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Workflowy MCP Server & CLI

A feature-rich Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and Command Line Interface (CLI) for Workflowy written in Go. Connect your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) to your Workflowy data or run commands from a terminal emulator or script, including search, bulk replace, usage reports, and offline access capabilities.

Go Homebrew MCP Compatible MIT License

Why This Workflowy MCP Server?

  • Full-text search with regex

  • Bulk search & replace

  • Usage reports (stale nodes, size analysis)

  • Offline mode via backup files

  • CLI + MCP server in one tool

  • Caching for performance

  • Homebrew installation

  • Basic CRUD operations

  • Using short IDs (Copy Internal Link)

Related MCP server: WorkFlowy MCP Server

Quick Start

Install via Homebrew

brew install mholzen/workflowy/workflowy-cli

Configure Your API Key

mkdir -p ~/.workflowy echo "your-api-key-here" > ~/.workflowy/api.key chmod 600 ~/.workflowy/api.key

Get your API key at https://workflowy.com/api-key/

Run Your First Command

# Generate a report showing where most of your nodes are workflowy report count | pbcopy # paste directly into Workflowy!

Use pbcopy on macOS, clip on Windows, wl-copy on Linux, or xclip for X11 systems.

Use with Claude Desktop or Claude Code

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration

  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

or ~/.claude.json for Claude Code:

{ "mcpServers": { "workflowy": { "command": "workflowy", "args": ["mcp", "--expose=all", "--log-file=/tmp/workflowy-mcp.log"] } } }

Switch --expose=all to --expose=read if you want to allow read tools only.

Restart Claude Desktop and start asking Claude to work with your Workflowy!

MCP Tools for AI Assistants

Read Tools (Safe)

Tool

Description

workflowy_get

Get a node and its descendants as a tree

workflowy_list

List descendants as a flat list

workflowy_search

Search nodes by text or regex

workflowy_targets

List shortcuts and system targets (inbox, etc.)

workflowy_report_count

Find where most of your content lives

workflowy_report_children

Find nodes with many children

workflowy_report_created

Find oldest nodes

workflowy_report_modified

Find stale, unmodified nodes

Write Tools

Tool

Description

workflowy_create

Create new nodes

workflowy_update

Update node content

workflowy_delete

Delete nodes

workflowy_complete

Mark nodes complete

workflowy_uncomplete

Mark nodes incomplete

workflowy_replace

Bulk find-and-replace with regex

CLI Features

Search Your Entire Outline

# Find all TODOs (case-insensitive) workflowy search -i "foobar" # Regex search for dates workflowy search -E "<time.*>" # Search within a specific subtree (using Internal Link) workflowy search "bug" --item-id https://workflowy.com/#/1bdae4aecf00

Bulk Search and Replace

# Preview changes first (dry run) workflowy replace --dry-run "foo" "bar" # Interactive confirmation workflowy replace --interactive "foo" "bar" # Use regex capture groups workflowy replace "TASK-([0-9]+)" 'ISSUE-$1'

Some Common CRUD Operations

# Add a task to your inbox workflowy create "Buy groceries" --parent-id=inbox # Change the name of an item workflowy update xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx --name "Project Plan v2" # Mark a node as complete, using a short ID workflowy complete https://workflowy.com/#/xxxxxxxxxxxx

Usage Reports

# Where is most of my content? workflowy report count --threshold 0.01 # Which nodes have the most children? workflowy report children --top-n 20 # Find stale content (oldest modified) workflowy report modified --top-n 50

Data Access Methods

Choose the best method for your use case:

Method

Speed

Freshness

Offline

Best For

--method=get

Medium

Real-time

No

Specific items

--method=export

Fast*

1 min worst case (due to rate limiting)

No

Full tree access

--method=backup

Fastest

Stale

Yes

Bulk operations

*Cached after first fetch

Offline Mode with Dropbox Backup

Enable Workflowy's Dropbox backup and access your data offline:

workflowy get --method=backup workflowy search -i "project" --method=backup

Installation Options

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew install mholzen/workflowy/workflowy-cli

From Source

git clone https://github.com/mholzen/workflowy.git cd workflowy go build ./cmd/workflowy

Documentation

Examples

AI Assistant Workflows

Ask Claude:

  • "Search my Workflowy for all items containing 'meeting notes'"

  • "Show me nodes I haven't touched in 6 months"

  • "Replace all 'v1' with 'v2' in my Project A folder"

  • "What's taking up the most space in my outline?"

CLI Workflows

# Morning review: find stale items workflowy report modified --top-n 20 # Weekly cleanup: find oversized nodes workflowy report count --threshold 0.05 # Bulk rename: update project prefix workflowy replace "OLD-" "NEW-" --parent-id projects-folder-id

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See the Contributing Guide.

# Development setup git clone https://github.com/mholzen/workflowy.git cd workflowy go test ./...

License

MIT — see LICENSE

Install Server
A
security – no known vulnerabilities
A
license - permissive license
A
quality - confirmed to work

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