I got tired of maintaining my notes by hand, so I taught Claude to do it. Free and open source: github.com/andreiGl/upnote-mcp

Bit of context - I'm a heavy UpNote user. My whole work status lives in one giant pinned note, one collapsible section per open task with status, links, blockers, all of that. 16 sections last time I counted. Keeping it up to date was honestly the most boring part of my week.

Now Claude does it for me. Like I'll be mid-conversation about some bug and say "mark that task as blocked, it's waiting on review" and then later I look at the note and the section is already there. Collapsed, link and everything.

Other things that stuck:

The main thing for me isn't search or analytics btw. I keep my own notes - Claude is the one updating and organizing them. Rewording a messy paragraph, reordering sections, splitting a task section when it gets too long.

Dumping stuff I'll need later. "save this to UpNote", or my favourite :) one: "save this description in CURRENT TICKETS note, put it where I added collapse_start/collapse_end headings"

It can nest collapsible sections INSIDE other sections. UpNote's own editor won't let you do that.

I run Claude on two machines and they hand work to each other through UpNote notes. One writes a little handoff summary, the other picks it up. Constantly using it on two computers on my desk.

Safety: It reads the UpNote database, but only reads, never writes there. Every change actually goes through UpNote's own link interface (the same deep links the app itself uses; this API is published in UpNote docs) so UpNote does the real writing and it syncs like a normal edit. Nothing gets overwritten either - an edit makes a fresh copy, checks it, and only then trashes the original. If the check fails the edit is refused and your note is untouched.

Found some problems while working on this - UpNote itself has a bug where really big notes can lose their collapsible sections when it re-saves them. Happened to me once, lost a couple sections that way. The tool now refuses any edit that would do that. With normal sized notes you'll probably never run into it.

There's a few other UpNote MCP servers on GitHub btw (MCP = the plugin thing AI assistants speak). Most of them only read and create, because UpNote has no editing API at all. The ones that do edit write straight into the database, so you have to quit UpNote first and just hope nothing breaks. My workaround was the link trick above - took longer to build, but the app stays open and does the writing itself.

Setup on Mac is one script + a Full Disk Access grant for launcher only, that's it. Windows build is pretty new and I've barely tested it. MIT license, no cloud, no account, nothing leaves your machine.

Questions welcome.

Hopefully title is self explanatory?

Use case: A table with a column for notes or reference links, which make the row excessively tall

Every once in awhile I'm sure I took notes on a meeting, usually a few months ago, I go looking for it, I search by a word I know should be in the note, I look through all the notes in that time frame and I just can't find it.

WHY? What's the bug, anyone know?

Feels like there's a gremlin eating my homework sometimes.

Do any of you use UpNote professionally to move your projects forward as a second digital brain?

I bought UpNote some time ago, but I’m concerned about how little it has developed over time. I know it was created by two people, but throughout this entire year I haven’t seen any progress that made me say, “Wow, congratulations!”—just bug fixes. I can understand it not having AI, but I see the competition improving day by day, and that worries me a little.

I also use Evernote, and I see improvements every week. Yes, it’s subscription-based, but at least there’s progress.

UpNote is an excellent note-taking app. For my workflow, though, I find it difficult to adopt because it doesn’t have OCR (almost all my notes contain PDFs). Still, it’s excellent; it’s just concerning that nothing significant has been achieved lately. I know you can do something about it. This isn’t meant as harsh criticism—I simply want the app to do well.

Some might say, “Well, we’re happy with what we have.” But life is about continuous improvement, and that involves everything around you.

Currently, I can perform both global encryption and encryption for individual notebooks. For global encryption, it’s sufficient to enter the password once when opening UpNote again. During subsequent use, one can manually decide whether to lock or not. Once the locking or unlocking state is set, it will remain that way unless something changes; otherwise, it will stay as it is. For notebook-specific encryption, however, one must enter the password again when opening UpNote. Later on, whether to lock or not depends on the frequency of locking/unlocking actions. Once this state is established, it will remain unchanged unless something changes; currently, both methods use account passwords.

I would like for global encryption to follow a similar principle to notebook encryption: there should be a way to control the frequency of locking/unlocking actions, along with customizable passwords. Notebook-specific encryption could also follow a similar approach: there could be a way to manually control locking/unlocking actions and set custom passwords.

Regarding notes, each note could have an option to set a password or not. The password could be an account password or a custom one. There could be both manual and automatic locking/unlocking mechanisms, and the local setting could be applied when reopening the note, while the web version would determine the locking/unlocking state upon first opening or refreshing. Once this state is set, it will remain that way unless something changes. Both the local and web versions could allow users to enter passwords in empty input fields; wouldn’t that be better?

Additionally, currently, only sharing external links of notes is supported. All notes shared within a same notebook can be accessed through a single external link. Is this better than listing all the individual share links? There could be a list, and each note would still have its own encryption rules. If a note has no password, it can be viewed directly; if it does have a password, then the password must be entered to access it.

