Read your Mac notes from Claude or Cursor with MCP

To let Claude or Cursor read your Mac notes, the notes app has to run an MCP server and the tool has to be pointed at it. In HushNotes that server runs on your Mac and is off until you switch it on in Settings › Connections: copy the URL it shows, add it to Claude Code, Cursor or Claude Desktop, and click Allow the first time the tool connects. From then on the tool can search, list and read your notes, and create new ones if you allow it, but it can never edit or delete one.

What is MCP?

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets a language model tool call outside tools in a predictable way: an app offers named tools, and the client decides when to call them. A notes app that speaks MCP lets Claude or Cursor look things up in your notes instead of you pasting text into the chat.

What can a connected tool do with your notes?

HushNotes offers four tools, and only four. These are the names the client sees.

Tool	What it does	Needs Read & write
`search_notes`	Keyword search. Returns each match's id, title, a snippet and when it last changed.	No
`list_notes`	Lists all notes, pinned notes, or recent notes.	No
`read_note`	Returns one note in full: title, body as Markdown, and dates.	No
`create_note`	Makes and saves a new note from a title and a Markdown body.	Yes

In practice:

The body is Markdown. A checklist comes back as - [ ] item. The title is the note's first line. A picture appears only as a reference, so the image itself is never sent.
Search is keyword search, not semantic search. It looks for the text it is given inside titles and bodies, ignoring case, and ranks title matches first. One or two distinctive words find more than a long sentence, which has to appear in a note as written.
A new note does not pop up. create_note saves it to your library, where you find it on the Shelf.
Locked and deleted notes are left out. They never appear in search or lists, and asking for a locked note by id gets the same "note not found" as an id that never existed.

How do you turn on the connection in HushNotes?

Open Settings › Connections, turn on Let external tools read your notes (MCP), and leave Access on Read-only unless the tool should create notes. Check that Status says Running, then click Copy next to the URL. That URL, http://127.0.0.1:48219/mcp/ plus your token, is the one thing every client below needs.

Click the HushNotes icon in the menu bar to open the Shelf, then click the gear at the bottom to open Settings.
Choose the Connections tab.
Turn on Let external tools read your notes (MCP).
Leave Access on Read-only unless you want the tool to create notes. You can change it later.
Check that Status says Running · 127.0.0.1:48219. The port can be higher on your Mac (see troubleshooting).
Click Copy next to the URL. It is http://127.0.0.1:48219/mcp/ followed by your token.

Treat the URL like a password: anything on your Mac that holds it can ask for your notes, which is why each tool must also be approved by name. If it ends up somewhere it should not, click Regenerate token. The old URL stops working and every approval is cleared.

How do you connect Claude Code?

Claude Code connects to HTTP servers directly, so one Terminal command adds HushNotes: claude mcp add --transport http hushnotes followed by your URL. Check it with claude mcp list, then click Allow on the claude-code card HushNotes shows the first time Claude Code connects. Add --scope user to load it in every project.

Open Terminal (Applications › Utilities).

Run this, with your own URL:

claude mcp add --transport http hushnotes http://127.0.0.1:48219/mcp/YOUR-TOKEN

Run claude mcp list to see it listed. Inside a session, /mcp shows the same.
The first time Claude Code talks to HushNotes, a card named claude-code appears. Click Allow.

Claude Code's default scope loads the server only in the folder you ran the command from. To have it in every project, add --scope user before hushnotes. Avoid --scope project here: Anthropic's docs describe it as a .mcp.json file shared through version control, and your URL holds your token.

How do you connect Cursor?

Cursor reads MCP servers from a JSON file, so HushNotes goes into ~/.cursor/mcp.json as a server named hushnotes whose url is your URL. Save the file, check that hushnotes is listed and switched on under Customize › MCPs, and click Allow on the cursor-vscode card HushNotes shows when Cursor first connects.

Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json, which applies to every project, and create it if it is missing. A .cursor/mcp.json inside a project applies to that project only.

