nudge

Your AI assistant, acting like a friend who actually remembers what you said you'd do.

nudge is an open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects Claude — or any MCP-compatible AI — to your todo app. Instead of a cold productivity dashboard, you get a friend checking in naturally.

"hey, you've had 'call the accountant' on your list for 4 days 👀"
"nothing due today, you're all clear"
"added 'dentist appointment' for Friday"

No server to run. No first-person AI narration. Just a nudge.

Install

Quickest — setup wizard

npx nudge-mcp-init

Walks you through picking your todo app, entering credentials, and wiring up Claude Desktop automatically. Done in under a minute.

Manual — Claude Desktop (no server needed)

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nudge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["nudge-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. That's it — Claude now has access to your tasks and will bring them up naturally.

Claude Desktop launches nudge as a subprocess. Nothing runs in the background when you're not using Claude.

Global install

npm install -g nudge-mcp
nudge-mcp

No install (try it)

npx nudge-mcp

Related MCP server: Todoist MCP Server

Supported backends

Want to add an adapter? See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Configuration

Create ~/.nudge/config.json — or skip it entirely to use the zero-config local default.

Local JSON (default — no config file needed)

Tasks live at ~/.nudge/todos.json:

[
  { "id": "1", "title": "Call the accountant", "done": false, "due": "2026-03-03", "priority": "high" },
  { "id": "2", "title": "Buy birthday gift",   "done": true },
  { "id": "3", "title": "Dentist appointment", "done": false, "tags": ["health"] }
]

Markdown checklist

{
  "adapter": { "type": "local", "filePath": "~/Documents/tasks.md", "format": "markdown" }
}

- [ ] Call the accountant
- [x] Buy birthday gift
- [ ] Dentist appointment

Todoist

{
  "adapter": { "type": "todoist", "apiKey": "your_token_here" }
}

Or set the env var: TODOIST_API_KEY=your_token npx nudge-mcp

Get your token: Todoist → Settings → Integrations → Developer

Notion

{
  "adapter": {
    "type": "notion",
    "apiKey": "secret_xxx",
    "databaseId": "your_database_id"
  }
}

Your database needs: Name (title), Done (checkbox), and optionally Due (date), Priority (select: Low / Medium / High), Tags (multi-select).

Setup: create an internal integration at notion.so/my-integrations, then share your database with it.

Apple Reminders

{
  "adapter": {
    "type": "reminders",
    "list": "To Do"
  }
}

No API key needed — reads directly from the Reminders app via AppleScript. macOS only.

list is optional. If omitted, nudge reads all lists. If you have a lot of reminders or multiple iCloud accounts, specifying a list is faster and more reliable.

Troubleshooting:

• First run — macOS will prompt for Automation permission. Click Allow when asked, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation and enable Reminders for your terminal.

• iCloud sync issues — if you get a "Can't get" error, open Reminders.app and wait for it to fully sync before trying again.

• Timeouts with large lists — add "list": "To Do" (or whichever list you use most) to your config to limit the scope.

• List name must match exactly — including capitalisation. Run osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders" to get name of every list' in Terminal to see your exact list names.

Tools

nudge exposes these tools to any connected AI:

nudge also ships a suggested system prompt (as an MCP prompt resource named nudge-persona) that gives the AI the right tone: warm, honest, not preachy. Claude Desktop can pick this up automatically.

Connecting apps without a native adapter

Apple Shortcuts — build a shortcut that exports tasks as JSON to ~/.nudge/todos.json on a schedule.

Zapier / Make — add a step that writes task updates to the file whenever something changes in your app.

Obsidian / Logseq — point filePath at your daily note and use format: "markdown".

Any CLI app — add a cron: 0 * * * * myapp export --format json > ~/.nudge/todos.json

Writing a new adapter

Each adapter is a single file in src/adapters/. Implement two required methods and you're done:

import { Todo, NewTodo, TodoAdapter } from "../types.js";

export class MyAppAdapter implements TodoAdapter {
  name = "myapp";

  async listTodos(): Promise<Todo[]> {
    // fetch from your app's API
    return [];
  }

  async getTodo(id: string): Promise<Todo | null> {
    return null;
  }

  // Optional — enables create_todo tool
  async createTodo(input: NewTodo): Promise<Todo> { ... }

  // Optional — enables mark complete/incomplete
  async markComplete(id: string): Promise<void>   { ... }
  async markIncomplete(id: string): Promise<void> { ... }
}

Then register it in src/index.ts in buildAdapter(). See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide.

Roadmap

• nudge init — interactive setup wizard

• Apple Reminders adapter (macOS, via AppleScript)

• Linear adapter

• GitHub Issues adapter

• mark_complete / mark_incomplete tools

• Asana / Microsoft To Do adapter

• Webhook listener for real-time push (tasks trigger the AI)

• Scheduled nudge mode (daily check-in without opening Claude)

Contributing

PRs and issues are welcome — especially new adapters. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT © Dave Leal