Simple Note-taking app with MCP or integration to AI?
Hey everybody, I take a lot of notes during the day, most notes are temporary like random ideas, tasks I need to do or something that I want to remember to look up before bed. Antinote performs that role great, but (don't hate the me for it 😄) opening the app, writing it done and closing it SORT OF throws me off the flow... What I have in my mind / looking for It would be amazing to tell claude/codex "Hey add this to a note", and it would magically create a sticky note on my desktop, or for that matter in a simple and quick note taking app, similar to Antinote I would also create a skill that checks if a specific note for that day exists with a: TODO: IN PROGRESS: DONE: structure (which I currently do manually) and then just have it manage tasks in the way I like it, along several other skills to make life a bit quicker In the words of u/amerpie: A power user is just someone with a low tolerance for friction and a high tolerance for tinkering. They notice repeated friction, investigate whether it can be removed, and then spend 45 minutes automating a task that previously took eight seconds. The only difference is that I won't be spending only 45 minutes on that, to scratch that itch I might end up creating another mac app 😂
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I built Noticky, I was wondering if it’s better to have a mcp or keep it simple with just export file. I saw a lot of feedback asking for a mcp. Keep Noticky in your list maybe in the next days/weeks the mcp will be released 👀
Oooh I think this is it! I created some MCPs lately, with OAuth, it's super easy to do. This would be an amazing selling point for Noticky imho. Just a quick question, can notes display in a "desktop widget" mode, where they hide behind the active window?
There's also a path with no MCP server at all: macOS ships /usr/bin/shortcuts, so "shortcuts run <name> --input-path file" lets anything that can run a shell command drive a Shortcut. Notes is scriptable too, its sdef exposes a note class with a writable body. Would a Shortcut cover your TODO/IN PROGRESS structure?
Appreciate the thought but that’s not what I am going for… I don’t like Apple Notes and I want to keep it stupidly simple Thanks tho!
I mean the meta right now for this is pretty much just Obsidian and that's what most people use. I'm not sure if it fits your exact workflow of having a small sticky note because it is a pretty big app. But check it out because that's usually what most people use, especially because of the file over app philosophy that it operates under, which makes it extremely easy for the agents to access, edit, and change your vault around. There's also a repo with Obsidian skills that would help. https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills
Thanks for the suggestion! I actually use Obsidian in order to create a "brain" for development projects, where there are a lot of dependencies and a lot of intertwined code. I technically can give it a try and it would work, just wondering if the monstrous Obsidian would be the right fit to my "I am missing an MCP to the simplest note taking app ever existed" But I might try it out, that and the Apple Notes MCP which I just found
I don't think I would say that's what most people use. Some people do, certainly, but there's a TON of apps out there that do the same thing, and users are very spread out based on needs.
We have built an MCP that talks to NotePlan (not that simple as Antinote, but a full-feature note taking app), where you can not only write notes, tasks, etc. but also themes and plugins.
Never used NotePlan. The website gives me a kind of Todoist vibes, which I feel is way too overwhelming for my use case. Appreciate the response, keeping it on the list, no note taking app is off the table :-)
I do that and much more with Bear notes MCP + Claude. I have a format for daily notes a note for business ideas for example
Interesting, I’ve used Bear for years alongside Antinote but I think I made it too much of a mess there… Thanks for the suggestion, going on the list!
You’re looking for Rook! https://www.userook.app, it’s fast like Apple notes and responds to, hey save this to rook with an append to note MCP
Appreciate it, but it’s not what I am looking for. I don’t need anything related to code, I just want an MCP to create new notes, manage tasks, maybe once a week get an aggregate of my todos notes. Thanks tho!
What about Sidenotes or similar EdgeMark (free)?
Appreciate the reply! This gets close, but Noticky is closer to what I am looking for, and currently from what I’ve seen (and discussed with the Noticky dev here), none of them has an MCP or integration to let Claude manage it. I’m going to give Bear a try tomorrow with the MCP, see what I can get out of it
Seconding Obsidian. I use Obsidian to record all of my notes, and alongside it I run Claude in my vault directory. So Claude can query all of my notes, write new notes etc. This does everything I need, so I haven’t explored using MCP or anything else.
Thinking about this, but this may be a complete overkill for the basic notes I have in mind… it’s on the list tho so will definitely try and see if it works Appreciate the response!
I think the best way to take notes is to create a VSCode workspace and use your codex or claude subscription to take notes. You create a git repository with instructions to categorize notes any way you want. You could even have it create calendar entries and/or reminders
I did that, but I don’t like it in my IDE, I’d rather have a window I can summon like Antinote and close it immediately or having a sticky note with list capabilities so I can tick tasks off and always see them Oddly picky I know, but wanna try to nail the perfect sweet spot 😄 Thanks!!
I pretty much use VSCode for everything
Worth separating the two halves of this, because they have different answers. The capture-and-structure half probably doesn't need MCP at all. If the note is a markdown file at a known path, Claude Code can already read and write it with its normal file tools — no server to run, nothing to keep alive. The TODO / IN PROGRESS / DONE logic becomes a skill that's essentially "if today's file doesn't exist, create it from this template, then append under the right heading." Mine is a few lines and it has never broken, because there's no transport that can break. MCP earns its keep when the data lives somewhere you can't touch as a file — a proprietary store, a remote API. For "append a line to today's note," a file path is less machinery for the same outcome. The display half is the part that genuinely wants a native app. Nothing about a markdown file puts it on your desktop behind the active window, and that's a real requirement automation doesn't solve. Worth treating as a separate decision from the agent plumbing. One thing I'd settle early: whether you own the file format or the app does. If you ever want those notes on a phone, or to grep a year of them, plain markdown with stable headings survives you changing your mind about the app. Anything living inside an app's own database doesn't. +1 on the shortcuts route mentioned above as well — `shortcuts run` is underrated for this and works from anything that can shell out, including a skill.
I am not looking for any logic, nor I will ever grep a years of notes, or for that matter, have a structure haha. My notes look like this: “Finish SEO page Robots.txt Xyz app setup section Connect google analytics ABC keyword DEF keyword 16:00 weekly” Like literally, I just reduced the app name and words lol, tomorrow morning I’ll look at it, whatever is not done will be moved to a new note, and the cycle continues. One thing I might do is ask when was a task completed (on what date) but nothing serious… And yes, it needs to be a lightweight native macOS app, don’t need sync to any other device or phone That’s why I love Antinote because I just scroll back a couple of times and find what I need, but lately I’ve been thinking there must be an easier way to do that, thus this research. Appreciate the detailed reply!
I am using Capacities MCP but it needs OATH 2.1 and have only been able to get it to work with mainstream (Claude, Mistral). Coming from using Obsidian, I can see Capacities being adopted like Obs is for MCP use once you can connect with apps like Vehla or Osaurus for example. Dropping this note for you to keep an eye on cap.
Copy pasted the entire reply to a note haha, I’ll research everything you mentioned more on my Mac tomorrow (currently on phone) Thank you!!