A lightweight MCP server that provides Claude with a private journaling capability to process feelings and thoughts
A lightweight MCP server that provides Claude with a private journaling capability to process feelings and thoughts. The private journal mcp server wraps that behind the Model Context Protocol, so an assistant can use it through 8 defined tools rather than through you.
A comprehensive MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides Claude with private journaling and semantic search capabilities for processing thoughts, reflections, and insights.
github on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.
Everything the assistant can do here goes through one of these:
Journaling — The Journaling tool exposed by this serverConfiguration — The Configuration tool exposed by this serverprocess_thoughts — Multi-section private journaling with these optional categories: - reflections: Integrated thinking — what you noticed, felt, understood, orsearch_journal — Semantic search across all journal entries: - query (required): Natural language search query - limit: Maximum results (default: 10) -read_journal_entry — Read full content of specific entries: - path (required): File path from search resultslist_recent_entries — Browse recent entries chronologically: - limit: Maximum entries (default: 10) - type: Entry scope - 'project', 'user', or 'both' (defaultBuilding — The Building tool exposed by this serverTesting — The Testing tool exposed by this serverYou will need one environment variable: PRIVATE_JOURNAL_PATH. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Private Journal's toolset — Journaling, Configuration, process_thoughts and 5 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by obra; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Journaling | The Journaling tool exposed by this server. |
| Configuration | The Configuration tool exposed by this server. |
| process_thoughts | Multi-section private journaling with these optional categories: - **reflections**: Integrated thinking — what you noticed, felt, understood, or processed - **observations**: Short, discrete noticings — one or two senten |
| search_journal | Semantic search across all journal entries: - **query** (required): Natural language search query - **limit**: Maximum results (default: 10) - **type**: Search scope - 'project', 'user', or 'both' (default: 'both') - **s |
| read_journal_entry | Read full content of specific entries: - **path** (required): File path from search results |
| list_recent_entries | Browse recent entries chronologically: - **limit**: Maximum entries (default: 10) - **type**: Entry scope - 'project', 'user', or 'both' (default: 'both') - **days**: Days back to search (default: 30) |
| Building | The Building tool exposed by this server. |
| Testing | The Testing tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"private-journal": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "github"],
"env": {
"PRIVATE_JOURNAL_PATH": "your-value"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| PRIVATE_JOURNAL_PATH | Filesystem location the server is allowed to use. | Optional |
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