outline-mcp

Tree-structured knowledge base as an MCP server.

LLM sessions are ephemeral. outline-mcp gives them a persistent, editable knowledge tree — sections and content nodes that can be browsed (toc), annotated with properties, and evolved across sessions. Nodes with inject=true are automatically included in session context.

Quick Start

cargo install --path .

Claude Code (~/.claude.json)

Native binary (after cargo install)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outline": {
      "command": "outline-mcp",
      "args": ["/path/to/your-book.json"]
    }
  }
}

Docker (no Rust toolchain required)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "outline": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-v", "/path/to/data:/data",
        "ghcr.io/ynishi/outline-mcp:latest",
        "/data/your-book.json"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If the path argument is omitted, defaults to outline-book.json in the current directory.

Workflow

shelf  →  select_book  →  toc  →  node_create / node_update / node_move
                                   node_batch_move / node_batch_update / node_query
                                   checklist / import / init / gen_routing
                                   snapshot_create / snapshot_list / snapshot_restore
                                   node_history / dump

1. init — Create a new empty book
2. node_create — Add sections and content nodes (with optional properties)
3. toc — View the table of contents with numbered IDs (e.g. 1, 2-3). Supports filter by properties
4. select_book — Select a book. Nodes with inject=true property have their body auto-appended (draft nodes excluded)
5. checklist — Export a section (or the whole book) as a Markdown checklist with checkboxes
6. node_update — Edit title, body, type, placeholder, properties, or status (active/draft) of a node
7. node_move — Relocate or delete nodes (with descendants)
8. node_batch_move — Move or delete multiple nodes in a single atomic call (requires UUID or UUID-prefix IDs)
9. node_batch_update — Update title/body/type/properties/status on multiple nodes atomically
10. node_query — Search nodes by property values, status (active/draft), or type (section/content); optionally include body in results
11. import — Import a book from a previously exported JSON file
12. gen_routing — Generate a Markdown routing table from nodes with routing property across all books
13. snapshot_create / snapshot_list / snapshot_restore — Full book versioning (create, list, restore)
14. node_history — View per-node change log with before/after diffs
15. dump — Export full book as JSON file

Node IDs

toc assigns human-friendly numbered IDs:

1. Coding Standards
  1-1. Naming Conventions
  1-2. Error Handling
2. Testing
  2-1. Unit Tests
  2-2. Integration Tests

These IDs (1, 1-2, 2-1, etc.) work in most tools. Full UUIDs and title substring matching are also supported as fallbacks.

Note: node_batch_move and node_batch_update require UUID or UUID-prefix IDs. Hierarchical toc IDs are intentionally rejected to prevent positional drift when the tree is modified mid-batch.

Node Properties

Nodes can have key-value properties for metadata:

node_create  title="My Rule"  properties={"inject": "true", "scope": "rust"}

• inject=true — Node body is automatically included in select_book output (context injection)
• routing=<scene> — Marks the node for gen_routing output. Use | to assign multiple scenes (e.g. routing="testing|TDD")
• routing_ref=<text> — Overrides the default §ID Title reference in the routing table (e.g. routing_ref="select_book で全体参照")
• Properties with value "true" appear as tags in toc: 1. My Rule [inject]
• toc supports filte

... View full README on GitHub