Claude Todo Emulator MCP server

This lightweight MCP server replicates Claude Code's todo system, giving any AI coding assistant the ability to track tasks persistently across sessions. It helps your AI remember progress, break down complex features, and maintain focus on one task at a time - all without requiring you to constantly remind it about previous work.

Quick Setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "task-manager": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["claude-todo-emulator"]
    }
  }
}

IDE Configuration

• Cursor: Create .cursor/mcp.json in your project root
• Other IDEs: Add to your MCP configuration file

After restarting your IDE, you can immediately start using the todo system by asking your AI to create a task list.

Features

With this MCP server enabled, your AI assistant will automatically:

• Create and track todos for complex tasks
• Maintain persistent memory across sessions
• Scope tasks to specific projects
• Track progress visually
• Focus on one task at a time

Example Interactions

Creating todos for complex tasks:

You: "Add dark mode support with user preferences"
AI: "I'll create a todo list for this multi-step feature:
- ✅ Add theme context and state management
- 🔄 Create dark mode CSS variables and styles
- ⏳ Build settings UI for theme switching
- ⏳ Add persistence to localStorage
- ⏳ Update existing components for theme support"

Tracking progress:

You: "What's the status on the authentication system?"
AI: "Current authentication tasks:
- ✅ Set up JWT middleware
- ✅ Create login/signup endpoints
- 🔄 Building user profile management (in progress)
- ⏳ Add password reset flow
- ⏳ Implement role-based permissions"

Maintaining focus:

You: "Let's also add email notifications"
AI: "I'll add that to the todo list, but let me finish the current user profile task first to maintain focus."

API Reference

If you need to interact with the todo system programmatically, the MCP server provides these APIs:

TodoRead

• Parameters: None
• Returns: {todos: Todo[]}

TodoWrite

• Parameters: {todos: Todo[]}
• Returns: {success: boolean, count: number}

Todo Schema

{
  id: string;
  content: string;
  status: "pending" | "in_progress" | "completed";
  priority: "high" | "medium" | "low";
  created_at: string;
  updated_at: string;
  metadata?: object;
}

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 "task-manager" '{"command":"uvx","args":["claude-todo-emulator"]}'

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": {
        "task-manager": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "claude-todo-emulator"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "task-manager": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "claude-todo-emulator"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect