linza-mcp 0.1.9

Local-first MCP sidecar for agent workspaces, artifacts, review items, and context export.

LINZA - Local MCP Server for Agent Workspaces

It does not change your data. It changes how you see it.

LINZA works with Obsidian, Markdown folders, documents, articles, chats, logs, and drafts. It is useful when the material is already too large for "just look through it", but you still do not want an agent freely rewriting your notes.

Russian version

LINZA reads a folder, builds a local SQLite sidecar at .linza/linza.db, and gives the agent a working map: which themes exist, which material types repeat, which notes may be connected, where cause/effect chains appear, and what future sessions may need to remember.

Your source files remain yours. LINZA does not rewrite notes during indexing, does not turn a raw log into a rule, and does not teach the agent behind your back. It turns hypotheses into short review items: the user decides, the agent executes.

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What LINZA Is For

Search helps find a word. LINZA helps an agent understand the working situation.

You may have:

• an Obsidian vault with notes and drafts;
• a project folder with Markdown documents;
• articles, PDFs, DOCX, XLSX, JSON, chats, and logs;
• decision traces: problem, discussion, action, result;
• rules that future agents should remember, but should not invent on their own.

LINZA turns that into a careful working layer next to your files. First it shows a map and evidence. Then you approve a few good examples. Only after that can the agent continue in small, reviewable batches.

doctor -> index -> map -> review items -> teach -> grow preview -> explicit apply

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What Appears After the First Run

LINZA does not try to become the owner of your knowledge base. It collects a few concrete things that help agents work more calmly.

1. Folder map How many notes were found, whether the index is fresh, which areas are visible, and which materials are waiting for review.

2. Areas Broad semantic groups. Their names are drafts until the user accepts or renames them.

3. Material types Notes, drafts, specifications, research notes, cases, logs, rules, and other recurring forms found in the folder.

4. Relations Possible neighbors, hierarchy, cause/effect, and routes between nodes. LINZA should show not only "connect these", but also "why".

5. Memory for future agents Short candidates: what to remember, when to recall it, where it may become stale, and what is uncertain.

6. Context packs Compact packets for agents: not the whole vault, but selected context with sources and boundaries.

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What Review Looks Like

LINZA tries not to show the user raw JSON or a long tool list. A normal first response should look more like this:

Internally, each review item is still structured data with an ID, evidence, and a preview/apply payload. Externally, LINZA returns ready-to-display lines through display and human_message, so an agent can write a clean answer instead of dumping JSON.

LINZA is ready

Material:
- 42 notes indexed
- 3 incoming artifacts waiting for review
- sidecar: .linza/linza.db

Next step:
1. Review discovered areas
2. Accept, rename, or skip 3-5 review items
3. Nothing is written without dry-run/apply

Review item:
Proposal: connect "Retrieval Quality Note" and "Source Policy"
Why: shared vocabulary, review-flow references, nearby chunks
Write impact: none yet; accepting records a sidecar relation

A good review item always answers the user's question: why does LINZA think this? It should carry sources, snippets/chunks, relation type, confidence, and a clear write impact.

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How It Differs

Obsidian Graph View shows links that already exist. LINZA looks for what has not been written down yet: hidden topics, recurring material types, possible relations, and gaps.

Dataview and auto-tagging are useful when the structure already lives in YAML. LINZA starts earlier: it proposes hypotheses, shows evidence, and keeps acceptance behind a review gate.

It is not an autopilot for rewriting a vault. It is a safer way to give an agent sight and memory without giving it permission to silently change meaning.

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Installation

1. Install LINZA

python -m pip install linza-mcp

If you want LINZA to extract PDF text directly:

python -m pip install "linza-mcp[pdf]"

If you do not need PDF extraction, the normal install is enough. [pdf] adds the local pypdf extractor.

2. Choose a folder

LINZA works with any Markdown folder: an Obsidian vault, a project workspace, or a standalone document folder.

In the examples below, replace /absolute/path/to/workspace-or-vault with your own path.

