Pear — iCloud Integration

Pear provides read/write access to iCloud Calendar, Reminders, and Contacts through 27 MCP tools. All tools are prefixed with pear_ and communicate with iCloud via CalDAV/CardDAV protocols.

When to Use

Activate this skill when the user wants to:

• Check their schedule, upcoming events, or daily agenda
• Create, update, or delete calendar events
• Manage reminders or to-do lists
• Look up, create, or update contacts
• Find free time slots or schedule meetings
• Get a daily briefing of events and tasks
• Check availability for a specific time
• Work with contact groups
• Perform bulk operations on events, reminders, or contacts

Activation triggers:

• "What's on my calendar", "my schedule", "upcoming events"
• "Remind me to", "add a reminder", "my tasks", "to-do"
• "Find contact", "add a contact", "phone number for"
• "Schedule a meeting", "find a time", "when am I free"
• "Daily briefing", "what's today look like"
• "Birthday", "anniversaries"

Do NOT activate for:

• Apple Notes (not supported — CalDAV only)
• Apple Mail or iMessage
• iCloud Drive or file storage
• Apple Music, Photos, or other non-PIM services
• Local macOS Calendar.app scripting (Pear works cross-platform via API)

Prerequisites

Required Environment Variable:

• PEAR_API_KEY — Your Pear API key (format: pear_sk_...)
• Sign up at pearmcp.com
• Generate an API key from the dashboard
• Connect your iCloud account (requires an app-specific password)

Optional:

• PEAR_MCP_URL — Custom endpoint URL (defaults to https://pearmcp.com/api/mcp)

Tool Reference

Events (8 tools)

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| pear_list_calendars | List all iCloud calendars (including read-only subscriptions) |

| pear_list_events | List events in a time range, with pagination and calendar filtering |

| pear_search_events | Search events by title or description within a date range |

| pear_create_event | Create an event with optional recurrence, alarms, attendees, and location |

| pear_update_event | Update an existing event's properties |

| pear_delete_event | Delete an event by filename |

| pear_find_free_slots | Find available time slots of a given duration |

| pear_check_availability | Check if a specific time slot is free, returns conflicts |

Reminders (4 tools)

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| pear_list_reminders | List reminders with optional list filtering, includes completed toggle |

| pear_create_reminder | Create a reminder with optional due date, priority (1=high, 5=med, 9=low), and notes |

| pear_update_reminder | Update a reminder's properties |

| pear_complete_reminder | Mark a reminder as completed |

Contacts (9 tools)

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| pear_list_contacts | List all contacts with full vCard data (phones, emails, addresses, birthdays) |

| pear_search_contacts | Search by name, email, phone, or organization |

| pear_create_contact | Create a contact with full vCard support including photo |

| pear_update_contact | Update contact fields (merges with existing data) |

| pear_delete_contact | Delete a contact |

| pear_list_contact_groups | List all contact groups with member counts |

| pear_create_contact_group | Create a new contact group |

| pear_add_contact_to_group | Add a contact to a group by name or email |

| pear_update_contact_photo | Update a contact's photo (Base64, data URI, or external URL) |

Briefing (1 tool)

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| pear_get_daily_briefing | Get today's events and pending reminders in one call. Enriches attendees with contact data. |

Scheduling (1 tool)

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| pear_find_best_time | AI-scored optimal meeting slots. Considers work hours, time-of-day preference, day-of-week preference, buffer time, and reminder deadlines. |

Batch Operations (4 tools)

| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| pear_create_events_batch | Create up to 50 events in one call |

| pear_create_reminders_batch | Create up to 50 reminders in one call |

| pear_create_contacts_batch | Create up to 50 contacts in one call |

| pear_delete_contacts_batch | Delete up to 50 contacts in one call |

Workflow Guidelines

Dates and Times

• Always use ISO 8601 format: 2025-06-15T14:30:00Z or 2025-06-15T14:30:00+10:00
• Timezone parameter: Pass timezone (IANA format like America/New_York or Australia/Sydney) for user-friendly display times
• All-day events: Set isAllDay: true and use date-only format 2025-06-15
• Date ranges: pear_list_events requires a timeRange object: { start: "...", end: "..." }

Creating Events

When creating events, follow this pattern:

1. If the user doesn't specify a calendar, omit calendarName — Pear auto-selects the default
2. For recurring events, use the recurrence object: { frequency: "WEEKLY", interval: 1, count: 10 }
3. For attendees, you can pass names — Pear resolves them against the user's contacts automatically
4. Use idempotencyKey when retrying to prevent duplicate events
5. Alarms use minutes before: { action: "display", trigger: 15 } for a 15-minute reminder

