Notes Taker MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server built with Spring Boot and Spring AI that provides AI assistants with the ability to manage notes through file-based storage.

🚀 Overview

This application implements an MCP server that exposes tools for creating, reading, updating, and deleting notes. It integrates with AI assistants (like Claude, Gemini, etc.) via the Model Context Protocol, enabling them to manage notes on behalf of users.

🛠️ Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Framework	Spring Boot 3.5.7
AI Integration	Spring AI 1.1.0
Protocol	MCP (Model Context Protocol)
Java Version	17
Build Tool	Maven

📋 Available MCP Tools

The server exposes the following tools for AI assistants:

Tool Name	Description
search_notes	Search notes by filename (case-insensitive partial match)
list_notes	List all available notes in the notes directory
read_note	Read and return the full content of a note
create_note	Create a new note file with content
delete_note	Delete an existing note file
append_to_note	Append content to an existing note

🏗️ Project Structure

notes-taker-mcp-server-app/
├── src/
│   ├── main/
│   │   ├── java/com/mcp_server/notes/
│   │   │   ├── NotesApplication.java       # Main application entry point
│   │   │   └── service/
│   │   │       ├── NotesService.java       # Service interface
│   │   │       └── impl/
│   │   │           └── NotesServiceImpl.java   # MCP tool implementations
│   │   └── resources/
│   │       └── application.properties      # Configuration
│   └── test/
│       └── java/com/mcp_server/notes/
│           ├── NotesApplicationTests.java  # Context loading test
│           └── service/impl/
│               └── NotesServiceImplTest.java # Unit tests
├── pom.xml
└── README.md

🔒 Security Features

• Path Traversal Protection: Validates all file paths stay within the notes directory
• Input Sanitization: Filenames are sanitized to only allow alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores
• File Size Limits: Maximum note size of 1MB to prevent abuse

⚙️ Configuration

Configure the application in src/main/resources/application.properties:

spring.application.name=notes
spring.main.web-application-type=none
spring.ai.mcp.server.name=notes-taker-app
spring.ai.mcp.server.version=0.0.1

# Notes storage path - defaults to ${user.home}/notes
# Override using: NOTES_PATH environment variable or -Dnotes.path=<path>
notes.path=${NOTES_PATH:${user.home}/notes}

Configuration Options

Property	Default	Description
notes.path	${user.home}/notes	Directory where notes are stored
NOTES_PATH (env var)	-	Environment variable to override notes path

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Java 17 or higher
• Maven 3.6+

Build

./mvnw clean package

Run Tests

./mvnw test

Run the Server

java -jar target/notes-taker-app.jar

Or with a custom notes path:

NOTES_PATH=/path/to/notes java -jar target/notes-taker-app.jar

The server will start and listen for MCP STDIO communication.

🔗 Integration with AI Clients

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config file (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notes-taker": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": ["-jar", "/path/to/notes-taker-app.jar"],
      "env": {
        "NOTES_PATH": "/path/to/your/notes"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Gemini Configuration

For VS Code with Gemini, configure in your MCP settings:

{
  "servers": {
    "notes-taker": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": ["-jar", "/path/to/notes-taker-app.jar"],
      "env": {
        "NOTES_PATH": "/path/to/your/notes"
      }
    }
  }
}

📖 Tool Usage Examples

Once connected, AI assistants can use commands like:

• "List all my notes" → Uses list_notes
• "Create a note called 'meeting-notes' with today's discussion" → Uses create_note
• "Read the content of my project-ideas note" → Uses read_note
• "Search for notes about project" → Uses search_notes
• "Add an action item to my meeting-notes" → Uses append_to_note
• "Delete the old-draft note" → Uses delete_note

📄 License

This project is open source.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues.