Simplenote MCP Server

A lightweight MCP server that integrates Simplenote with Claude Desktop using the MCP Python SDK.

This allows Claude Desktop to interact with your Simplenote notes as a memory backend or content source.

26 Tools — Full Bear Parity + Simplenote Differentiators + Claude Companion Tools

Two new irreversible-deletion tools with mandatory safety guards:

• permanent_delete_note: Permanently destroy a single note; requires confirm=true; dry-run preview by default
• empty_trash: Permanently delete all trashed notes; defaults to dry_run=true (preview); requires dry_run=false AND confirm=true
• 1178 tests passing, 77% coverage, zero linting/type errors

• publish_note: Publish a note to a public URL — unique to Simplenote MCP; returns public_url
• unpublish_note: Remove a note from public access; no-op if already unpublished

See the CHANGELOG for complete details.

See the CHANGELOG for complete details.

• 📝 Full Note Management: Read, create, update, and delete Simplenote notes
• 🔍 Advanced Search: Boolean operators, phrase matching, tag and date filters
• ⚡ High Performance: In-memory caching with background synchronization
• 🔐 Secure Authentication: Token-based authentication via environment variables
• 🧩 MCP Compatible: Works with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients
• 🐳 Docker Ready: Full containerization with multi-stage builds and security hardening
• 📊 Monitoring: Optional HTTP endpoints for health, readiness, and metrics
• 🧪 Robust Testing: Comprehensive test suite with 1135+ tests and continuous integration
• 🔒 Security Hardened: Regular security scanning with Bandit, pip-audit, and dependency checks

• Simplenote account (create one at simplenote.com)
• Python 3.10+ (for non-Docker installs) or Docker

The fastest way to get started is using our pre-built Docker image:

# Pull and run the latest image
docker run -d \
  --name simplenote-mcp \
  -e SIMPLENOTE_EMAIL=your.email@example.com \
  -e SIMPLENOTE_PASSWORD=your-password \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server:latest

Docker Health Checks: The container includes built-in health monitoring endpoints:

• Health: http://localhost:8000/health
• Readiness: http://localhost:8000/ready
• Metrics: http://localhost:8000/metrics (Prometheus format)

Or use Docker Compose:

# Clone the repository for docker-compose.yml
git clone https://github.com/docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server.git
cd simplenote-mcp-server

# Set environment variables
export SIMPLENOTE_EMAIL=your.email@example.com
export SIMPLENOTE_PASSWORD=your-password

# Run with Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

Install automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server --client claude

This method automatically configures Claude Desktop with the MCP server.

git clone https://github.com/docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server.git
cd simplenote-mcp-server
pip install -e .
simplenote-mcp-server

• Start with docs/DOCUMENTATION_GUIDE.md for a curated tour of user, developer, and operations docs plus maintenance checklists.
• Historical project summaries now live under docs/archive/2025/, keeping the repository root focused on active roadmaps and guides.
• Need something fast? Run rg "<topic>" docs/ or jump to docs/index.md for the MkDocs-style table of contents.

• Multi-stage builds for optimized image size
• Security hardening with non-root user and minimal attack surface
• Health monitoring endpoints built-in
• Resource limits and proper signal handling
• Volume support for persistent data

The easiest way to use the server is with our pre-built Docker images:

# Pull the latest image
docker pull docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server:latest

# Run with Docker
docker run -d \
  -e SIMPLENOTE_EMAIL=your.email@example.com \
  -e SIMPLENOTE_PASSWORD=your-password \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server:latest

# Or use Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

Available tags:

• latest - Latest stable release
• v1.15.0 - Specific version
• main - Latest development build

# Build and run the production container
docker-compose up -d

# Or build manually
docker build -t simplenote-mcp-server .
docker run -d \
  -e SIMPLENOTE_EMAIL=your.email@example.com \
  -e SIMPLENOTE_PASSWORD=your-password \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  simplenote-mcp-server

# Use the development compose file for live code mounting
docker-compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up

• Multi-stage build for optimized image size (346MB)
• Multi-platform support: linux/amd64 and linux/arm64
• Security hardening: Non-root user, read-only filesystem, no new privileges
• Health checks and automatic restart policies
• Resource limits: 1 CPU, 512MB memory
• Logging: Persistent log volumes
• Environment-based configuration
• CI/CD Pipeline: Automated builds and publishing to Docker Hub
• Security scanning: Trivy vulnerability scanning on all images
• Container signing: Sigstore cosign signatures for supply chain security
• Kubernetes ready: Production-grade Helm chart with security hardening
• Automated updates: Dependabot for dependencies, auto-versioning workflows
• Health monitoring: Continuous health checks and alerting
• Enterprise notifications: Slack and email integration for CI/CD status

