Better Bear

better bear

[better-bear MCP server]

[Build] [Release] [npm] [License: MIT] [better-bear MCP server] [Buy Me A Coffee]

MCP server and CLI for Bear notes via CloudKit. Includes a context library — a curated, synced folder of notes optimized for LLM consumption, inspired by Karpathy's LLM Knowledge Base pattern.

Full docs: better-bear.com

Install

Install the CLI, then connect to Claude:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KuvopLLC/better-bear/main/install.sh | bashbcli authbcli mcp install

This installs the bcli binary, authenticates with iCloud, and sets up the MCP server for both Claude Desktop (via .mcpb bundle) and Claude Code.

Other install methods

Manage

bcli mcp status      # check what's configuredbcli mcp uninstall   # remove from Claude Desktop and Claude Codebcli mcp reinstall   # clean uninstall + installbcli upgrade         # upgrade bcli binary

CLI

All commands also work standalone from the terminal:

bcli ls                          # list notesbcli search "query"              # full-text searchbcli create "Title" -b "Body"    # create a notebcli edit <id> --append "text"   # append to a notebcli tags                        # list all tagsbcli attach <id> photo.jpg       # attach a filebcli stats                       # library statisticsbcli health                      # health check

See better-bear.com for the full command reference.

Context Library

Turn a subset of your Bear notes into a synced, curated context folder that Claude can navigate using index-first retrieval. Tag notes with #context in Bear, sync, and Claude reads a compact index to find relevant files — loading only what it needs, not everything.

bcli context init                          # one-time setupbcli context sync                          # pull qualifying notesbcli context add <id> --subtag research    # tag a note for inclusionbcli context status                        # health check

Or tell Claude: "Set up a context library" — and it handles everything via MCP tools.

The architecture follows Karpathy's three-folder pattern: bear/ (synced from CloudKit), external/ (PDFs, exports, shared docs), and inbox/ (drop zone for triage). An index.md manifest maps everything. See better-bear.com for full documentation.

MCP Tools

34 tools covering notes, tags, TODOs, attachments, search, front matter, stats, health checks, and the context library. See the MCP server README for the full list.

Contributors

[mreider] [program247365] [asabirov] [darronz]