vaultnotes

vaultnotes

vaultnotes is a small set of tools for working with a vault of notes stored as plain files in a folder on your own disk: list what is in the vault, read a note, search across the markdown files, and append to, patch, or delete a note. It runs from the command line or as an MCP server for agents.

Local mode. vaultnotes works directly on a local directory. It does not need a running note-taking application or a plugin API: point it at the folder that holds your notes and every tool operates on the files there. Paths are always vault-relative, and anything that would resolve outside the vault — .. escapes, absolute paths elsewhere, symlinks pointing out — is refused before a file is touched.

Install

npx @reneturcios/vaultnotes list --vault ~/notes

Or run the container image:

docker run -i ghcr.io/cloudcorprecords/vaultnotes

The container defaults to the MCP server (see below). Pass CLI arguments to use it as a CLI instead.

Choosing the vault

The vault directory is resolved in this order:

1. the --vault <dir> flag on the command line,
2. the VAULTNOTES_DIR environment variable,
3. the current working directory.

CLI

vaultnotes list --vault ~/notes                 # every file in the vault
vaultnotes list-dir projects --vault ~/notes    # files under one directory
vaultnotes read projects/alpha.md --vault ~/notes
vaultnotes search "launch checklist" --vault ~/notes
vaultnotes append inbox.md "Call Sam on Tuesday." --vault ~/notes
vaultnotes patch inbox.md "Tuesday" "Wednesday" --vault ~/notes
vaultnotes delete drafts/old.md --vault ~/notes

vaultnotes --version

Exit codes: 0 on success, 1 when an operation fails (the error names the problem), 2 for usage errors.

MCP server

One bin serves both faces. The mcp subcommand starts a stdio MCP server:

npx -y @reneturcios/vaultnotes mcp

MCP client configuration (set the vault with the environment):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vaultnotes": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@reneturcios/vaultnotes", "mcp"],
      "env": { "VAULTNOTES_DIR": "/path/to/your/notes" }
    }
  }
}

The server starts and lists its tools even when no vault has been configured yet; the vault is resolved per call and a missing vault produces a tool error rather than a crash.

Tools

Tool	Input	What it returns
list_files_in_vault	(no arguments)	Every file in the vault, as vault-relative paths.
list_files_in_dir	dirpath (string, required)	Every file under that vault directory, as vault-relative paths.
get_file_contents	filepath (string, required)	The file's contents as text.
search	query (string, required)	Case-insensitive substring matches across the vault's .md files: for each match, the filepath, the line number, and the matching line as a snippet.
append_content	filepath (string, required), content (string, required)	Appends the content to the file, creating the file (and parent folders) when it does not exist yet.
patch_content	filepath (string, required), target (string, required), content (string, required)	Replaces the first occurrence of the exact target text with the new content; an error when the target text is not in the file.
delete_file	target_filepath (string, required)	Deletes the file. Directories are refused.

A note on patch_content: targeting here is exact-text — the target is the literal passage to replace, not a heading name or a block reference. That keeps a patch unambiguous: it either finds the exact text once and replaces it, or it fails and changes nothing.

Development

npm install
npm run build   # tsc -> dist/
npm test        # node test runner over test/*.test.ts, real fs in temp dirs, no network
npm run dev     # run the CLI from source via tsx

License

MIT — see LICENSE.