amx and MCP
Read the history from Terminal, from scripts and from AI clients.
amx is the command line tool of AMX. It reads the same history as the app and does not change it. amx mcp gives the history to an AI client through MCP (Model Context Protocol). To put amx on your path, see Install.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
amx ping |
Asks the helper for its status. It fails if the helper does not run. |
amx stats |
Prints the row count of each table and the size of the database. |
amx tools |
Lists the tools, each with one line. |
amx call <tool> [<json-object>] |
Runs one tool and prints its result as JSON. |
amx mcp |
Runs the MCP server on standard input and output. |
stats, call and mcp take --db <path> to read another history database. call and mcp take --groups <path> to read another groups file.
amx call top_apps '{"metric":"memory","from":"-7d","limit":5}'
amx call app_history '{"app":"Safari","from":"-90m"}'
Tools
| Tool | Arguments | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
top_apps |
from, to, metric, limit (1 to 50, default 10) |
Apps ranked by their average over the window, with their peak. |
app_history |
app (required), from, to, metric |
The series of one app, at most 120 points. |
events |
from, to, kind |
The events of the window, oldest first, at most 500. |
summarize |
from, to |
System CPU, memory, pressure and thermal state, the top 3 apps of each metric, and the event counts. |
list_groups |
None | Your process groups and their rules. |
group_summary |
group (required), from, to, metric |
The series of one group and its apps. |
query |
sql (required) |
The result of one read-only SQLite statement on the history database, at most 1,000 rows. |
- Times:
fromandtotake ISO 8601, Unix seconds, or a time before now:now,-30s,-90m,-24h,-7d. The window is the last 24 hours by default. Results give times in ISO 8601, UTC. - Metrics:
cpu,memory,disk,network,energy,gpuandscore(the score of a group). The default iscpu, andscoreforgroup_summary. - Kinds:
pressure,thermaloralert.
The description of each tool in the MCP server gives the units and, for query, the tables and views.
Connect an AI client
Add the MCP server to your AI client with a configuration like this. The exact file and key names depend on the client.
{
"mcpServers": {
"activity-monitor-x": {
"command": "/Applications/Activity Monitor X.app/Contents/MacOS/amx",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
The client can then see the names and paths of your processes. Connect only clients that you trust with that data. See Privacy.