bear-mcp 0.2.0

MCP server for Bear App — fast read-only access via direct SQLite

bear-mcp

MCP server that gives LLMs fast, read-only access to your Bear notes by reading the SQLite database directly.

How it works

Bear stores notes in a Core Data SQLite file on disk. This server opens it read-only (?mode=ro) and queries it directly. No network calls, no CloudKit sync latency, no API keys. Queries against the tag index instead of scanning note content.

Why this exists

The existing Bear MCP options either go through Bear's x-callback-url scheme (slow, requires Bear to be running, macOS UI automation) or the akseyh implementation that builds SQL with string concatenation. I wanted something that's fast, read-only by design, and doesn't have SQL injection issues.

Limitations:

• macOS only — Bear is a macOS/iOS app, the SQLite file lives on macOS
• Read-only — this server cannot create, edit, or delete notes
• Needs Full Disk Access — the process reading Bear's database needs FDA granted in System Settings > Privacy & Security

Install

pip install git+https://github.com/mark-liu/bear-mcp.git

Or run without installing:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/mark-liu/bear-mcp.git bear-mcp

PyPI coming soon — pip install bear-mcp once published.

Configure in Claude Code

claude mcp add bear -s user -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/mark-liu/bear-mcp.git bear-mcp

Tools

Tool	Description
search_bear_notes	Search notes by text and/or tag (uses tag index, not text scan)
get_bear_note	Get a specific note by UUID
list_bear_tags	List all tags (reads ZSFNOTETAG table directly)
find_notes_by_title	Find notes by title, exact or partial match
get_recent_notes	Get notes modified in the last N days

License

MIT