This MCP server allows Claude Desktop to interact with your Things 3 task management app. You can create tasks, analyze projects, manage priorities, and more using natural language commands through Claude.
Install using pip:
pip install things-mcp
Or using uv (recommended):
uv pip install things-mcp
Run the server:
things-mcp
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Restart your terminal afterwards.
git clone https://github.com/hald/things-mcp
cd things-mcp
uv venv
uv pip install -r pyproject.toml
python configure_token.py
Edit the Claude Desktop configuration:
code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Add the Things server:
{
"mcpServers": {
"things": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/things-mcp",
"run",
"things_server.py"
]
}
}
}
project_uuid
(optional) - Filter todos by projectinclude_items
(optional, default: true) - Include checklist itemsinclude_items
(optional, default: false) - Include contained itemsstatus
- Filter by status (incomplete/completed/canceled)start_date
- Filter by start date (YYYY-MM-DD)deadline
- Filter by deadline (YYYY-MM-DD)tag
- Filter by tagarea
- Filter by area UUIDtype
- Filter by item type (to-do/project/heading)period
- Time period (e.g., '3d', '1w', '2m', '1y')title
- Title of the todonotes
(optional) - Notes for the todowhen
(optional) - When to schedule the todo (today, tomorrow, evening, anytime, someday, or YYYY-MM-DD)deadline
(optional) - Deadline for the todo (YYYY-MM-DD)tags
(optional) - Tags to apply to the todolist_title
or list_id
(optional) - Title or ID of project/area to add toheading
(optional) - Heading to add underchecklist_items
(optional) - Checklist items to addid
- ID of the todo to updatetitle
(optional) - New titlenotes
(optional) - New noteswhen
(optional) - New scheduledeadline
(optional) - New deadlinetags
(optional) - New tagscompleted
(optional) - Mark as completedcanceled
(optional) - Mark as canceledtitle
- Title of the projectnotes
(optional) - Notes for the projectwhen
(optional) - When to schedule the projectdeadline
(optional) - Deadline for the projecttags
(optional) - Tags to apply to the projectarea_title
or area_id
(optional) - Title or ID of area to add totodos
(optional) - Initial todos to create in the projectid
- ID of the project to updatetitle
(optional) - New titlenotes
(optional) - New noteswhen
(optional) - New scheduledeadline
(optional) - New deadlinetags
(optional) - New tagscompleted
(optional) - Mark as completedcanceled
(optional) - Mark as canceledid
- ID of item to show, or one of: inbox, today, upcoming, anytime, someday, logbookquery
(optional) - Optional query to filter byfilter_tags
(optional) - Optional tags to filter bypython configure_token.py
python configure_token.py
to set up your token# Follow logs in real-time
tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log
To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "things" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/things-mcp","run","things_server.py"]}'
See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.
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.
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": {
"things": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/things-mcp",
"run",
"things_server.py"
]
}
}
}
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.
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.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"things": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/things-mcp",
"run",
"things_server.py"
]
}
}
}
3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect