Private Journal MCP — Development skill for Claude Code

Private Journal MCP Server

A comprehensive MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides Claude with private journaling and semantic search capabilities for processing thoughts, reflections, and insights.

Features

Journaling

• Multi-section journaling: Separate categories for reflections, observations, project notes, user context, technical insights, and world knowledge
• Dual storage: Project notes stay with projects, personal thoughts in user home directory
• Timestamped entries: Each entry automatically dated with microsecond precision
• YAML frontmatter: Structured metadata for each entry

Search & Discovery

• Semantic search: Natural language queries using local AI embeddings
• Vector similarity: Find conceptually related entries, not just keyword matches
• Local AI processing: Uses @xenova/transformers - no external API calls required
• Automatic indexing: Embeddings generated for all entries on startup and ongoing

Privacy & Performance

• Completely private: All processing happens locally, no data leaves your machine
• Fast operation: Optimized file structure and in-memory similarity calculations
• Robust fallbacks: Intelligent path resolution across platforms

Installation

This server is run directly from GitHub using `npx` - no installation required.

MCP Configuration

Claude Code (One-liner)

claude mcp add-json private-journal '{"type":"stdio","command":"npx","args":["github:obra/private-journal-mcp"]}' -s user

Manual Configuration

Add to your MCP settings (e.g., Claude Desktop configuration):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "private-journal": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["github:obra/private-journal-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The server will automatically find a suitable location for the journal files.

Configuration

`PRIVATE_JOURNAL_PATH` environment variable

Set `PRIVATE_JOURNAL_PATH` to override all journal storage to a single director