imsg

imsg is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from the-open-agent/openagent. It costs 21 tokens per session (772 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A macOS command-line tool for reading and sending iMessage and SMS messages through the Messages app. It can also show chats, conversation history, attachments, and watch for new messages.

In plain words
What is it for?
Listing recent chats, reading message history, checking attachment information, monitoring conversations, and sending messages to phone numbers or Apple IDs.
Why use it?
It lets a coding agent work with Messages conversations from the terminal instead of requiring manual interaction with the app.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/the-open-agent/openagent/imsg
Any agent
npx skills add the-open-agent/openagent --skill imsg
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/the-open-agent/openagent

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for imsg

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/the-open-agent/openagent/imsg.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/the-open-agent/openagent/imsg)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/the-open-agent/openagent/imsg"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/the-open-agent/openagent/imsg.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 21 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 772 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00021 $0.00772
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00386
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00154
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00077

Measured 4d ago against content hash 889c7bf8dd61, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

imsg scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

Copies of this mod

8 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

  • imsg — 100% identical, 0 lines differ
  • imsg — 94% identical, 8 lines differ
  • imsg — 92% identical, 2 lines differ
  • imsg — 92% identical, 2 lines differ
  • imsg — 92% identical, 2 lines differ
  • imsg — 92% identical, 2 lines differ
  • imsg — 91% identical, 4 lines differ
  • imsg — 89% identical, 4 lines differ
skills/imsg/SKILL.md · 123 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 123 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

imsg

Use imsg to read and send iMessage/SMS via macOS Messages.app.

When to Use

USE this skill when:

  • User explicitly asks to send iMessage or SMS
  • Reading iMessage conversation history
  • Checking recent Messages.app chats
  • Sending to phone numbers or Apple IDs

When NOT to Use

DON'T use this skill when:

  • Telegram messages → use message tool with channel:telegram
  • Signal messages → use Signal channel if configured
  • WhatsApp messages → use WhatsApp channel if configured
  • Discord messages → use message tool with channel:discord
  • Slack messages → use slack skill
  • Group chat management (adding/removing members) → not supported
  • Bulk/mass messaging → always confirm with user first
  • Replying in current conversation → just reply normally (OpenClaw routes automatically)

Requirements

  • macOS with Messages.app signed in
  • Full Disk Access for terminal
  • Automation permission for Messages.app (for sending)

Common Commands

List Chats

imsg chats --limit 10 --json

View History

# By chat ID
imsg history --chat-id 1 --limit 20 --json

# With attachments info
imsg history --chat-id 1 --limit 20 --attachments --json

Watch for New Messages

imsg watch --chat-id 1 --attachments

Send Messages

# Text only
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "Hello!"

# With attachment
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "Check this out" --file /path/to/image.jpg

# Specify service
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "Hi" --service imessage
imsg send --to "+14155551212" --text "Hi" --service sms

Service Options

  • --service imessage — Force iMessage (requires recipient has iMessage)
  • --service sms — Force SMS (green bubble)
  • --service auto — Let Messages.app decide (default)

Safety Rules

  1. Always confirm recipient and message content before sending
  2. Never send to unknown numbers without explicit user approval
  3. Be careful with attachments — confirm file path exists
  4. Rate limit yourself — don't spam

Read the full file on GitHub · 123 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 123 lines · 21 tokens per session scan A 889c7bf8dd61

Subscribe to this mod's changes

imsg is a skill published in the GitHub repository the-open-agent/openagent (5,599 stars, last pushed today), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 21 tokens to every session and 772 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.