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name: sms description: Send SMS in bulk from this Mac via iPhone+Mac SMS forwarding, and (optionally) scan replies in the local Messages database. Use when the user wants to send a personalized text message to one or more recipients ("send a text to ...", "remind everyone in this list", "text the team about ..."). Free, no external API. model: sonnet category: automation version: 1.0.0

sms Skill

Send SMS from a macOS Mac, routed through the user's iPhone over Continuity. Free (uses the user's existing mobile plan). Drives Messages.app via osascript. Reply scanning is via ~/Library/Messages/chat.db.

When to use

• User asks to text one or more people.
• User has a list of phone numbers and wants to send each a personalized message.
• User wants to check whether previously-texted people have replied.

When NOT to use

• Sending to a single number where the user could just type it manually — only use the skill if there are multiple recipients, or the user wants the message logged, or wants a reply scan.
• Marketing / unsolicited outreach — flag the legal issue, don't proceed.
• When the user wants reliable delivery with anonymity — recommend Twilio instead.

Prerequisites (check first)

1. Mac connected to iPhone via the same Apple ID.
2. iPhone setting: Settings → Messages → Text Message Forwarding → this Mac is enabled.
3. The repo or skill folder is somewhere accessible (default: ~/.claude/skills/sms/ or ~/claude-sms/).

If the user hasn't done #2 yet, ask them to enable it before proceeding.

Scripts

• sms_send.py — bulk sender. Reads CSV, calls osascript, logs to ~/sms_logs/sms_log.csv.
• sms_check.py — reply scanner. Reads chat.db.

CSV format

pid,phone,message
P001,+15551234567,"Hi Alice — meeting reminder for tomorrow 3pm."

Required columns: pid, phone. Optional: message (if missing, you can supply a template via --template-file with {pid} interpolation).

• phone must include country code: +15551234567 (US) or +821012345678 (KR).
• pid is any identifier the user chooses — appears in the log so they can match rows later.

Standard workflow

Step 1: Gather inputs

Get from the user:

• The list of recipients (names + phones).
• The message content. Either one template to interpolate per recipient, or a per-row message.
• Service preference (almost always SMS; iMessage only if the user explicitly wants to send via iMessage to iPhone recipients).

Step 2: Build CSV

Write /tmp/<purpose>_recipients.csv with header pid,phone,message. Normalize phones to +1XXXXXXXXXX (or appropriate country code).

Step 3: Dry-run

python3 sms_send.py /tmp/<purpose>_recipients.csv --service SMS --dry-run

Step 4: Show drafts to user, get approval

Present the rendered drafts as a table or list. Show:

• Service (SMS / iMessage)
• Sender number (their iPhone number — exposed to recipients)
• Throttle (4s default)
• Total count

Wait for explicit "send" / "go" / "보내" from user before invoking sms_send.py without --dry-run. Never auto-send.

Step 5: Send

echo "y" | python3 sms_send.py /tmp/<purpose>_recipients.csv --service SMS

Step 6: Verify delivery

sqlite3 ~/Library/Messages/chat.db "
SELECT datetime(date/1000000000 + 978307200, 'unixepoch', 'localtime'),
       h.id, m.is_sent, m.is_delivered, m.service, m.error
FROM message m LEFT JOIN handle h ON m.handle_id = h.ROWID
WHERE m.is_from_me = 1
  AND m.date > (strftime('%s', 'now', '-3 minutes') - 978307200) * 1000000000
ORDER BY m.date DESC"

Field meanings:

• is_sent=1 → message left the iPhone for the carrier (good).
• is_sent=0 → silently blocked; usually iMessage cache (see caveats).
• is_delivered=1 → confirmed (reliable for iMessage/RCS; SMS often delivers without receipt).
• service → SMS | RCS | iMessage.
• error=0 → no error reported.

Step 7: (Optional) Scan replies

After 24–72 hours:

python3 sms_check.py /tmp/<purpose>_recipients.csv --hours 48

The check script reports per-PID replies and auto-flags identical replies across multiple PIDs (a sign of templated / automated responses, which can be useful or suspicious depending on context).

Caveats

iMessage cache for iPhone recipients

For numbers registered with iMessage, --service SMS may silently fail because Apple's server caches iMessage registration even after the recipient turns iMessage off. The message appears in chat.db with service=SMS, is_sent=0. Fix: recipient deregisters at https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage. Or just use --service iMessage if they're on iPhone.

Sender number exposure

The recipient sees the user's personal iPhone number. If anonymity is needed, recommend a paid SMS API (Twilio, etc.).

Carrier rate limits

Personal numbers sending many SMS rapidly can trip spam detection. Default 4-second throttle is fine for up to ~30 messages. For larger batches, bump throttle to 30–60 seconds.

Unicode (Korean, emoji, etc.)

Plain ASCII SMS allows 160 chars per segment. Unicode SMS allows only 70 chars per segment. Multi-segment messages may arrive out of order on older phones. Warn the user if their message will be multi-segment.

Legal / ethical

Phone outreach is regulated. Flag TCPA (US) or GDPR (EU) concerns if the user is sending to people they don't have a prior relationship with. Don't help with marketing, scams, or bulk unsolicited outreach.

Output to user

After Step 6, report:

✅ Sent N/N messages.
   - SMS: X delivered (Y still pending receipt)
   - iMessage: Z delivered
   - Failed: 0
Log: ~/sms_logs/sms_log.csv

After Step 7 (if run), report per-PID reply status as a small table.

Identity verification use case

A common use case: the user has a list of names + phones from a sign-up form and wants to confirm each phone actually belongs to the named person. Send:

"Hi [NAME], this is [YOUR NAME]. You signed up for [WHATEVER]. Reply YES to confirm. Not [NAME]? Reply NO."

Then scan replies. NO replies indicate the phone doesn't belong to the named person. Identical text across multiple recipients indicates bot replies. Reply via iMessage when the user's sign-up data claimed Android indicates the original device claim was falsified (reply channel cannot be faked).

This is one specific application; the skill itself is general-purpose SMS automation.