Paste this, with your own URL. If the file already lists servers, add the hushnotes entry inside mcpServers next to them.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hushnotes": {
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:48219/mcp/YOUR-TOKEN"
    }
  }
}

Save, then open Customize › MCPs in Cursor and check that hushnotes is listed and switched on.
When Cursor first connects, HushNotes shows a card named cursor-vscode. Click Allow.

Keep a project-level file out of version control, for the same token reason.

How do you connect Claude Desktop?

Claude Desktop needs a small bridge. Anthropic's documentation says a custom connector added under Connectors is reached "from Anthropic's cloud infrastructure, rather than from your local device," and must be "reachable over the public internet." HushNotes answers only at 127.0.0.1 on your own Mac, so that route cannot reach it, by design.

Local servers in Claude Desktop go in a config file and are started as a command. HushNotes is an HTTP address rather than a command, so the answer is mcp-remote, a third-party open-source bridge that Claude Desktop runs and that forwards messages to the address. It runs through npx, so Node.js must be installed; its README asks for version 18 or newer.

In the menu bar, choose Claude › Settings…, then Developer, then Edit Config. That opens ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.

Add this entry, with your own URL. If the file already has other settings, put the hushnotes entry inside mcpServers.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hushnotes": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "http://127.0.0.1:48219/mcp/YOUR-TOKEN"]
    }
  }
}

Quit Claude Desktop completely and open it again, because it reads the file at launch.
When Claude first connects, HushNotes shows a card named claude-ai (via mcp-remote …), where … is the bridge's version. Click Allow. Claude's other sessions, outside the chat, connect separately as local-agent-mode-… (via mcp-remote …) and get their own card.
The first time a chat uses a HushNotes tool, Claude asks too, with Allow once or Always allow.

HushNotes does not ship mcp-remote; npx downloads it on first use. Claude Code and Cursor connect without a bridge.

Other clients that connect to HTTP servers, including Codex, work the way Cursor does. The MCP page has Codex's exact lines.

What happens the first time a tool connects?

HushNotes shows an approval card and holds the connection until you answer. Nothing is shared before then.

The card names the tool the way the tool names itself, so Claude Code appears as claude-code: "claude-code wants to read your notes" with Access on Read-only, or "wants to read and create notes" with Read & write, followed by what that level allows.

Return or Allow approves the tool, which then appears under Approved tools in Settings › Connections with its level and date.
Esc or Deny refuses it.
No answer for 60 seconds counts as Deny.

Approval is per tool. Approving Claude Code does not approve Cursor, and Revoke removes only the one tool. If you later switch Access to Read & write, the card returns before a tool approved as Read-only can create a note.

The card follows the same screen-sharing setting as your note windows, so by default it stays out of a shared screen through Apple's window mechanism.

What can you ask once it is connected?

Ask in plain words and name the topic. The tool usually searches, then reads the notes that matched.

"Search my HushNotes for the Lisbon trip and list what is still unbooked."
"Find my notes on the billing migration and summarise the open questions."
"Read my pinned notes and tell me which look out of date."
"What did I write about the pricing call? Quote the note, do not paraphrase."

With Access on Read & write, you can ask it to write something down:

"Create a note titled Release checklist with these steps as a Markdown checklist."

If an answer seems thin, ask which notes it read; a tool that searched for the wrong word will say so.

What can't it do, and why is that a feature?

A connected tool cannot change, delete, lock or unlock a note, and it cannot see locked or deleted notes. There is no tool for any of those, so there is nothing for a confused or misled agent to call.

An agent acts on whatever text is in front of it, including pages you did not write, so one that could delete notes could be talked into it by a hidden line. Here the worst case is an unwanted new note, and only if you turned on Read & write and approved that tool.

The server also answers only on 127.0.0.1, the Mac's own loopback address, so another computer on your Wi-Fi gets nothing, and only while HushNotes runs.

