Bear Notes MCP Server

Bear App MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides Claude with access to your Bear App notes. Search, retrieve, and analyze your Bear notes directly from Claude Desktop or any MCP-compatible client.

Features

🔍 Search & Discovery

Full-text search across all your notes
Tag-based filtering for organized content
Title-based search with exact or partial matching
Recent notes filtering by modification date

💻 Code & Technical Content

Kubernetes manifest finder - Locate deployment examples, service configs, etc.
Code example search - Find code snippets by programming language
Code block extraction - Automatically parse and categorize code blocks
Technical documentation discovery

📊 Content Analysis

Word count and content statistics
Code language detection from fenced code blocks
Content previews for quick scanning
Metadata extraction (creation/modification dates)

Installation

Prerequisites

macOS (Bear App is macOS/iOS only)
Bear App installed and with some notes
Python 3.8 or higher
Claude Desktop (for desktop integration)

Setup Steps

Clone or download the server script
git clone github.com/netologist/mcp-bear-notes
Create a virtual environment
uv install source .venv/bin/activate
Test the server
uv run python main.py

Claude Desktop Integration

Configuration File Location

Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add MCP Server Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bear-notes": {
      "command": "/full/path/to/mcp-bear-notes/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/full/path/to/mcp-bear-notes/main.py"],
      "env": {
        "PYTHONPATH": "/full/path/to/mcp-bear-notes/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages"
      }
    }
  }
}

Important: Replace /full/path/to/ with your actual file paths.

Restart Claude Desktop

Close and reopen Claude Desktop to load the MCP server.

Usage Examples

Once integrated with Claude Desktop, you can use natural language to interact with your Bear notes:

Basic Search

"Search my Bear notes for Docker examples"
"Find notes about Python APIs"
"Show me my recent notes from this week"

Technical Content

"Find my Kubernetes deployment manifests"
"Look for JavaScript code examples in my notes"
"Show me notes with YAML configurations"

Specific Retrieval

"Get the note titled 'Development Setup'"
"Find notes tagged with 'work'"
"Show me all my available tags"

Available Tools

`search_bear_notes(query, tag, limit)`

Search notes by content and tags.

query: Text to search for
tag: Filter by specific tag (without #)
limit: Max results (default: 20)

`get_bear_note(note_id)`

Retrieve a specific note by its unique ID.

note_id: Bear note's unique identifier

`find_kubernetes_examples(resource_type)`

Find Kubernetes-related content.

resource_type: K8s resource (deployment, service, etc.)

`find_code_examples(language, topic, limit)`

Search for code examples.

language: Programming language
topic: Code topic/domain
limit: Max results (default: 15)

`find_notes_by_title(title_query, exact_match)`

Search notes by title.

title_query: Title text to search
exact_match: Exact or partial matching

`get_recent_notes(days, limit)`

Get recently modified notes.

days: How many days to look back (default: 7)
limit: Max results (default: 20)

`list_bear_tags()`

List all tags found in your notes.

Bear Database Information

The server reads from Bear's SQLite database located at:

~/Library/Group Containers/9K33E3U3T4.net.shinyfrog.bear/Application Data/database.sqlite

Database Access Notes

Read-only access - The server never modifies your notes
No authentication required - Uses direct SQLite access
Performance - Database queries are optimized for speed
Safety - Only accesses non-trashed notes

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Server won't start

Check Python path in configuration
Verify virtual environment activation
Ensure fastmcp is installed

No notes found

Verify Bear database path exists
Check that Bear App has been opened at least once
Confirm notes aren't in trash

Claude Desktop integration fails

Validate JSON syntax in config file
Check file paths are absolute, not relative
Restart Claude Desktop after configuration changes

Permission denied errors

Ensure script has execute permissions: chmod +x main.py
Check Bear database file permissions

Debug Mode

Run the server directly to see debug output:

python main.py

Log Files

Check Claude Desktop logs for MCP server errors:

~/Library/Logs/Claude/

Security & Privacy

Local-only: All data stays on your machine
Read-only: Server never modifies your notes
No network: No external connections required
Open source: Full transparency of operations

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Areas for improvement:

Additional search filters
Export functionality
Note creation capabilities
iOS Shortcuts integration
Performance optimizations

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

Changelog

v1.0.0

Initial release
Basic search and retrieval functions
Kubernetes and code example finders
Claude Desktop integration
Tag listing and filtering

Support

For issues and questions:

Check the troubleshooting section
Review Claude Desktop MCP documentation
Open an issue on GitHub
Check Bear App forums for database-related questions

Note: This is an unofficial tool and is not affiliated with Bear App or Anthropic. Use at your own discretion.

This server cannot be installed

security - not tested

license - not found

quality - not tested

How are these scores calculated?

A Model Context Protocol server that provides Claude with access to search, retrieve, and analyze notes from the Bear App through natural language queries.

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