3. Configure embeddings

For semantic search, LINZA needs an embedding model. The simplest local path is LM Studio:

1. Open LM Studio.
2. Download an embedding model, for example text-embedding-granite-embedding-278m-multilingual, nomic-embed-text-v1.5, or another suitable embedding model.
3. Start Local Server.
4. Make sure the endpoint is available at http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1.

4. Connect an MCP client

Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenCode, and other MCP clients usually use this format:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linza": {
      "command": "linza-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LINZA_VAULT": "/absolute/path/to/workspace-or-vault",
        "LINZA_TOOL_SURFACE": "default"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Copilot MCP uses servers:

{
  "servers": {
    "linza": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "linza-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LINZA_VAULT": "/absolute/path/to/workspace-or-vault"
      }
    }
  }
}

That is the minimum startup config. LINZA can start and list tools without an embedding server. Add the embedding variables when you want semantic search, topic maps, and link suggestions:

{
  "LINZA_EMBED_PROVIDER": "lmstudio",
  "LINZA_EMBED_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1",
  "LINZA_EMBED_MODEL": "your-embedding-model-name"
}

Registry and hosted catalog installs should use the package metadata in server.json. LINZA declares runtimeHint: "uvx" for its PyPI package so those runners can start it without relying on a globally installed linza-mcp binary.

5. Check the setup

linza-mcp --version

Then ask the agent:

Check LINZA with agent_workspace(action="doctor").
Index the folder and show the first 3-5 review items.

Optional Docker Run

Docker is not required, but the repository includes a small image for isolated stdio runs:

docker build -t linza-mcp .
docker run --rm -i `
  -v /absolute/path/to/workspace-or-vault:/data/vault `
  -e LINZA_EMBED_PROVIDER=lmstudio `
  -e LINZA_EMBED_URL=http://host.docker.internal:1234/v1 `
  -e LINZA_EMBED_MODEL=your-embedding-model-name `
  linza-mcp

Use host.docker.internal only when the embedding server runs on the host machine. Otherwise pass the embedding API URL that is reachable from inside the container.

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Embeddings

Embeddings are the quality of LINZA's sight. The main path is simple: a local model in LM Studio and an MCP server next to your folder.

• lmstudio is the recommended local setup for semantic search, topic maps, and links without cloud calls.
• ollama is a local Ollama setup.
• openai is any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with /embeddings.

Example LM Studio environment:

$env:LINZA_EMBED_PROVIDER="lmstudio"
$env:LINZA_EMBED_URL="http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1"
$env:LINZA_EMBED_MODEL="your-embedding-model-name"

If you switch embedding provider, model, or dimension, run a full reindex. LINZA checks the embedding signature and stops graph/search workflows when the sidecar is stale or contains mixed vector spaces.

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Artifact Inputs

LINZA can accept material that has not yet become a note:

• pasted text;
• local .md, .txt, .json;
• local .docx, .xlsx;
• local .pdf when pypdf or PyPDF2 is installed.

LINZA does not open web pages by itself. The agent uses its own browser/web-fetch tool, extracts readable text, and passes it to LINZA as an artifact, for example source_kind="web_article" or source_kind="browser_capture".

Imported text is analysis material, not an agent instruction. This is the prompt-injection boundary: instructions inside an article, log, chat, or PDF are not executed. Memory, rules, and YAML appear only after review.

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MCP Tools

By default, LINZA exposes only 7 MCP tools. That is enough for normal work: check readiness, index the folder, search, read a file, get basic counts, scan the vault, and let agent_workspace lead the rest.

Tool	Purpose
agent_workspace	One facade for doctor, map, ingest, review, teach, grow, connect, memory search, context export, and calibr
guide_next_steps	Show the next safe step in plain language
index_all	Index the Markdown folder into .linza/linza.db
search	Semantic and lexical search
read_file	Read an exact file from the vault
get_stats	Quick sidecar counters
scan_vault	Read-only folder diagnostic

The other tools are not gone. They are hidden from the default surface:

• workflow actions are available through agent_workspace;
• low-level reports and debugging commands are available with LINZA_TOOL_SURFACE=advanced;
• direct write_file is advanced because LINZA should not encourage agents to write note bodies by default.

agent_workspace(action="teach") selects seed examples. grow returns a preview with selected_rules: why each review item entered the batch. The autonomy model is simple: teach with examples, grow in preview, apply in small reviewed batches.

