Bear Notes MCP server

This MCP server provides access to your Bear Notes through the Model Context Protocol. It allows AI assistants like Claude to read and search your notes directly from the Bear application's database.

Installation Options

Using Docker

The easiest way to install the Bear MCP server is using Docker:

docker run -v "/Users/[YOUR_USER_NAME]/Library/Group Containers/9K33E3U3T4.net.shinyfrog.bear/Application Data:/app/db" -i akseyh/bear-mcp-server

Make sure to replace [YOUR_USER_NAME] with your actual macOS username.

Manual Installation

If you prefer to install from source:

# Clone the project
git clone https://github.com/akseyh/bear-mcp-server

# Change directory
cd bear-mcp-server

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

You can also install it directly from npm:

npm install bear-mcp-server

Configuration

To use the Bear MCP server with Claude Desktop, you need to update your claude_desktop_config.json file.

Docker Configuration

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "bear": {
            "command": "docker",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "-v",
                "/Users/[YOUR_USER_NAME]/Library/Group Containers/9K33E3U3T4.net.shinyfrog.bear/Application Data:/app/db",
                "-i",
                "akseyh/bear-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

NPM Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bear": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
          "bear-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using the MCP Tools

When properly configured, Claude will have access to these MCP tools:

get_notes

Retrieves all notes from your Bear database.

Example usage with Claude:

I need to see all my notes in Bear.

get_tags

Lists all tags used in your Bear notes.

Example usage with Claude:

Show me all the tags I've used in my Bear notes.

get_notes_like

Searches for notes containing specific text.

Example usage with Claude:

Find my Bear notes about "project planning".

Requirements

• Node.js
• Bear note application (macOS only)
• Access to Bear database (automatically located in the standard Bear application location)

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "bear" '{"command":"npx","args":["bear-mcp-server"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "bear": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "bear-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "bear": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "bear-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect