bear

The bear MCP server provides an MCP-compliant interface for interacting with Bear notes. Once running, Claude (or any MCP consumer) can connect to the server to enumerate, retrieve, and manipulate Bear notes through the standard MCP protocol exposed by bear-mcp-server. The server acts as a bridge between Bear’s data and external clients, translating MCP requests into Bear-compatible actions and returning responses in the MCP format. Use the MCP endpoints to list notebooks, fetch individual notes, search content, and perform basic CRUD operations as supported by the Bear integration.

To use the server, ensure the bear-mcp-server binary is running (as installed via Cargo). Then configure your MCP client to point at the server's address (for Claude, typically the configured mcpServers entry). The client will send MCP requests such as GET_NOTE, LIST_NOTES, or UPDATE_NOTE, and receive MCP-formatted responses. If your environment requires authentication or environment-specific configuration, consult the Bear MCP server documentation or the repository’s README for any supported options and environment variables.

Prerequisites:

• Rust and Cargo installed on your system
• If you prefer building from source, a Rust toolchain and Git are required

Option A: Install the prebuilt binary via Cargo

1. Install the Bear MCP server globally:

cargo install bear-mcp-server

2. Ensure the binary is in your PATH (typically at ~/.cargo/bin/bear-mcp-server).

Option B: Build from source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/jakubadamw/bear-mcp-server
cd bear-mcp-server

2. Build and install the binary:

cargo install --path .

3. Verify installation:

bear-mcp-server --help

Configuration:

• Create or update Claude’s config to include the MCP server entry, using the path to the installed binary. Example path on macOS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bear": {
      "command": "/Users/[FILL IN MAC USERNAME]/.cargo/bin/bear-mcp-server",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Notes:

• The configuration example uses a MAC-specific binary path; adjust the path to your environment.
• If cargo install places the binary elsewhere, update the command accordingly.
• There are no runtime environment variables documented in the README; rely on default behavior or consult the repository for advanced options.
• Ensure that the Bear app integration is available and that Bear exposes the MCP endpoints expected by the client.
• If Claude cannot connect, verify that the server is running and that the path to bear-mcp-server is correct in the configuration.