Recently we had a discussion about connecting Devonthink to AI via OpenClaw. I am working on that and will post at some point with further details.
That said - an easier approach with more security guardrails has just appeared over the last day or so - Claude Dispatch, which lets you run Claude Cowork via your iPhone and in the process access your local Mac files to which you grant permission.
I can confirm that through this mechanism, the “Unofficial Devonthink API” works. Therefore it is possible to search and perform other Devonthink functions via Claude on your iPhone. Still trying it out but so far it appears that you can do on the iPhone anything you can do with the Unofficial API on your Mac desktop. Plus some nice integration with the Apple enivornment - for example you can ask it to “Download from Devonthink” and it places the file in iCloud Files which are easily accessible on iPhone - and it can change file formats in the process such as saving an .eml as a .pdf. Very nice for quickly accessing Devonthink data from iPhone.
This is super useful on an iPhone - accesssing DT4 back on my Mac using Claude Dispatch - which has notably more guardrails that can be set up than OpenClaw.
I have installed other MCPs for Claude on my Mac, but I am not clear from the readMe how this one is installed (modifying the config file I understand, just not what and where the MCP server is and goes.
Also, what is the “unofficial API” you are referring to and what is it used for in the context of the MCP server?
The “Unofficial API” is the MCP server - it was posted by @syntagm here [Release] DEVONthink MCP Server . A number of other users have informally called it an “API” because it performs a function similar to an API.
The MCP server is installed on your local computer and executed when the LLM issues a query to it.
What’s the advantage of doing this over just searching Expedia?
Also, FWIW, I tried the same search directly via Expedia, and it gave me the same flights for about $150 less. I’m not going to blame that on Claude – airline pricing is opaque by design – but it’s definitely something to keep in mind.
The simplest answer is- you cannot enter a 1-line request in Expedia and have it create the report and save it in Devonthink.
But more importantly that was just a simple example for demonstration. The combination of Claude Dispatch and the unofficial DT4 MCP server means you can do any sort of research you want on the internet - from travel reservations to nuclear physics- and save it in Devonthink. On a schedule if you wish. Or via a simple voice request into a chatbox on your phone.
The reverse works too - you can query DEVONthink and then transform the results or share them with other Internet tools. From your desktop or from your iPhone.
