open-notebook/docs/5-CONFIGURATION/mcp-integration.md

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Integration

Open Notebook can be seamlessly integrated into your AI workflows using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling direct access to your notebooks, sources, and chat functionality from AI assistants like Claude Desktop and VS Code extensions.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that allows AI applications to securely connect to external data sources and tools. With the Open Notebook MCP server, you can:

• 📚 Access your notebooks directly from Claude Desktop or VS Code
• 🔍 Search your research content without leaving your AI assistant
• 💬 Create and manage chat sessions with your research as context
• 📝 Generate notes and insights on-the-fly
• 🤖 Automate workflows using the full Open Notebook API

Quick Setup

For Claude Desktop

1. Install the MCP server (automatically from PyPI):

   # No manual installation needed! Claude Desktop will use uvx to run it automatically
   

2. Configure Claude Desktop:

   macOS: Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "open-notebook": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["open-notebook-mcp"],
         "env": {
           "OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL": "http://localhost:5055",
           "OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD": "your_password_here"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

   Windows: Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "open-notebook": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["open-notebook-mcp"],
         "env": {
           "OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL": "http://localhost:5055",
           "OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD": "your_password_here"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

3. Restart Claude Desktop and start using your notebooks in conversations!

For VS Code (Cline and other MCP-compatible extensions)

Add to your VS Code settings or .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "open-notebook": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["open-notebook-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL": "http://localhost:5055",
        "OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD": "your_password_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

• OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL: URL to your Open Notebook API (default: http://localhost:5055)
• OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD: Optional - only needed if you've enabled password protection

For Remote Servers

If your Open Notebook instance is running on a remote server, update the URL accordingly:

"OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL": "http://192.168.1.100:5055"

What You Can Do

Once connected, you can ask Claude or your AI assistant to:

• "Search my research notebooks for information about [topic]"
• "Create a new note summarizing the key points from our conversation"
• "List all my notebooks"
• "Start a chat session about [specific source or topic]"
• "What sources do I have in my [notebook name] notebook?"
• "Add this PDF to my research notebook"
• "Show me all notes in [notebook name]"

The MCP server provides full access to Open Notebook's capabilities, allowing you to manage your research seamlessly from within your AI assistant.

Available Tools

The Open Notebook MCP server exposes these capabilities:

Notebooks

• List notebooks
• Get notebook details
• Create new notebooks
• Update notebook information
• Delete notebooks

Sources

• List sources in a notebook
• Get source details
• Add new sources (links, files, text)
• Update source metadata
• Delete sources

Notes

• List notes in a notebook
• Get note details
• Create new notes
• Update notes
• Delete notes

Chat

• Create chat sessions
• Send messages to chat sessions
• Get chat history
• List chat sessions

Search

• Vector search across content
• Text search across content
• Filter by notebook

Models

• List configured AI models
• Get model details
• Create model configurations
• Update model settings

Settings

• Get application settings
• Update settings

MCP Server Repository

The Open Notebook MCP server is developed and maintained by the Epochal team:

🔗 GitHub: Epochal-dev/open-notebook-mcp

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome!

Finding the Server

The Open Notebook MCP server is published to the official MCP Registry:

• Registry: Search for "open-notebook" at registry.modelcontextprotocol.io
• PyPI: pypi.org/project/open-notebook-mcp
• GitHub: Epochal-dev/open-notebook-mcp

Troubleshooting

Connection Errors

1. Verify the OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL is correct and accessible
2. If using password protection, ensure OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD is set correctly
3. For remote servers, make sure port 5055 is accessible from your machine
4. Check firewall settings if connecting to a remote server

Using with Other MCP Clients

The Open Notebook MCP server follows the standard MCP protocol and can be used with any MCP-compatible client. Check your client's documentation for configuration details.

Learn More

• Model Context Protocol Documentation