Bear Notes MCP Server

Search, read, create, and update your Bear Notes from any AI assistant.

Full documentation and source code: claude-desktop-extension-bear-notes

Key Features

• 10 MCP tools for full Bear Notes integration
• OCR search across images and PDFs attached to notes
• Date-based search with relative dates ("yesterday", "last week", etc.)
• Configurable new note convention for tag placement (opt-in)
• Content replacement for replacing note body or specific sections (opt-in)
• Local-only — no network calls, all data stays on your Mac

Tools

• bear-open-note - Read the full text content of a Bear note including OCR'd text from attached images and PDFs
• bear-create-note - Create a new note in your Bear library with optional title, content, and tags
• bear-search-notes - Find notes by searching text content, filtering by tags, or date ranges. Includes OCR search in attachments
• bear-add-text - Insert text at the beginning or end of a Bear note, or within a specific section identified by its header
• bear-replace-text - Replace content in an existing Bear note — either the full body or a specific section. Requires content replacement to be enabled in settings.
• bear-add-file - Attach a file (image, PDF, Excel, etc.) to an existing Bear note using base64-encoded content
• bear-list-tags - List all tags in your Bear library as a hierarchical tree with note counts
• bear-find-untagged-notes - Find notes in your Bear library that have no tags assigned
• bear-add-tag - Add one or more tags to an existing Bear note
• bear-archive-note - Archive a Bear note to remove it from active lists without deleting it
• bear-rename-tag - Rename a tag across all notes in your Bear library
• bear-delete-tag - Delete a tag from all notes in your Bear library without affecting the notes

Requirements: Node.js 24.13.0+

Quick Start - Claude Code (One Command)

claude mcp add bear-notes --transport stdio -- npx -y bear-notes-mcp@latest

That's it! The server will be downloaded from npm and configured automatically.

Quick Start - Other AI Assistants

Add to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bear-notes": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "bear-notes-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Configuration

| Variable | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | UI_DEBUG_TOGGLE | false | Enable debug logging for troubleshooting | | UI_ENABLE_NEW_NOTE_CONVENTION | false | Place tags right after the note title instead of at the bottom | | UI_ENABLE_CONTENT_REPLACEMENT | false | Enable the bear-replace-text tool for replacing note content |

Example with configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bear-notes": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "bear-notes-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "UI_ENABLE_NEW_NOTE_CONVENTION": "true",
        "UI_ENABLE_CONTENT_REPLACEMENT": "true",
        "UI_DEBUG_TOGGLE": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Advanced: Local Development Build

Step 1: Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/vasylenko/claude-desktop-extension-bear-notes.git
cd claude-desktop-extension-bear-notes
npm install
npm run build

Step 2: Configure with local path

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add bear-notes --transport stdio -- node /absolute/path/to/dist/main.js

For other AI assistants:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bear-notes": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dist/main.js"]
    }
  }
}