Finding Meeting Times

For scheduling, prefer pear_find_best_time over pear_find_free_slots:

• pear_find_best_time returns AI-scored slots considering work hours, preferences, and existing commitments
• Pass preferences to customize: { timeOfDay: "morning", focusTime: true, workHoursStart: 9, workHoursEnd: 17 }
• pear_find_free_slots is simpler — just returns raw available slots without scoring

Reminders

• Reminders are accessed via CalDAV (VTODO protocol) — basic operations work well (title, due date, priority, notes, completion). Modern Apple Reminders features like subtasks, tags, smart lists, and location-based reminders are not available via CalDAV.
• Priority values: 1 = high, 5 = medium, 9 = low, 0 = none
• To list only incomplete reminders, use includeCompleted: false (default)
• Reminder lists are auto-created if they don't exist when using listName

Contacts

• pear_update_contact merges fields — it won't erase data you don't include in the update
• Birthday format: YYYY-MM-DD for full date, --MM-DD for year-unknown
• Phone/email can be a single string or an array for multiple entries
• Contact photos accept Base64 or data URI format

Virtual Birthdays

Pear generates all-day birthday events from contact birthday fields. These appear as events on a "Birthdays" calendar when listing events. This is a synthesized feature — Apple's native Birthdays calendar is not exposed via CalDAV.

Daily Briefing

pear_get_daily_briefing is the most efficient way to give the user an overview:

• Returns today's events + pending reminders in a single call
• Automatically enriches event attendees with contact details (name, email, phone)
• Pass timezone for correct day boundaries
• Pass date to get a briefing for a different day

Safety & Confirmation

Actions Requiring Care

| Action | Risk | Guidance |

|--------|------|----------|

| pear_delete_event | Removes event permanently | Confirm event title and date with user before deleting |

| pear_delete_contact | Removes contact permanently | Always confirm — show contact name first |

| pear_delete_contacts_batch | Bulk delete up to 50 contacts | Require explicit user confirmation with count |

| pear_update_event | Overwrites event fields | Summarize changes before applying |

| pear_complete_reminder | Marks as done | Safe — can be undone by updating completed: false |

| Batch create operations | Creates up to 50 items | Confirm count and summarize before executing |

Data Safety

• Read operations are always safe — listing, searching, and briefings have no side effects
• Updates merge, not replace — pear_update_contact preserves fields you don't mention
• Batch operations are rate-limited — chunks of 5 with 200ms delays, no need to throttle manually
• Never expose the user's PEAR_API_KEY — treat it as a secret

Error Handling

| Error Code | Meaning | What to Do |

|------------|---------|------------|

| -32001 | Missing or invalid API key | Check PEAR_API_KEY is set correctly |

| -32602 | Invalid parameters | Check parameter names and types against tool reference |

| -32603 | Server error | Retry once, then report to user |

| 404 on event/reminder | Item not found | The filename may have changed — re-list to get current filenames |

| Calendar is read-only | Cannot modify subscription calendars | List calendars first to check which are writable |

Common Patterns

Error Recovery (Idempotency)

Event creation failed mid-request or timed out:
→ Retry pear_create_event with the same idempotencyKey
→ Pear deduplicates — no double-booking even if the first request succeeded silently

Morning Briefing

User: "What's on my plate today?"
→ Call pear_get_daily_briefing with timezone
→ Summarize events chronologically, then pending reminders

Schedule a Meeting

User: "Find time for a 1-hour meeting this week"
→ Call pear_find_best_time with durationMinutes: 60 and this week's range
→ Present top 3 options with scores
→ On user selection, call pear_create_event

Quick Reminder

User: "Remind me to call the dentist tomorrow"
→ Call pear_create_reminder with title and dueDate set to tomorrow

Contact Lookup

User: "What's Sarah's phone number?"
→ Call pear_search_contacts with query: "Sarah"
→ Return matching contacts with phone numbers

Bulk Event Creation

User: "Add these 5 meetings to my calendar"
→ Call pear_create_events_batch with all events in one request
→ Summarize results (created count, any failures)

References

• Pear Documentation
• Apple App-Specific Passwords
• CalDAV Protocol (RFC 4791)
• CardDAV Protocol (RFC 6352)
• IANA Timezone Database