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journal

journal

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About journal

journal is a Markdown-file-based personal journal with a desktop app and CLI for organizing, searching, and importing entries. It is for people who want their journal stored as ordinary files, with optional access from agents.

Key features

  1. 01Markdown entries with YAML frontmatter
  2. 02Full-text search and On This Day
  3. 03Tags, calendars, and multiple journals
  4. 04Day One import with media and metadata
  5. 05Templates, reminders, lock, and trash

Use cases

  1. 01Search past entries by topic
  2. 02Review entries from the same date in prior years
  3. 03Import an existing Day One archive
  4. 04Let an agent read or append journal entries

MCP support

The CLI runs an MCP server exposing 11 tools for agents to read and write journal entries. A read-only mode is also available.

Configuration

Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.

No install method listed yet

We haven’t collected a package or remote endpoint for this server. Follow the instructions in the project README.

Repository
Packages
mcpbjournal-0.1.0.mcpb

Tools

No tool list yet

Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.

Details

From the project README

Journal

A journal that is just a folder of Markdown files, with an app that feels like Day One and an MCP server so your agent can read and write it.

Journal demo: timeline, entry with photo, search, calendar, and an agent reading the journal over MCP

  • Your files. One .md per entry with YAML frontmatter; photos in a content-addressed folder. Sync with iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Syncthing, git. Open with any editor. See docs/format.md.
  • Day One import. Export → JSON in Day One, import the zip. Entries, photos, tags, location, weather and stars come across. Re-importing never duplicates.
  • On This Day, full-text search (FTS5, works for Korean/Japanese/CJK), tags, multiple journals, calendar view, dark mode, streak and word counts.
  • Templates (templates/*.md, three included), a daily reminder, a passcode lock, and a trash that keeps deleted entries for 30 days.
  • Agents. journal mcp serve exposes 11 tools over MCP; the CLI does the same from a shell. See docs/mcp.md.
  • No account, no server, no telemetry. Optional location/weather uses the OS location service when available, otherwise a city-level guess from your network connection (ipapi.co), then Open-Meteo (keyless). One toggle turns it off.

Install

Desktop app: download the build for macOS, Windows or Linux from Releases. The macOS builds are signed and notarized.

CLI (also the MCP server):

brew install --cask sjh9714/tap/journal   # macOS; or grab a binary from Releases
journal init                       # creates ~/Journal (or follows the desktop app's folder)
journal add "First entry" -t life
journal list
journal search first
journal on-this-day
journal add --template gratitude   # see `journal templates`
journal delete <id>                # to the trash; `journal trash restore <id>` undoes it
journal stats

Let your agent in

claude mcp add journal -- journal mcp serve

Claude Desktop: download journal-0.1.0.mcpb from Releases and open it.

Then: "add a line to today's journal about the deploy", "what did I write about the move last year?", "summarise my week". --read-only if you only want it to read.

Import from Day One

Day One → Export → JSON. Then in the app: Settings → Import Day One export, or:

journal import dayone ~/Downloads/Export.zip

On your phone

There is no mobile app yet. Because entries are plain Markdown files, keep the journal folder in iCloud Drive (or Dropbox, Syncthing) and open it with any Markdown editor on the phone. On iPhone, Obsidian (free) works well: create a vault, choose "Existing folder", pick the journal folder in iCloud Drive, and new entries follow the format in docs/format.md. iA Writer and 1Writer also open the folder directly. The desktop app picks the edits up the next time it is focused.

Build from source

cargo test --workspace
cd apps/desktop && npm install && npm run tauri build

Status

Desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux), CLI, MCP, Day One import, templates, reminder, lock, trash. Not yet: mobile, built-in sync service, PDF export, encryption at rest, edit history (keep the folder in git for that).

MIT. "Day One" is a trademark of Automattic; this project only reads its export format.

Comments

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