trilium-mcp

An MCP server that lets AI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, any MCP-compatible client) read and write a self-hosted TriliumNext knowledge base over its ETAPI.

Single static Go binary. No runtime dependencies. Talks to your local Trilium over HTTP(S) and to the client over stdio.

Why

TriliumNext is a strong personal KB: tree-of-notes with attributes (labels, relations) that double as table columns / board lanes / calendar events. This MCP exposes the right slice of ETAPI so an agent can:

Capture stuff into your notes (reading lists, decisions, research dumps).
Maintain structured "tables" by creating notes-as-rows under a parent and tagging them with labels-as-columns.
Search your existing KB and feed snippets back into a conversation.

It is intentionally minimal: ten tools, ~600 lines of Go, zero clever abstractions.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
`create_note`	Create a note (optionally under a parent, with labels in one shot).
`batch_create_notes`	Create many notes in one call — saves per-call schema overhead during restructuring.
`get_note`	Fetch note metadata; optionally include body content.
`get_note_subtree`	Recursively fetch a note + descendants up to N levels as a nested tree — replaces N+1 `get_note` calls.
`update_note`	Partial update: include only the fields you want to change; omitted fields stay as-is.
`append_content`	Append text to the body with a configurable separator.
`delete_note`	Delete a note and its subtree.
`batch_delete_notes`	Delete many notes; partial failures don't stop the rest.
`move_note`	Re-parent a note in two ETAPI calls (vs the old read-recreate-delete dance).
`clone_note`	Add the note under an additional parent — Trilium-native multi-parent links.
`delete_branch`	Remove one parent-child link without deleting the note (un-clone).
`search_notes`	Full-power Trilium search (`#label`, `~relation`, `note.title %= "regex"`, ancestor scoping, etc.).
`add_label`	Attach a label (`#key=value`) — acts as a "column" in collection views.
`add_relation`	Attach a relation (`~name → noteId`) — like a foreign key between notes.
`remove_attribute`	Remove a label or relation by its attribute id.
`list_attributes`	List all labels and relations on a note.

Quick start

1. Run TriliumNext

If you don't already have one:

docker-compose.yml

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  trilium:
    image: triliumnext/notes:latest
    ports:
      - "8092:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/home/node/trilium-data

Terminal

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8092/, finish the setup wizard, then Options → ETAPI → Create new ETAPI token. Copy the token (shown only once).

2. Install trilium-mcp

Pre-built binary (recommended) — grab the right archive from Releases.

From source with Go 1.23+:

bash

go install github.com/OVDEN13/trilium-mcp@latest

With Docker (no Go on host):

bash

git clone https://github.com/OVDEN13/trilium-mcp && cd trilium-mcp
docker build -t trilium-mcp .

3. Configure

Copy .env.example to .env next to the binary:

env

TRILIUM_URL=http://localhost:8092
TRILIUM_TOKEN=your-etapi-token-here
# Optional:
# TRILIUM_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30

Or pass the same as real environment variables — the server reads either.

4. Register with your MCP client

Claude Code (CLI):

Terminal

claude mcp add --scope user trilium /path/to/trilium-mcp \
  --env TRILIUM_URL=http://localhost:8092 \
  --env TRILIUM_TOKEN=your-token

Claude Desktop — add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the equivalent on your OS:

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trilium": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/trilium-mcp",
      "env": {
        "TRILIUM_URL": "http://localhost:8092",
        "TRILIUM_TOKEN": "your-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart the client. The ten tools should show up as trilium__*.

Usage patterns

"Database" of notes (the killer feature)

Trilium's collection views (Table / Board / Calendar) render any note's children based on shared labels. So a "table" is just a parent note + child notes + a consistent label schema:

Code

Books (parent)
├── "Atomic Habits"   #status=read    #rating=9   #author=Clear
├── "Antifragile"     #status=read    #rating=8   #author=Taleb
└── "Деньги"          #status=reading             #author=Жонсон

An agent populates it like this:

jsonc

// 1. Create the row
create_note({
  parent_note_id: "<id of Books>",
  title: "Atomic Habits",
  labels: { "status": "read", "rating": "9", "author": "Clear" }
})

// 2. Query rows later
search_notes({ query: "#status=read #rating>=8", ancestor_note_id: "<id of Books>" })

Flip the parent's view to Table (or Board by status, or Calendar by a date label) in the Trilium UI and you have a database without ever leaving notes.

Append-only log

jsonc

append_content({ note_id: "<journal id>", content: "Decided to ship v0.2 on Monday." })

append_content is non-destructive — handy for daily journals, decision logs, ideation dumps.

Trilium search cheat sheet

#tag — note has label tag.
#status=active — label equals.
#rating>=8 — numeric comparison.
~author.title *= "Clear" — follow a relation, match relation target's title.
note.title %= "^Re:" — regex on title.
note.content *= "kubernetes" — substring in body.
#status=active OR #status=pending — boolean.
Combine with ancestor_note_id to scope to a subtree.

Full reference: Trilium search docs.

Environment variables

Var	Default	Notes
`TRILIUM_URL`	required	Base URL of your Trilium instance, e.g. `http://localhost:8092`. The `/etapi` path is added automatically, but a trailing `/etapi` is tolerated and stripped (so `http://localhost:8092/etapi` also works). Accepts multiple URLs separated by commas — the server tries them in order and falls back to the next one on transport errors (DNS/connection/timeout). HTTP errors like 404 are returned immediately without retry. Example: `http://192.168.0.10:8092,https://memo.example.com` (fast LAN first, public fallback).
`TRILIUM_TOKEN`	required	ETAPI token from Trilium settings
`TRILIUM_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS`	`30`	Per-request timeout
`TRILIUM_MCP_LOG`	`info`	`off` / `info` / `debug`. Logs are written to stderr (stdout is reserved for the MCP JSON-RPC stream). `info` shows one line per tool call with name + duration + ok/error. `debug` also shows the request arguments and a truncated preview of the response.

Building from source

bash

git clone https://github.com/OVDEN13/trilium-mcp
cd trilium-mcp
go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o trilium-mcp .

Cross-compile (e.g. for macOS from Linux):

bash

GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o trilium-mcp-darwin-arm64 .

Security notes

The server reads TRILIUM_TOKEN from env. Treat it like a password — anyone with it can read and write your entire KB. Keep .env out of git (it is in .gitignore).
The binary speaks only to your configured Trilium URL. It does not phone home, log to disk, or open any listening ports.
HTTPS works automatically (the binary ships with system CAs when run from the host; the Docker image includes ca-certificates).

Contributing

PRs welcome. Useful directions:

Stream large note bodies instead of buffering.
move_note / clone_note tools.
Bulk operations (add_label_to_many).
ETAPI v2 features as TriliumNext adds them.
Tests against an ephemeral TriliumNext container.

For substantive changes, please open an issue first to discuss the shape.

License

MIT.

trilium-mcp is an independent project; it is not endorsed by or affiliated with the TriliumNext project. TriliumNext itself is AGPL-3.0; this MCP server talks to it only over its public ETAPI.