trilium-mcp

An MCP server that lets AI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, any MCP-compatible client) read and write a self-hosted TriliumNext knowledge base over its ETAPI.

Single static Go binary. No runtime dependencies. Talks to your local Trilium over HTTP(S) and to the client over stdio.

Why

TriliumNext is a strong personal KB: tree-of-notes with attributes (labels, relations) that double as table columns / board lanes / calendar events. This MCP exposes the right slice of ETAPI so an agent can:

• Capture stuff into your notes (reading lists, decisions, research dumps).
• Maintain structured "tables" by creating notes-as-rows under a parent and tagging them with labels-as-columns.
• Search your existing KB and feed snippets back into a conversation.

It is intentionally minimal: ten tools, ~600 lines of Go, zero clever abstractions.

Tools

Quick start

1. Run TriliumNext

If you don't already have one:

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  trilium:
    image: triliumnext/notes:latest
    ports:
      - "8092:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/home/node/trilium-data

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8092/, finish the setup wizard, then Options → ETAPI → Create new ETAPI token. Copy the token (shown only once).

2. Install trilium-mcp

Pre-built binary (recommended) — grab the right archive from Releases.

From source with Go 1.23+:

go install github.com/OVDEN13/trilium-mcp@latest

With Docker (no Go on host):

git clone https://github.com/OVDEN13/trilium-mcp && cd trilium-mcp
docker build -t trilium-mcp .

3. Configure

Copy .env.example to .env next to the binary:

TRILIUM_URL=http://localhost:8092
TRILIUM_TOKEN=your-etapi-token-here
# Optional:
# TRILIUM_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30

Or pass the same as real environment variables — the server reads either.

4. Register with your MCP client

Claude Code (CLI):

claude mcp add --scope user trilium /path/to/trilium-mcp \
  --env TRILIUM_URL=http://localhost:8092 \
  --env TRILIUM_TOKEN=your-token

Claude Desktop — add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the equivalent on your OS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trilium": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/trilium-mcp"

... [View full README on GitHub](https://github.com/ovden13/trilium-mcp#readme)