better-bear
The better-bear server provides comprehensive management of Bear notes via CloudKit, enabling full note management, organization, and an LLM-optimized context library.
Note Management
List, retrieve, create, edit (append, replace body, insert after a line, replace sections, edit front matter), trash, and archive/unarchive notes
Search & Discovery
Full-text search across titles, tags, and body content with relevance ranking and snippets
Filter by date range; find untagged notes or duplicates by title
Tag Management
List all tags with counts and hierarchy; add, remove, rename, or delete tags across notes
TODO Management
List notes with incomplete TODOs, get all TODO items from a note, and toggle completion status
Attachments
Attach files or images to notes with control over placement (append, prepend, before/after specific text)
Stats, Health & Sync
Library statistics (total notes, words, tags, TODOs, top tags)
Health checks (duplicates, empty notes, sync conflicts, oversized notes)
Trigger incremental or full iCloud sync
Context Library (LLM Knowledge Base)
Initialize a curated local folder (
bear/,external/,inbox/) optimized for LLM consumptionSync qualifying notes (tagged
#context) into the library; read the index and fetch specific filesSearch across all context library content (Bear notes, external files, inbox)
Add/remove notes via tagging; import external content (Jira tickets, Slack threads, docs)
Triage inbox files: keep (move to external), push to Bear as a note, or discard
Push external files into Bear as new tagged notes; remove external files
Monitor context library health: note counts, token totals, sync freshness, warnings
Enables authentication and synchronization with iCloud CloudKit to access and manage Bear notes stored in the cloud.
better bear
MCP server and CLI for Bear notes via CloudKit. Includes a context library — a curated, synced folder of notes optimized for LLM consumption, inspired by Karpathy's LLM Knowledge Base pattern.
Full docs: better-bear.com
Install
Install the CLI, then connect to Claude:
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KuvopLLC/better-bear/main/install.sh | bash
bcli auth
bcli mcp installThis installs the bcli binary, authenticates with iCloud, and sets up the MCP server for both Claude Desktop (via .mcpb bundle) and Claude Code.
Other install methods
Method | Command |
Claude Desktop only |
|
Claude Code only |
|
Claude Code (direct) |
|
Config file |
|
.mcpb bundle | Download from latest release and double-click |
Manage
bcli mcp status # check what's configured
bcli mcp uninstall # remove from Claude Desktop and Claude Code
bcli mcp reinstall # clean uninstall + install
bcli upgrade # upgrade bcli binaryRelated MCP server: Bear Notes MCP Server
CLI
All commands also work standalone from the terminal:
bcli ls # list notes
bcli search "query" # full-text search
bcli create "Title" -b "Body" # create a note
bcli edit <id> --append "text" # append to a note
bcli tags # list all tags
bcli attach <id> photo.jpg # attach a file
bcli stats # library statistics
bcli health # health checkSee better-bear.com for the full command reference.
Context Library
Turn a subset of your Bear notes into a synced, curated context folder that Claude can navigate using index-first retrieval. Tag notes with #context in Bear, sync, and Claude reads a compact index to find relevant files — loading only what it needs, not everything.
bcli context init # one-time setup
bcli context sync # pull qualifying notes
bcli context add <id> --subtag research # tag a note for inclusion
bcli context status # health checkOr tell Claude: "Set up a context library" — and it handles everything via MCP tools.
The architecture follows Karpathy's three-folder pattern: bear/ (synced from CloudKit), external/ (PDFs, exports, shared docs), and inbox/ (drop zone for triage). An index.md manifest maps everything. See better-bear.com for full documentation.
MCP Tools
34 tools covering notes, tags, TODOs, attachments, search, front matter, stats, health checks, and the context library. See the MCP server README for the full list.
Contributors
Maintenance
Resources
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