# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/vasylenko/claude-desktop-extension-bear-notes
README.md
Bear Notes Claude Extension (aka MCP Bundle)
Search, read, create, and update your Bear Notes directly from Claude conversations.
This local-only extension reads Bear's SQLite database for fast search with OCR support, and uses Bear's native API for writes. Complete privacy: no external connections, all processing on your Mac.
Example prompts:
Summarize our conversation and create a new Bear note with it
Interview me about my side project idea and capture the key points in a Bear note
Help me restructure the outline in my "Product Launch" note
Let's brainstorm blog post ideas — save the best ones to my Bear note and refine them as we go
✨ Key Features
10 MCP tools for searching, reading, creating, updating, tagging, and archiving notes
OCR search — finds text inside attached images and PDFs
Date-based search with relative dates ("yesterday", "last week", "start of last month")
Tag management — list tags as a tree, find untagged notes, add tags to notes
New note convention (opt-in) — place tags right after the title instead of at the bottom
Content replacement (opt-in) — replace the full note body or a specific section
Local-only — no network calls, all data stays on your Mac
[!NOTE]
Complete privacy (except the data you send to your AI provider when using an AI assistant such as Claude, of course): this extension makes no external connections. All processing happens locally on your Mac using Bear's own database and API. There is no extra telemetry, usage statistics or anything like that.
More installation options and local development setup — NPM.md
🛠️ Tools
bear-open-note - Read the full text content of a Bear note including OCR'd text from attached images and PDFs
bear-create-note - Create a new note in your Bear library with optional title, content, and tags
bear-search-notes - Find notes by searching text content, filtering by tags, or date ranges. Includes OCR search in attachments
bear-add-text - Insert text at the beginning or end of a Bear note, or within a specific section identified by its header
bear-replace-text - Replace content in an existing Bear note — either the full body or a specific section. Requires content replacement to be enabled in settings.
bear-add-file - Attach a file (image, PDF, Excel, etc.) to an existing Bear note using base64-encoded content
bear-list-tags - List all tags in your Bear library as a hierarchical tree with note counts
bear-find-untagged-notes - Find notes in your Bear library that have no tags assigned
bear-add-tag - Add one or more tags to an existing Bear note
bear-archive-note - Archive a Bear note to remove it from active lists without deleting it
bear-rename-tag - Rename a tag across all notes in your Bear library
bear-delete-tag - Delete a tag from all notes in your Bear library without affecting the notes
⚙️ Configuration
Debug Logging
Enable verbose logging for troubleshooting.
Claude Desktop: Settings → Extensions → Configure (next to Bear Notes) → toggle "Debug Logging" → Save → Restart Claude
Standalone MCP server: set environment variable UI_DEBUG_TOGGLE=true
New Note Convention
By default, Bear places tags at the bottom of a note when created via API. Enable this option to place tags right after the title instead, separated by a horizontal rule.
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ # Meeting Notes │ ← Note title
│ #work #meetings │ ← Tags right after title
│ │
│ --- │ ← Separator
│ │
│ Lorem Ipsum... │ ← Note body
└──────────────────────────────┘
[!TIP]
This convention is disabled by default — it's opt-in so existing behavior is preserved.
Claude Desktop: Settings → Extensions → Configure (next to Bear Notes) → toggle "New Note Convention" → Save → Restart Claude
Standalone MCP server: set environment variable UI_ENABLE_NEW_NOTE_CONVENTION=true
Example standalone configuration with the convention enabled:
This server reads your Bear Notes SQLite database directly for search/read operations and uses Bear's X-callback-URL API for write operations. All data processing happens locally on your machine with no external network calls.
Platforms Supported
macOS only because Bear desktop works only on macOS.
Logs
MCP server logs go into ~/Library/Logs/Claude/main.log, look for bear-notes-mcp
MCP transport logs go to ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-Bear\ Notes.log
FAQ
Could this steal my data?
No. Extension only reads Bear's local database (same data Bear app shows you) and uses Bear's application native API to add text to the notes. No network transmission, no external servers.
Why SQLite and not just a native Bear app's x-callback-url API?
For read operations (search/open), the x-callback-url API returns the note data in x-success response: that would require a server or custom binary to handle x-success responses - both risky and fragile. Direct SQLite read-only access is simpler and more reliable for searching and reading notes.
Why native Node.js SQLite instead of third-party packages?
This avoids shipping an SQLite binary from third-party node packages, which poses supply chain risks and blocks the Claude extension from running on macOS.
Anthropic does not sign third-party SQLite binaries (obviously), causing macOS security systems to flag that the Claude process from a binary signed by Anthropic is trying to run another binary signed by a third party. As a result, Claude cannot run the extension.
When I install the extension, I see a red warning: "Installing will grant access to everything on your computer." - what does this mean?
This is how Claude for Desktop reacts to the fact that this extension needs access to the Bear SQLite database on your Mac.
Claude warning system does not distinguish between the need to access only one file (what the extension does) versus the need to access all files (this is NOT what the extension does).
One of the ways to validate this is asking your Claude to analyze the codebase (it is pretty small) before installing the extension and tell you.
How can I report a bug or contribute?
Use issues or discussions! I'd be glad to see your feedback or suggestions, or your help to make this extension better! ❤️
Staying Up To Date
Consider subscribing to release announcements to know when a new version of the extension is released:
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