Local has a limit worth knowing, too: the tool you connect still sends what it reads to its own model provider. What local-only MCP means traces what moves where.

How does this compare with Apple Notes MCP servers?

Apple does not document an MCP server for Notes, so the options are community projects. One, apple-notes-mcp, runs as a local server and talks to Notes through AppleScript, Apple Shortcuts and read-only access to the Notes database. The AppleScript part is why macOS first asks you to let Claude control Notes. It does more than HushNotes: its documented tools include updating, moving and deleting notes, plus folders, tags and export. It says password-protected notes match on title and metadata only, since their bodies are encrypted.

Bear ships its own MCP server and Claude connector, which its announcement says can read, search, create and edit notes.

	HushNotes	apple-notes-mcp	Bear
Made by	The app itself	A third party	The app itself
Read, search, create	Yes (create with Read & write)	Yes	Yes
Edit notes	No	Yes	Yes
Delete notes	No	Yes	Not documented
Locked notes	Left out entirely	Title and metadata only	Not documented

An editing server suits an agent that should tidy a library; read-and-create suits one that should never touch what is there. The comparison pages cover the apps themselves.

Why isn't it working?

Most problems are one of these.

What you see	What it means	What to do
It connects, but every request is refused	The approval card is waiting	Find the card and click Allow
You denied, revoked, or missed the card	That tool is refused until HushNotes is next launched	Quit and reopen HushNotes, then reconnect
Connection refused	HushNotes is not running, or the switch is off	Open HushNotes and check Status says Running
Status shows a port other than 48219	Another app had 48219, so HushNotes moved up	Copy the URL again and update the config
It stopped after Regenerate token	The old URL and approvals were cleared	Paste the new URL and approve again
A tool shows "Access denied by the user", but you never saw a card	Several tools, or several Claude Desktop sessions, connected at the same moment	Quit and reopen HushNotes, then connect one tool at a time and click Allow

The last row is how the current version behaves. A fix is coming; until then, connecting one tool at a time avoids it.

For Claude Desktop, Anthropic's docs point to ~/Library/Logs/Claude, where mcp.log records connection failures. If the bridge never starts, check that node --version prints 18 or higher.

What HushNotes does, and does not do

HushNotes is a native Mac notes app for floating notes, one-key capture of selected text, and keyword search on the Shelf. Its MCP server is built in: no account, no cloud relay, and nothing extra to install for Claude Code or Cursor. It is a one-time purchase of $9.99.

It has no semantic search, no edit or delete tool, no access from another computer, and no iPhone app. If you want Claude or Cursor to read your notes without the power to rewrite them, the MCP page has the full guide, and note apps that don't need an account covers where any notes app keeps your words.

How we checked (October 2026): HushNotes behaviour comes from the app's source code. Client steps come from Anthropic's, Cursor's and the Model Context Protocol's own documentation, and the Apple Notes and Bear rows from the apple-notes-mcp README and Bear's announcement. On 11 October 2026, on macOS 26, we connected all three routes to a development build of HushNotes, the same server on a different port: Claude Code 2.1, Claude Desktop through mcp-remote 0.14, and Cursor. Each searched for a note and read it, and Claude Code also created one.

FAQ

Can a connected tool read my captures?

No. The MCP tools read notes only, so text kept on its own in the Shelf's Captures list is not exposed. Capture into an open note, or hold ⌘ while capturing to make a new note, if you want a tool to see it.

Can Claude delete or edit my notes through MCP?

No. HushNotes offers no edit, delete or lock tool. With Read & write on, a tool can create new notes, and that is the only change it can make.

Do my notes go to the internet when Claude reads them?

The link between the tool and HushNotes stays on your Mac, at 127.0.0.1. What the tool then does with the text is up to that tool: Claude Code, Cursor and Claude Desktop send your conversation, including what they read, to their model providers.

Does it work with Codex or other MCP clients?

Yes, if the client can connect to an MCP server over HTTP. Give it the URL from Settings › Connections and approve it when the card appears.