My Bear MCP Server

What bart6114/my-bear-mcp-server MCP server does

The bart6114/my-bear-mcp-server MCP server exposes read access to notes and tags stored by the Bear note-taking app. It is intended for macOS systems with Bear installed and gives MCP-compatible assistants a way to retrieve Bear content during a conversation.

The server does not provide note editing, deletion, or tag management. Its database connection is explicitly read-only, so the available operations are retrieval queries rather than mutations. This makes it suitable for asking an assistant to locate reference material, inspect a note, or browse a tag without allowing the assistant to change the source data.

How it works

At startup, the server connects directly to Bear's SQLite database. The database driver is opened with read-only access, and the server uses SELECT queries to retrieve notes and tag information. If a client or operation attempts to write to the database, the connection is configured to reject that access.

The MCP client launches the server as a local process. Claude Desktop and the Claude VS Code extension are documented configuration targets. The repository is implemented in TypeScript and requires Node.js 18 or later.

Setup and configuration

The documented quick-start method runs the repository through npx:

npx -y github:bart6114/my-bear-mcp-server

The project can also be cloned, installed with npm, built, and started locally. A Claude Desktop MCP configuration uses npx with the GitHub repository reference as its argument. The same style of configuration is shown for the Claude VS Code extension.

A non-standard Bear database location can be supplied with the server's --db-path option. The README shows this option with a user-provided SQLite database path, so the actual path must be selected for the local Bear installation.

The host requirements are macOS with Bear installed and Node.js 18 or newer. No API key or other credential is documented.

Tools and capabilities

The bart6114/my-bear-mcp-server MCP server provides four read-only tools:

• open_note: Retrieves a note using its title or ID.
• search_notes: Searches notes using a term or tag.
• get_tags: Returns the tags present in Bear.
• open_tag: Lists notes associated with a specified tag.

These tools support requests such as finding notes about a topic, opening a named meeting note, listing available tags, and showing notes marked with a tag such as #work.

Limitations and notes

The bart6114/my-bear-mcp-server MCP server is tied to Bear's local SQLite database and therefore is not presented as a hosted or cross-platform service. The README specifies macOS and a local Bear installation as prerequisites. It also documents read-only behavior only; there are no tools for creating, updating, moving, or deleting Bear content.

Because the server reads the database directly, the database path matters when Bear stores it somewhere other than the expected location. In that case, configure --db-path with the correct local SQLite file. The project is distributed under the MIT License.