What can you do with this server?

Jikan is a time-tracking MCP server that offloads time measurement and session management from AI agents, allowing them to track behavioral sessions (e.g., meditation, focus, exercise) without handling timestamps or duration math themselves. * Start a session (start_session): Begin a new timed session for a specified activity, with optional timezone and intended duration — the server automatically records the start time (costs 1 credit) * Stop a session (stop_session): End an active session by ID — the server automatically computes elapsed duration (free) * Check a session (check_session): Retrieve details for a specific session, including live elapsed time if still active (free) * List sessions (list_sessions): Browse completed and active sessions with optional filters for date range, activity type, and pagination (free) * Get stats (get_stats): Retrieve pre-computed aggregates including total sessions, total time logged, current daily streak, and remaining credits (costs 1 credit) * List activities (list_activities): View all available activity types, including public defaults and your own private custom activities (free) * Create a custom activity (create_activity): Define a new private activity type visible only to your account, with a name and optional description (free)

1. Click on "Install Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@jikan start a new meditation session" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

jikan

AI agents have a time problem.

Every time you start a new conversation, the agent wakes up with no idea when you last spoke because fundamentally: LLMs have no internal clock. They don't know what time it is, what day it is, or how long your current conversation has lasted. From the model's perspective, five minutes and five years are indistinguishable.

This time-blindness creates a real problem for tracking continuous work. If you ask an agent to log how much time you spent debugging a complex issue, it can't tell you how long you worked. If you ask whether you've been consistently putting in deep work lately, it has no way to know. It needs an external reference — something outside itself that actually measured the time.

Jikan is that reference. The key design decision: the server does the work agents are bad at.

The server records the exact start time — the agent never needs to know it
The server computes elapsed duration — the agent never does date math
The server maintains the session ledger between conversations — the agent never manages state

LLMs also have no reliable sense of how long building things takes.

Ask one to estimate a project and it might say "three weeks for a developer." That estimate is drawn from training data describing how long things used to take — before AI assistance collapsed the feedback loop.

This entire MCP server (schema design, API integration, security review, packaging) was built in a single session with Claude. Not three weeks. Not three days.

If you are planning a project and an AI gives you a time estimate, treat it as a pre-AI baseline. With AI support in the loop, the actual time is often an order of magnitude less.

Track it. That's what Jikan is for.

The server handles timestamps and duration math. You just say "start a meditation session" and "stop the timer" when done.

Exposes 7 tools so Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client can log meditation, focus, and exercise sessions — without writing curl commands.

Tools

Tool	Cost	Description
`start_session`	1 credit	Start a new session; server records the time
`stop_session`	free	Stop a session; server computes duration
`check_session`	free	Get session details including live elapsed_sec
`list_sessions`	free	List sessions with optional date/activity filters
`get_stats`	1 credit	Totals, streak, and credits remaining
`list_activities`	free	See available activity types
`create_activity`	free	Create a custom private activity

Requirements

Python 3.10+
uv (recommended) or pip
An API key from mg.robnugen.com/settings/

Installation

git clone https://github.com/thunderrabbit/jikan.git
cd jikan

# with uv (recommended)
uv venv mgvenv
source mgvenv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

# or with pip
python -m venv mgvenv
source mgvenv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jikan": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/jikan", "run", "server.py"],
      "env": {
        "JIKAN_API_KEY": "sk_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/jikan with the actual path where you cloned this repo, and sk_your_key_here with your key from mg.robnugen.com/settings/.

The config file is usually at:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: mg.robnugen.com/api/v1/openapi.yaml

Local Testing

# Interactive tool inspector (launches browser UI to call each tool)
JIKAN_API_KEY=sk_your_key_here mcp dev server.py

Note: running python server.py directly in a terminal will show JSON parse errors — that's expected. The server speaks JSON-RPC over stdio and must be connected to an MCP client (Claude Desktop, the inspector above, etc.) to work correctly.