{"slug": "let-claude-code-read-your-notes-with-mcp", "title": "Let Claude Code read your notes with MCP", "summary": "Jot, a Mac note-capture app, now ships a local MCP server that lets Claude Code, Codex and Cursor list, search, read and add notes stored as Markdown files in ~/Documents/Jot, installed via the command `claude mcp add --scope user jot -- /usr/local/bin/jot mcp`. The server runs over stdio with no account or API key and exposes seven tools — list_jots, search_jots, read_jot, add_jot, set_done, archive_jot and tag_jot — plus an eighth, jot_image, for clients supporting MCP Apps. Author Mohak Bajaj writes that agents deliberately cannot delete notes: \"Archive covers the real need: the jot leaves the inbox, and the file stays in the folder.", "body_md": "[blog](https://sayjot.xyz/blog) ·  · Mohak Bajaj\n\n# Let Claude Code read your notes with MCP\n\nI save a lot of small things during the day. An error message from a log. A line from the docs. An idea I had while reviewing a PR. Later, when I am in Claude Code, those notes are exactly the context I want it to have. Pasting them in by hand is slow.\n\nSo Jot, my Mac capture app, ships an MCP server. With one command, Claude Code can list, search and read your notes, and add new ones. This post covers the setup for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, what each tool does, and why there is no delete tool.\n\n## What you get\n\nJot saves each note as a Markdown file in a folder, `~/Documents/Jot` by default. You select text in any app and tap Shift twice to save it, or you add one from the terminal. `jot mcp` is a local MCP server for that folder. It runs on your Mac over stdio. There is no account and no API key, and the notes do not leave the Mac unless your agent sends them to its model. The Jot app does not need to be running.\n\n## Step 1: install Jot and link the CLI\n\nDownload Jot from [sayjot.xyz/download](https://sayjot.xyz/download) and open it once. The CLI lives inside the app, at `/Applications/Jot.app/Contents/Helpers/jot`. There is no separate package to install.\n\nTo run it as `jot`, link it into `/usr/local/bin`. Settings → Vault & Agents → Terminal command → **Link** does it for you. macOS may ask for your password. Or run:\n\n```\nln -sf /Applications/Jot.app/Contents/Helpers/jot /usr/local/bin/jot\n```\n\nIf you skip this step, use the full path inside the app in place of `/usr/local/bin/jot` in the commands below.\n\n## Step 2: add the server to Claude Code\n\nThis adds Jot for all your projects:\n\n```\nclaude mcp add --scope user jot -- /usr/local/bin/jot mcp\n```\n\nStart a new Claude Code session and run `/mcp`. You should see `jot` in the list, with its tools.\n\n## Codex and Cursor\n\nFor Codex:\n\n```\ncodex mcp add jot -- /usr/local/bin/jot mcp\n```\n\nCursor, Claude Desktop and other clients take a JSON config. Settings → Vault & Agents → MCP server → **Copy config** puts it on your clipboard:\n\n```\n{\n  \"mcpServers\": {\n    \"jot\": { \"command\": \"/usr/local/bin/jot\", \"args\": [\"mcp\"] }\n  }\n}\n```\n\nIn Cursor, paste it into `~/.cursor/mcp.json` for every project, or `.cursor/mcp.json` in one project.\n\n## What the tools do\n\n| Tool | What it does | Writes? | \n|---|---|---|\n| `list_jots` | List jots: id, status, title with #tags, file path. Filter by tag, section, done, archived, limit. | No | \n| `search_jots` | Case-insensitive search of open jots by body, tags, source app and URL. | No | \n| `read_jot` | One whole file, front matter and body, plus absolute paths to its images. | No | \n| `add_jot` | Create a jot. The first line is its title. Optional tags and section. | Yes | \n| `set_done` | Mark a jot done, or open again. | Yes | \n| `archive_jot` | Take a jot out of the inbox. The file stays in the folder. | Yes | \n| `tag_jot` | Add tags. Existing tags stay. | Yes | \n\nClients that support MCP Apps also get an inbox view, and an eighth tool, `jot_image`, that the view uses to show a jot's images. Other clients see the seven tools above.\n\nWrites go to the same Markdown files the app shows. The server changes the file with an atomic write, and the app sees the change because it watches the folder. If Claude adds a jot, it shows in your inbox a moment later.\n\n## Why there is no delete tool\n\nAn agent can add, tag, finish and archive. It cannot delete. That is on purpose.\n\nAgents make mistakes, and they act fast. A prompt like \"clean up my old notes\" should never end with files gone. Archive covers the real need: the jot leaves the inbox, and the file stays in the folder. If an agent archives the wrong thing, you can get it back. The worst case is a mess you can see and fix, not lost notes.\n\nDeleting is still easy for you. It is one action in the app, and the file goes to a trash folder first.\n\n## Prompts that work well\n\nYou don't need to name the tools. Ask in plain words, and Claude picks the tool:\n\n- \"Search my jots for anything about the billing migration and summarize what I saved.\"\n- \"List my open jots tagged todo. Which ones are about this repo?\"\n- \"Read the jot I saved from the Postgres docs and apply that fix to db/pool.ts.\"\n- \"Add a jot: follow up on the flaky upload test. Tag it todo and work.\"\n- \"Go through my open jots from this week, tag each one by project, and mark the ones we finished today as done.\"\n\nTwo tips. Search matches substrings, so short, specific words work better than a long phrase. And search only looks at open jots, so ask for `list_jots` with archived set to true when you want old ones.\n\n## Point it at another folder\n\nThe server reads the folder you set in Jot's Settings. `--vault <dir>` or the `JOT_VAULT` environment variable points it somewhere else. If your Jot folder is inside an Obsidian vault, Claude reads the same notes you see in Obsidian. I wrote about that setup in [How to save highlights from any Mac app into Obsidian](https://sayjot.xyz/blog/obsidian-highlights).\n\n## No MCP? The folder still works\n\nSome agents only read files. Jot writes two files for them in the folder. `INDEX.md` lists the open jots with their titles. `SKILL.md` explains the layout and the front matter. Settings → Vault & Agents can also install a Jot skill at `~/.agents/skills/jot/SKILL.md`, which tells agents how to use the CLI.\n\n## More\n\nThe full tool reference is on GitHub at [MohakBajaj/jot-mcp](https://github.com/MohakBajaj/jot-mcp). Jot runs on macOS 12 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. It has a 3-day free trial, then $29 once for 1 Mac, and the first 50 one-Mac licenses are $9. The MCP server is included.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/let-claude-code-read-your-notes-with-mcp", "canonical_source": "https://sayjot.xyz/blog/claude-code-mcp-notes", "published_at": "2026-11-14 01:20:51+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-14 01:50:24.708309+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "agent-protocols", "ai-tools", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Jot", "Claude Code", "Codex", "Cursor", "Mohak Bajaj", "Claude Desktop"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/let-claude-code-read-your-notes-with-mcp", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/let-claude-code-read-your-notes-with-mcp.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/let-claude-code-read-your-notes-with-mcp.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/let-claude-code-read-your-notes-with-mcp.jsonld"}}