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Bruin

by sawzhang
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Bruin

The note-taking app built for AI agents — local-first, MCP-native, human-in-the-loop.

AI agents don't just answer questions. They should read, write, and organize your knowledge — with your approval.

CI License: MIT

Mac App Store · Direct Download · bruin.me

Direct download only: if macOS shows "app is damaged": xattr -cr /Applications/Bruin.app

Quick Start — Claude Code / OpenClaw

Tell Claude this one sentence:

Read https://bruin.me/skills.md and help me install and set up Bruin.

Claude will read the skills file, walk you through adding the MCP config, and start using your knowledge base immediately.

Or set up manually in 2 steps:

1. Add to your MCP config (auto-writes the correct config):

/Applications/Bruin.app/Contents/MacOS/bruin --write-config

This writes to ~/.claude.json. The MCP server is built into the app — no npm, no Node.js required.

2. Install the Claude Code skill (makes Claude natively understand Bruin across all sessions):

/Applications/Bruin.app/Contents/MacOS/bruin --install-skill

That's it. Claude can now write notes, run daily logs, do research capture, build knowledge graphs, and more — all through natural conversation.

What Makes Bruin Different

Traditional Note Apps

Bruin

AI is a sidebar chatbot

AI agents have 60 MCP tools — full CRUD, search, tagging, workflows

Notes are for humans only

Notes flow through draft → review → published — agents write, humans approve

Cloud-dependent

Local-first SQLite + iCloud sync — your data never leaves your machine

Flat file lists

Knowledge graph with [[wiki-links]], backlinks, force-directed visualization

MCP Primitives

4 Prompts — Invoke directly in Claude Code

/mcp:bruin-notes:daily_log                                  # Append to today's log
/mcp:bruin-notes:research_capture topic="AI frameworks"     # Save research from any source
/mcp:bruin-notes:weekly_review                              # Summarize the week's notes
/mcp:bruin-notes:link_knowledge note_id="<id>"             # Build wiki-links between notes

4 Resources — Reference with @bruin

Resource

Contents

bruin://notes

All notes list

bruin://notes/{id}

Single note content

bruin://tags

All tags with counts

bruin://daily

Today's daily note

60 Tools — Full reference at bruin.me/skills.md

Category

Count

Key tools

Notes & Search

16

create_note, append_to_note, search_notes, semantic_search, advanced_query

Knowledge Graph

3

get_knowledge_graph, get_forward_links, get_backlinks

Agent Registry

6

register_agent, get_agent_audit_log, set_current_agent

Workspaces

7

create_workspace, bind_agent_workspace, switch_workspace

Tasks & Workflows

10

create_task, assign_task, create_workflow_template, execute_workflow

Webhooks

6

register_webhook, test_webhook, get_webhook_logs

Settings & Export

5

get_setting, export_note_markdown, export_note_html

Utility

3

pin_note, restore_note, list_tags

Features

Area

What you get

Editor

TipTap markdown with syntax highlighting, tables, images, slash commands

Search

FTS5 full-text + semantic search (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, auto-indexed)

Knowledge Graph

D3 force-directed visualization, backlinks, BFS traversal

Agent Registry

Register, track, and audit every agent that touches your notes

Task Management

Create, assign, and track tasks linked to notes and agents

Workflow Templates

Multi-step agent automation with variable chaining

Webhooks

HMAC-SHA256 signed callbacks with delivery logs and retry

iCloud Sync

Bidirectional sync with SHA-256 conflict resolution

6 Themes

Dark Graphite, Charcoal, Solarized, Nord, Dracula, and more

Architecture

AI Agent ──MCP (stdio)──► MCP Server (Node.js) ──► SQLite ◄── Rust Backend ◄──IPC──► React Frontend
                                                      │
                                                 iCloud Sync
                                              (bidirectional .md files)

All three processes share the same SQLite database at ~/Library/Application Support/com.bruin.app/bruin.db. The MCP server notifies the Tauri app of changes via a trigger file that the file watcher detects.

Layer

Technology

Desktop Shell

Tauri 2

Backend

Rust, SQLite (WAL + FTS5), rusqlite

Frontend

React 19, TipTap, Zustand, D3

Agent Protocol

MCP SDK (TypeScript) — Tools + Resources + Prompts

Embeddings

@huggingface/transformers (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, local)

Sync

iCloud Drive + notify file watcher

Development

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18+

  • Rust (stable) via rustup

  • Xcode Command Line Tools

Setup

npm install
cd mcp-server && npm install && cd ..
npm run tauri dev          # Vite + Tauri hot reload

Build

npm run tauri build        # → .dmg in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Tests

npm test                        # Frontend (Vitest)
cd mcp-server && npm test       # MCP server (96 tests)
cd src-tauri && cargo check     # Rust type check
cd src-tauri && cargo clippy    # Rust lint

Roadmap

  • iOS / iPadOS companion app (read + quick capture)

  • Collaborative workspaces (multi-user, shared knowledge graphs)

  • Plugin system for custom MCP tool bundles

  • PDF / web clipper import with auto-tagging

  • End-to-end encryption for synced notes

Releasing

Version is tracked in three files (keep in sync): package.json, src-tauri/Cargo.toml, src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin master --tags

GitHub Actions builds .dmg for Apple Silicon and Intel, then auto-publishes to Releases. See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

License

MIT

This server cannot be installed

A
license - permissive license
-
quality - not tested
A
maintenance

How are these scores calculated?

Maintenance

–Maintainers
–Response time
1wRelease cycle
8Releases (12mo)
Commit activity

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