Deploy to Kubernetes with our production-ready Helm chart:

# Install from local chart
helm install my-simplenote ./helm/simplenote-mcp-server \
  --set simplenote.email="your-email@example.com" \
  --set simplenote.password="your-password"

# Or with external secrets (recommended for production)
helm install my-simplenote ./helm/simplenote-mcp-server \
  --set externalSecrets.enabled=true \
  --set externalSecrets.secretStore.name="vault-backend"

• Security hardening: Non-root user, read-only filesystem, dropped capabilities
• Resource management: CPU/memory limits and requests configured
• Auto-scaling: Horizontal Pod Autoscaler support
• Health checks: Liveness and readiness probes
• External secrets: Integration with external secret management
• Service mesh ready: Compatible with Istio and other service meshes

# values.yaml for production
replicaCount: 3
autoscaling:
  enabled: true
  minReplicas: 2
  maxReplicas: 10
resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 1000m
    memory: 512Mi
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
    memory: 256Mi

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "simplenote": {
      "description": "Access and manage your Simplenote notes",
      "command": "simplenote-mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "SIMPLENOTE_EMAIL": "your.email@example.com",
        "SIMPLENOTE_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Powerful search with boolean logic and filters:

# Boolean operators
project AND meeting AND NOT cancelled

# Phrase matching
"action items" AND project

# Tag filtering
meeting tag:work tag:important

# Date ranges
project from:2023-01-01 to:2023-12-31

# Combined query
"status update" AND project tag:work from:2023-01-01 NOT cancelled

• In-memory caching with background synchronization
• Pagination support for large note collections
• Indexed lookups for tags and content
• Query result caching for repeated searches
• Optimized API usage with minimal Simplenote calls

Critical Bug Fix:

• Fixed Claude Desktop timeout - Reduced startup time from 55+ seconds to < 1 second (98% improvement)
• Implemented thread pool execution for blocking Simplenote API calls
• Made cache initialization truly non-blocking with background loading
• Resolved anyio.BrokenResourceError during shutdown

Code Refactoring - Phase 1 Complete:

• Cache module complexity reduced: 5 high-complexity functions (CC >= 15) → 0 (100% reduction)
• Maintainability improved: Cache MI from 12.7 → 16.2 (+28%)
• Extracted 23 helper methods for better code organization
• All 670 tests passing with 67% cache coverage maintained
• See REFACTORING_PHASE1_COMPLETE.md for details

Documentation Enhancements:

• Added comprehensive CHANGELOG.md with complete version history
• Created TESTING_CLAUDE_DESKTOP.md for user testing guide
• Added code complexity analysis tools (check_complexity.py)
• Documented refactoring plan and completion reports

Quality Tools:

• Integrated Radon for automated complexity analysis
• Baseline metrics: 22 functions CC >= 15 (down from 28)
• Average Maintainability Index: 57.9 (maintained)
• Zero diagnostics errors, all quality gates passing

Test Suite Stabilization:

• Fixed test isolation issues that caused intermittent failures
• Improved test cleanup with proper timeout handling
• Enhanced fixture management for better test reliability
• Achieved consistent test results across individual and suite runs

CI/CD Pipeline Optimization:

• Consolidated 28 workflows down to 16 active workflows
• Implemented unified monitoring workflow combining security, health, and badge checks
• Improved test coverage reporting with realistic 15.6% baseline
• Enhanced Docker build validation and security scanning

Code Quality Improvements:

• All linting (Ruff), formatting, and type checking (MyPy) now pass consistently
• Zero high-severity security vulnerabilities (verified with Bandit, pip-audit, safety)
• Standardized code formatting and pre-commit hooks configuration
• Enhanced error handling and user-facing error messages

Improved Testing:

• 724 comprehensive tests covering core functionality
• Function-scoped fixtures for better test isolation
• Realistic coverage baseline established (15.6%)
• Streamlined test execution with proper cleanup

Enhanced Documentation:

• Updated deployment guides with current Docker setup
• Improved health monitoring endpoint documentation
• Added troubleshooting guides for common issues
• Current status and roadmap documentation

Container Improvements:

• Multi-stage Docker builds for optimized image size
• Built-in health monitoring endpoints (/health, /ready, /metrics)
• Enhanced security hardening with non-root user
• Improved signal handling and graceful shutdown

Status: ✅ WORKING - Complete mcp-evals integration with TypeScript wrapper!

