WorkFlow Companion

WorkFlow Companion

This repository is WorkFlow Companion's home: the source (src/index.js,

MIT licensed), downloads (WorkFlow.mcpb for Claude Desktop) on the

Releases page,

and bugs and requests 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.

Install

One line installs Node.js if needed, signs this computer in, adds the companion to Claude Code and offers to let it start work on its own:

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TeamDzX/workflow-companion/main/install.ps1 | iex

Mac or Linux (Terminal):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TeamDzX/workflow-companion/main/install.sh | sh

Switch the companion on in WorkFlow first (step 1 below). The steps that follow are what the installer does, if you'd rather do them by hand.

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. Install Node.js 18 or later (LTS) if node -v doesn't show it: Windows winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS -e, Mac brew install node, Linux your package manager, or the installer from https://nodejs.org. Then close and reopen the terminal (and restart Claude Code) so node and npx are found; otherwise you'll see "node is not recognized".
3. In a normal terminal window:

   npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion@latest 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. It asks questions, so it can't run from Claude Code's ! prompt or another non-interactive shell; there, pass --web-token and --name .

1. Add it to Claude:

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

On Windows, npx is a script, so Claude Code needs cmd /c in front:

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

--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 the WorkFlow tools (mcp__workflow), for reading tasks and replying, plus WebSearch and WebFetch, so it can research what you ask. Web pages it reads could try to mislead it, and a URL it fetches can carry text out; --no-web turns web access off, --web back on. Scheduled briefs, check-ins and the self-test never get it. 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.

Staying up to date

• Claude Code runs whatever its registration names. Register it with @latest (setup prints the exact line) and every new session uses the newest release.
• The scheduled jobs (keep-alive, waking) run a saved copy that npm never touches, so they update themselves. At most every 6 hours they read npm's entry for the package (registry.npmjs.org/@opticell/workflow-companion/latest). When it's newer, they download the release, check it against npm's sha512 checksum and that Node can parse it, then swap it in. Turn this off with auto-update off, and update by hand with update.
• Its version is reported. Every ten minutes or so while it runs, each companion writes its version, computer and check-in time to your iCloud. WorkFlow 5.3.2 shows them in Settings → Agent Bridge → Who's Bridged, and status lists every companion's version.

Commands

On this computer, by itself (1.8)

These run in the same 2-minute scheduled job as waking, and cost no Claude usage.

Monitors. Checks that wake Claude only when something changes:

workflow-companion monitor add --name site --http https://example.com --task "Server status" --wake

workflow-companion monitor add --name disk --disk C:\ --min-gb 20 --task "Server status" workflow-companion monitor add --name api --port 10.0.0.5:443 --every 2 workflow-companion monitor add --name backup --file D:\backups\latest.zip --task "Backups" workflow-companion monitor add --name nightly --command "check-backups.cmd" --task "Backups" --wake

A change (down, back up, the file changed) is posted on the task, shows a notification here, and with --wake starts a session about it. An assistant can set up website, port, disk, process and file monitors itself (workflow_monitor), but only you can add a command monitor, because it runs a command every few minutes.

Approvals. An assistant can ask to run one exact command on this computer (restart a service, install an update). It posts the command on the task with a code; reply approve K7Q2 (or decline K7Q2) from your phone. Only a person's reply counts, never another assistant's; tasks in shared projects ca