jrnl MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides read-only access to jrnl (command-line journal) entries.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher
• jrnl installed and configured (pip install jrnl)

Installation

npm install
npm run build
npm link  # Install globally as jrnl-mcp command

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

macOS

Location: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jrnl": {
      "command": "jrnl-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Note: If you installed via npm link, the command will be globally available. For local development without global installation, use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jrnl": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["<path-to-project>/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

• search_entries - Search journal entries with filters
• list_tags - List all tags with usage counts
• get_statistics - Get journal statistics
• analyze_tag_cooccurrence - Analyze tag co-occurrences
• list_journals - List available journals
• set_journal - Switch to a different journal

Development

npm run format  # Format code
npm run lint    # Run linter
npm test        # Run tests
npm run build   # Build for production

Testing with Claude Desktop

1. Build the project: npm run build
2. Update your Claude Desktop config with the correct path
3. Restart Claude Desktop
4. Test by asking Claude to search your journal entries

Example prompts:

• "Use jrnl to show me my journal entries from last week"
• "Using jrnl, what tags am I using in my journal?"
• "Can you use jrnl to show me statistics about my journal?"
• "Search my journal entries for entries tagged with @work using jrnl"