This project includes comprehensive evaluations using mcp-evals to ensure reliability and performance:

# Setup evaluation environment
npm install
npm run validate:evals

# Run evaluation suites
npm run eval:smoke          # Quick smoke tests (2-3 minutes) ✅ VERIFIED
npm run eval:basic          # Standard evaluations (5-10 minutes)
npm run eval:comprehensive  # Full evaluation suite (15-30 minutes)

Latest Test Results: 4/5 tests passing excellently (avg 4.1/5):

• Server Startup: 4.6/5 ⭐ (Excellent)
• Authentication: 4.0/5 ⭐ (Good)
• Note Operations: 3.8/5 ⭐ (Good)
• Search: 5.0/5 ⭐ (Perfect)
• Error Handling: 1.4/5 ⚠️ (Needs improvement)

• Smoke Tests: Basic functionality validation
• CRUD Operations: Note creation, reading, updating, deletion
• Search & Filtering: Boolean search, tag filtering, date ranges
• Error Handling: Authentication, network issues, edge cases
• Performance: Large datasets, concurrent operations
• Security: Input validation, authentication enforcement

Evaluations run automatically on:

• Pull Requests: Smoke + basic tests
• Releases: Comprehensive evaluation suite
• Manual Trigger: Full test matrix with detailed reporting

The evaluations use OpenAI's GPT models to assess:

• Accuracy: Correctness of responses
• Completeness: Thoroughness of results
• Relevance: Response appropriateness
• Clarity: Response readability
• Performance: Operation efficiency

📁 See evals/README.md for detailed evaluation documentation.

# Python unit tests
pytest

# Code quality checks
ruff check .
mypy simplenote_mcp

• Token-based authentication via environment variables
• No hardcoded credentials in Docker images
• Security-hardened containers with non-root users
• Read-only filesystem in production containers
• Resource limits to prevent abuse

Authentication Problems:

• Verify SIMPLENOTE_EMAIL and SIMPLENOTE_PASSWORD are set correctly
• Check for typos in credentials

Docker Issues:

# Check container logs
docker-compose logs

# Restart services
docker-compose restart

# Rebuild if needed
docker-compose up --build

Claude Desktop Connection:

# Verify tools are available
./simplenote_mcp/scripts/verify_tools.sh

# Monitor logs
./simplenote_mcp/scripts/watch_logs.sh

# Test connectivity
python simplenote_mcp/tests/test_mcp_client.py

# Check server status
./simplenote_mcp/scripts/check_server_pid.sh

# Clean up and restart
./simplenote_mcp/scripts/cleanup_servers.sh

# One-command setup including evaluations
./setup-dev-env-with-evals.sh

# Or manual setup
git clone https://github.com/docdyhr/simplenote-mcp-server.git
cd simplenote-mcp-server
pip install -e ".[dev,test]"
npm install  # For mcp-evals

# Run the server
python simplenote_mcp_server.py

# Run Python tests
pytest

# Run mcp-evals
npm run eval:smoke    # Quick validation
npm run eval:basic    # Standard tests
npm run eval:all      # Full test suite

# Code quality
ruff check .
ruff format .
mypy simplenote_mcp

The setup script creates:

• Python development environment with all dependencies
• Node.js environment for mcp-evals
• Example configuration files
• Pre-commit hooks
• Validation for all evaluation files

1. Unit Tests: Traditional Python pytest for core logic
2. Integration Tests: MCP protocol compliance testing
3. Smoke Tests: Quick validation of basic functionality
4. Evaluation Tests: LLM-based assessment of real-world usage
5. Performance Tests: Load and stress testing

Due to potential permission issues with tsx, we recommend running MCP evaluations in Docker:

# Run smoke tests
./scripts/run-evals-docker.sh smoke

# Run basic evaluations
./scripts/run-evals-docker.sh basic

# Run comprehensive evaluations
./scripts/run-evals-docker.sh comprehensive

# Run all evaluations
./scripts/run-evals-docker.sh all

npm run eval:smoke
npm run eval:basic
npm run eval:comprehensive
npm run eval:all

# Development with live code reload
docker-compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up

# Build and test
docker build -t simplenote-mcp-server:test .
docker run --rm simplenote-mcp-server:test --help

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

• Model Context Protocol
• MCP Example Servers

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