 70 portable tests passed separately. Other Pages/macOS configurations remain unverified. See verification.
Pages Native uses Apple's scripting API through fixed JXA and AppleScript workers. Documents remain .pages: no Word conversion, private-format parser, clipboard driver, Accessibility or UI automation.
Capabilities
36 MCP tools cover native documents and templates, rich text, existing tagged placeholders, tables with formulas, text/shape/image objects, existing object geometry, explicit native exports, opaque backups and PDF/PNG previews. Existing-text edits, placeholder fills, text/cell formatting, table/cell changes, sorting, merging, dimensions, objects and facing-page changes have preview/apply revision guards. Migration from 0.1: mutation tools now default to preview. Apply the identical request with mode:"apply" and its expected_revision; a successful preview is not a completed edit.
New in 0.5: previewed batches of up to 10 native outputs, immutable recipe history with saved prototype snapshots, structural comparisons, historical reuse and guarded restoration. Batch and history guide.
New in 0.4: typed table fields in composed models and a local reusable recipe library with relative prototype paths, saved-byte fingerprints, version counters and guarded save/delete/use. See typed fields and recipes.
New in 0.3: structured literal search with native text/cell references, and guided composition from saved prototypes with required/default fields and revision-guarded new copies. See search and model recipes.
Mutations may partially apply; there is no automatic rollback. Pages 14.5 exposes placeholder tags for reading but rejects changing them through its scripting API.
The synthetic example shows a native table total of 265 EUR and a separately positioned text item.
The native API does not expose complete paragraph styles, headings/lists, comments, tracked changes, hyperlinks, headers/footers, page setup or chart series/type/title. Features already present in a saved prototype can be preserved through opaque native copies. Creating and editing chart data is not claimed. Font/size/color formatting does not assign named paragraph styles; semantic style preservation during model filling is not yet certified.
Requirements and installation
- macOS with an interactive, logged-in session and Apple Pages.
- Node.js 22 or later and Automation permission for the actual host controlling Pages.
- Local execution. This cannot run against the user's Mac from a cloud-only task.
Install the public Codex plugin marketplace and enable Pages Native:
codex plugin marketplace add viames/pages-native
codex plugin add pages-native@viames-pages
Start a new local Codex task and run the setup skill. A compatible MCP host can run node /absolute/path/to/plugins/pages-native/dist/server.mjs; runtime npm installation is unnecessary after build.
Optional PAGES_NATIVE_ALLOWED_ROOTS is a JSON array of existing directories. It guards plugin file paths; it is not a macOS sandbox for the Pages process.
Development
npm ci
npm test
npm run build
npm run test:bundle
npm run test:native
npm run package
Portable tests validate protocol, bounds, path restrictions, revision planning and timeout recovery. test:native controls Pages on an explicitly designated Mac using isolated synthetic documents; ordinary CI does not certify a graphical Pages installation.
See compatibility reports, capabilities, verification, publishing and privacy.
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