Getting Started

Requires Node.js. One command gets you going on every platform:

Verify with npx meshnote --version.

A brain is a directory with a specific structure. The init command scaffolds one from a template:

This creates a directory tree with a schema.md (LLM operating instructions), an empty raw/sources/ folder for your source documents, and a wiki/ directory where the LLM writes its pages.

~/brains/research/
├── schema.md          ← LLM operating instructions
├── raw/sources/       ← you drop files here
└── wiki/
    ├── index.md        ← catalog of all pages
    ├── log.md          ← activity log
    ├── entities/       ← people, orgs, tools
    ├── concepts/       ← ideas, topics
    ├── summaries/      ← one per source
    └── synthesis/      ← cross-cutting analyses

Templates

The template determines the schema.md — the rules your LLM follows when organizing this brain. Same tool, wildly different behavior:

Meshnote speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Add this to your agent's MCP config and every registered brain becomes visible to the LLM:

Claude Code / Claude Desktop

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json under "mcpServers":

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "meshnote": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "meshnote", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or if you installed globally with npm install -g meshnote:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "meshnote": {
      "command": "meshnote",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

This launches meshnote as a local stdio server. It works with any MCP-compatible client — Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or anything else that supports the protocol.

Your agent now has 14 tools: list_projects, get_schema, read_page, write_page, search_wiki, and more.

Save any document into your brain's raw/sources/ folder. Articles, papers, meeting transcripts, book chapters, podcast notes — anything your agent should know about. Plain text or markdown, no special format required.

Or use the CLI to download from a URL:

Sources are immutable. Once they're in raw/, nothing rewrites them. They're the ground truth your wiki is built from.

In your agent session (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), just ask in plain English:

Behind the scenes, your agent:

1. 1. Reads the brain's schema.md to understand the operating rules
2. 2. Reads the source document
3. 3. Creates a summary page, entity pages, and concept pages — all cross-linked with [[wikilinks]]
4. 4. Searches for existing pages to update with new evidence
5. 5. Logs the work and updates the index

You dropped a file and said two words. Your agent wrote a dozen structured, interlinked markdown pages following the brain's schema. Every write is atomic — a crashed ingest never leaves a half-written file.

Everything is plain markdown on disk. Open your project directory in any of these:

• ✓ Obsidian — open the project folder as a vault. Graph view, backlinks, and community plugins all work.
• ✓ VS Code — markdown preview, full-text search, git integration
• ✓ Any text editor — it's just files and folders

Or use the CLI to search and read pages directly:

No lock-in. Your wiki is a directory of markdown files — move it, copy it, version it with git.

Local mode keeps everything on your machine. If you want your brains accessible from any device and any agent — Claude Code on your laptop, Claude.ai on the web, Cursor on another machine — subscribe to hosted mode.

After subscribing, create your brains in the web dashboard and connect your agent to the cloud MCP endpoint:

Claude Code / Claude Desktop (hosted)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "meshnote": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://meshnote.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer mnk_your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Generate an API key from the web dashboard after logging in. Keys start with mnk_.

Claude.ai (web connector)

Claude.ai supports MCP via OAuth. Add a connector with these settings:

OAuth uses Dynamic Client Registration — no client ID or secret needed. You'll be redirected to log in, and Claude.ai will receive an API key automatically.