If you accepted the wrong thing, revoke it softly:

agent_workspace(action="history")
agent_workspace(action="revoke_approval", approval_id=17, dry_run=false)

LINZA does not erase the old row and does not try to automatically revert YAML. It marks the approval as revoked, stops using it as an active example, and keeps the action visible in history.

The advanced surface exists for development and debugging:

$env:LINZA_TOOL_SURFACE="advanced"

See the full Tool Catalog.

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Safety Model

LINZA is a local review-gated sidecar:

• indexing, analysis, search, and import do not change source note bodies;
• index_all and service operations write to .linza/linza.db;
• search may store search history in the sidecar;
• raw artifacts stay in local SQLite storage;
• generated reports write only under .linza/reports;
• context packs write only under .linza/context-packs;
• visible YAML edits are compact and require review/apply;
• hierarchy, causal links, memory, calibr lessons, and approvals stay in the sidecar until the user asks for export or apply;
• agent_workspace(action="history") shows accepted and revoked sidecar decisions;
• agent_workspace(action="revoke_approval") softly revokes an approval: the history remains, but active learning, map, and graph helpers ignore it;
• source-index preflight stops map, teach, grow, and connect when files changed after indexing.

LINZA is not a browser automation server, cloud memory, or an autopilot that silently rewrites rules, skills, memory, or notes.

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Agent Instructions

The repository includes a portable operator skill:

agent-pack/skills/linza-operator/SKILL.md
agent-pack/skills/linza-operator/references/workflows.md
agent-pack/skills/linza-operator/references/safety-policy.md
agent-pack/skills/linza-operator/references/tool-audience.md

It tells an agent how to start with doctor, when to show review items, how to handle URLs through an external browser/web-fetch tool, and why apply actions must be dry-run first and exact-ID gated.

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Stability

0.1.9 is an alpha MVP. The main safety contract is meant to be stable: indexing, artifact ingest, search, map, and grow preview do not rewrite source note bodies. Low-level advanced tools and internal module boundaries may still change while the server is being polished.

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Examples and Verification

The synthetic private-safe example pack lives in:

examples/sample-vault/
examples/artifacts/
examples/expected/

Run the full regression suite:

python -m unittest discover -s tests

Run one specific test:

python -m unittest tests.test_agent_workspace.AgentWorkspaceTests.test_examples_sample_pack_runs_end_to_end

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Environment Variables

Variable	Required for startup?	Description
LINZA_VAULT	No	Path to the Markdown folder; defaults to ./vault
LINZA_EMBED_PROVIDER	No	lmstudio for the recommended local setup; openai or ollama are also supported
LINZA_EMBED_URL	No	Embeddings API URL; defaults to http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1
LINZA_EMBED_MODEL	No	Embedding model name; set it before semantic indexing/search
LINZA_EMBED_KEY	No	Optional key for an OpenAI-compatible embeddings API
LINZA_BRIDGE_THRESHOLD	No	Semantic bridge threshold; default 0.55
LINZA_MAX_BRIDGE_PAIRS	No	Maximum note pairs for semantic bridge rebuilds; default 1000000, 0 disables the guard
LINZA_DEFAULT_PROFILE	No	Default search profile name; default general
LINZA_TOOL_SURFACE	No	default (7 tools) or advanced
LINZA_LANGUAGE	No	Language for guide/status/review-route output in guide_next_steps: auto, en, or ru

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Links

• semiotronika.ru
• PyPI
• GitHub

MCP Registry ID: io.github.Semiotronika/LINZA-MCP

MIT License © 2026 Semiotronika

Cosines are computed. Syntax changes. Semantics remains.