hedgedoc-mcp

An MCP server that lets AI agents — Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, or any MCP-compatible client — read and write notes on a self-hosted HedgeDoc 1.x instance.

HedgeDoc 1.x has no API token system, so this server handles the real auth model (session cookies from email/password login) and exposes it as a clean, agent-friendly toolset.

Why this exists

HedgeDoc is a great self-hosted, open-source, collaborative markdown editor. But if you want an AI agent to write notes to it programmatically, you hit a wall immediately: HedgeDoc 1.x has no API tokens. Every write endpoint (POST /new, etc.) requires an authenticated browser-style session, tracked via an Express connect.sid cookie.

This project does the unglamorous work of handling that correctly — login, cookie storage, automatic re-authentication on expiry — and wraps it in an MCP server so any agent can just call hedgedoc_create_note and not think about any of it.

Related MCP server: Joplin Server MCP

Features

• 🔐 Handles HedgeDoc 1.x's real auth model (session cookies, not tokens)

• 🔁 Auto re-login on session expiry — no manual cookie refresh needed

• 🛠️ 6 MCP tools: create, read, update, info, whoami, history

• 🐍 Standalone Python client (hedgedoc_mcp.client.HedgeDocClient) usable outside MCP too

• ✅ Fully tested — mocked HTTP, no live server required to run the test suite

• 📦 Works with any MCP client: Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, Cursor, custom clients

Quick start

1. Install

With uv (recommended — no venv management needed):

# Run directly without installing (uvx downloads + caches automatically)
uvx hedgedoc-mcp

# Or install as a persistent tool
uv tool install hedgedoc-mcp

Not yet on PyPI? Run straight from GitHub instead — same zero-install experience:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/mrsunglasses-experiments/hedgedoc-mcp hedgedoc-mcp

Use this exact form in the agent config examples below (as args) until the package is published.

With pip:

pip install hedgedoc-mcp

From source:

git clone https://github.com/mrsunglasses-experiments/hedgedoc-mcp.git
cd hedgedoc-mcp
uv pip install -e .          # or: pip install -e .

2. Get a session cookie

HedgeDoc 1.x has no API tokens, so you authenticate once via the login endpoint and reuse the resulting session cookie:

hedgedoc-mcp-login --url https://md.example.com \
  --email you@example.com --password 'your-password' \
  --write-env .env

This prints (and optionally saves) HEDGEDOC_SESSION_COOKIE=....

Alternatively, set HEDGEDOC_EMAIL + HEDGEDOC_PASSWORD directly and the server will log in automatically on first use, re-authenticating whenever the session expires — no manual refresh needed.

3. Configure environment variables

export HEDGEDOC_URL=https://md.example.com
export HEDGEDOC_SESSION_COOKIE=s%3A...          # from step 2, OR:
export HEDGEDOC_EMAIL=you@example.com            # for auto re-login
export HEDGEDOC_PASSWORD=your-password

At minimum you need HEDGEDOC_URL plus either the cookie or the email+password pair. Setting both is recommended — the cookie is used as a fast path, and email/password is the automatic fallback whenever it expires.

4. Wire it into your agent

claude mcp add hedgedoc -- uvx hedgedoc-mcp

Or add to .claude/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hedgedoc": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["hedgedoc-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "HEDGEDOC_URL": "https://md.example.com",
        "HEDGEDOC_EMAIL": "you@example.com",
        "HEDGEDOC_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.hedgedoc]
command = "uvx"
args = ["hedgedoc-mcp"]
env = { HEDGEDOC_URL = "https://md.example.com", HEDGEDOC_EMAIL = "you@example.com", HEDGEDOC_PASSWORD = "your-password" }

Add an MCP server entry in your Hermes config with command: uvx, args: [hedgedoc-mcp], and the same environment variables. See the Hermes MCP docs for the exact config location on your install.

This is a standard stdio MCP server. Point your client at uvx hedgedoc-mcp (or the installed hedgedoc-mcp executable) with the environment variables above set, and it will discover the 6 tools automatically via the standard MCP list_tools handshake. Using uvx means the client never needs a separate install step — uv downloads and caches the package on first run.

Available tools

Using the Python client directly

You don't need MCP to use this — the underlying client is a normal Python class:

from hedgedoc_mcp.client import HedgeDocClient

client = HedgeDocClient("https://md.example.com")
client.login(email="you@example.com", password="your-password")

result = client.create_note("# Research notes\n\nSome findings...")
print(result.url)

content = client.read_note(result.note_id)
info = client.note_info(result.note_id)

Known limitations

HedgeDoc 1.x's HTTP API is genuinely limited compared to newer forks — see docs/LIMITATIONS.md for the full rundown, including:

• No API tokens (session-cookie auth only)

• No generic "update note by ID" endpoint (alias-based notes only)

• No delete endpoint over HTTP

These are constraints of the HedgeDoc 1.x server itself, not this client — the docs explain the workarounds this project uses and what genuinely isn't possible.

Development

git clone https://github.com/mrsunglasses-experiments/hedgedoc-mcp.git
cd hedgedoc-mcp
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

pytest                 # run tests (fully mocked, no live server needed)
ruff check .            # lint

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for how the auth flow and MCP layer fit together, and CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.