Trilium MCP Server

A comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Trilium Notes integration, providing complete note management functionality through MCP-compatible AI clients.

🚀 Production Ready • 🔧 15 API Endpoints • 📊 208 Tests • 🏥 Health Monitoring • 📚 Interactive API Docs

Live Server: https://your-trilium-server.example.com/mcp

Features

• Complete Note Management: Create, read, update, delete, and search notes

• Rich Content Support: HTML content with formatting and attachments

• Calendar Integration: Day, week, and month notes with automatic organization

• Advanced Search: Full-text search with filtering and structured results

• File Attachments: Base64-encoded file attachment support

• System Operations: Backup creation, export functionality, and system info

• Interactive API Documentation: Beautiful HTML docs with examples and OpenAPI JSON export

• Verbose Logging: Comprehensive request tracking and health monitoring

• Production Deployment: HTTPS endpoint with authentication and error handling

Related MCP server: MCP TriliumNext

API Documentation

For complete API documentation, see API Reference.

Interactive Documentation: Visit /docs for complete API documentation with:

• All 15 endpoints organized by category

• Request/response examples

• Parameter descriptions with types and constraints

• Known issues and workarounds

• OpenAPI 3.0 JSON export at /docs/json

• MCP Manifest at /mcp.json (JSON-RPC tools/list format)

Quick Start

For AI Clients (Recommended)

1. Copy configuration from mcp-server-config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trilium": {
      "command": "curl",
      "args": [
        "-X",
        "POST",
        "https://your-trilium-server.example.com/mcp",
        "-H",
        "Content-Type: application/json",
        "-H",
        "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream",
        "--data-binary",
        "@-"
      ]
    }
  }
}

2. Import into your AI client:

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

   • Other MCP clients: Use the universal configuration

3. Start using - All 15 tools will be available immediately!

Direct HTTP Testing

# Test note creation
curl -X POST https://your-trilium-server.example.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "create_note",
      "arguments": {
        "parentId": "root",
        "title": "API Test Note",
        "content": "<h1>Hello from MCP!</h1><p>This note was created via the API.</p>"
      }
    }
  }'

# Test search functionality
curl -X POST https://your-trilium-server.example.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 2,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "search_notes",
      "arguments": {
        "query": "API Test",
        "limit": 5,
        "format": "structured"
      }
    }
  }'

# Get system information
curl -X POST https://your-trilium-server.example.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 3,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "get_app_info",
      "arguments": {}
    }
  }'

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+

• pnpm package manager

• Trilium Notes instance with ETAPI enabled

Setup

1. Clone and install:

git clone <repository-url>
cd trilium-mcp
pnpm install

2. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Trilium URL and token

3. Start development server:

pnpm dev  # Auto-reload enabled
# or
pnpm start  # Production mode

4. Health check:

curl http://localhost:3000/health

Environment Variables

Production Features

Comprehensive Logging

• Request tracking: Unique IDs for every MCP request with timing

• ETAPI monitoring: All Trilium API calls logged with request/response details

• Health monitoring: System stats every 30 seconds (memory, connections, uptime)

• Error handling: Full stack traces and detailed error messages

• Connection tracking: Active/total connection counts with lifecycle logging

Health Monitoring

# View server health
curl https://my-own-trilium-mcp.fly.dev/health

# View API documentation
curl https://my-own-trilium-mcp.fly.dev/docs

# Get OpenAPI JSON spec
curl https://my-own-trilium-mcp.fly.dev/docs/json

# Get MCP Manifest (tools/list format)
curl https://my-own-trilium-mcp.fly.dev/mcp.json

# Monitor deployment logs
fly logs -a your-app-name

Security

• HTTPS deployment with proper TLS

• ETAPI authentication with Basic Auth

• CORS enabled for cross-origin requests

• Request validation with MCP protocol compliance

• Error sanitization without sensitive data leakage

Performance Metrics

Based on comprehensive testing:

• Response Times: 100-300ms average for most operations

• Memory Usage: ~99MB RSS, stable memory footprint

• Connection Handling: Proper cleanup and resource management

• Uptime: Production-stable with comprehensive error handling

• Success Rate: 13/15 endpoints (87%) fully working

Testing Results

The server has been comprehensively tested with real-world scenarios:

✅ Created nested folder structure with rich HTML content ✅ All CRUD operations tested with actual data ✅ Calendar integration verified with daily/monthly notes ✅ File attachments tested with base64 encoding ✅ Search functionality confirmed with structured results ✅ System operations validated including backups and info retrieval

See Final Test Results for complete testing documentation.

Additional Resources

• API Reference - Complete endpoint documentation

• MCP Usage Guide - User guide for operating the MCP server

• Trilium Notes - The note-taking application

• Model Context Protocol - The underlying protocol

• Trilium ETAPI Docs - External API documentation

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Ready to use! 🎉 Import the configuration files into your favorite MCP-compatible AI client and start managing your Trilium notes with AI assistance.