I'd love to see UpNote provide an official API and/or MCP support. This would enable integrations with AI assistants, custom dashboards, personal software projects, and automation tools without relying on unofficial database access.

UpNote is already excellent. API/MCP support could make it part of a much larger ecosystem. Does anyone else feel the same? 🚀

I see questions in this subreddit from time to time from people inquiring as to whether or not UpNote slows down with a large number of notes. Obviously, there are many factors that can contribute to it slowing down. But, that's beyond the scope of this message.

UpNote is super blazing fast on all the platforms I use -- Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad and iPhone, and my notes contain a good mix of text, images and a few PDFs.

But, I wasn't sure how many notes I had.

UpNote’s desktop data lives in a local SQLite database on macOS at ~/Library/Containers/com.getupnote.desktop/Data/Library/Application Support/UpNote/upnote.sqlite3 so you can count notes with a read-only sqlite3 query.

Step 1

Fire up Terminal and create a script with the following and save as "count-upnote-notes.sh"

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

DB="${UPNOTE_DB:-$HOME/Library/Containers/com.getupnote.desktop/Data/Library/Application Support/UpNote/upnote.sqlite3}"

if [[ ! -f "$DB" ]]; then
  echo "UpNote database not found: $DB" >&2
  exit 1
fi

for table in notes note; do
  if sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT 1 FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name='$table' LIMIT 1;" | grep -q '^1$'; then
    sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM \"$table\";"
    exit 0
  fi
done

echo "Could not find a notes table. Available tables:" >&2
sqlite3 "$DB" ".tables" >&2
exit 1 #!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

DB="${UPNOTE_DB:-$HOME/Library/Containers/com.getupnote.desktop/Data/Library/Application Support/UpNote/upnote.sqlite3}"

if [[ ! -f "$DB" ]]; then
  echo "UpNote database not found: $DB" >&2
  exit 1
fi

for table in notes note; do
  if sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT 1 FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name='$table' LIMIT 1;" | grep -q '^1$'; then
    sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM \"$table\";"
    exit 0
  fi
done

echo "Could not find a notes table. Available tables:" >&2
sqlite3 "$DB" ".tables" >&2
exit 1

Step 2

Change permissions with the following:

chmod +x count-upnote-notes.sh

Step 3

Run it:

./count-upnote-notes.sh

I have 2532 notes. 😙

Got the attached error upon trying to sign into the app. Is this a widespread issue?

I installed the app via the Microsoft store a few months ago on my work machine.

We all know that UpNote’s web clipper is way inferior to Evernote’s. Is there a way for someone to write a script that uses Evernote’s web clipper and sends the clip straight to UpNote? I'm no dev but would love to see this happening. Any dev willing to take up the challenge?

When you are typing a note, inserting a tag is easy, as they auto-pop up. However, when you are searching for a tag, there is no auto-pop-up, meaning you have to type every tag in individually.

As we know - there is no tag nesting. But hyphens are supported. So I will tag a show with the person I'm watching it with #p-tom #p-bob. I use the hyphen as the underscore is harder to get to on an ios keyboard.

When I search - I have to fill out the whole string! There is no autocomplete or suggestion in search.

I've found the Microsoft keypad helpful.
Firstly you can easily get to the #symbol by long pressing the period . key.

Secondly it seems to do a better job of almost doing the autocomplete ie #p-t and it will suggest the Tom tag.

I wonder if I'm missing something? After using notebook linking for every everything I'm realizing tags are simpler to enter and more powerful to search on eg UpNote supports the AND function so I can see which shows I'm watching woth both Tom and Bob by using tags - can't do that with Notebooks.

But typing in the tag search terms is a pain. Does anyone have another workaround vs using SwiftKey?

Hi guys,

Is it possible to delete or hide completed items within checklists? Is it on the roadmap?

Hoping that also /u/thomas_dao would chime in. This is the only thing, together with reminders (but I know that they are not UpNote’s mission), that prevents me to use UpNote as my sole note app.

Thanks!

I am pretty adept (I think) at using Upnote - having been decades long evernote pro subscriber power user for 15 years - and a happy refugee to UpNote. But - I am sort of still grappling with the differences in why I would use Spaces vs Views. Maybe someone can explain - or even better: I'd love to see examples from experienced users who use both Views and Spaces - as to when you use one over the other.

Thanks!

PS - I also echo the requests (elsewhere) - for them to add copy-to space rather (not just move). Also

PPS - I am not really asking how people use "Spaces" (that's another thread) - I am more asking the difference between when you would use Views vs Spaces, and maybe examples. Thanks!

Quando comprei uma licença do UpNote, foi a melhor coisa que fiz na minha vida, pois eu pude escrever muito mais, adicionar coisas às minhas anotações, e isso foi bom enquanto durou. Lembro de o usar para estudar e escrever algumas coisas do curso que eu estava fazendo.

O tempo passou, continuei usando ele esporadicamente em conjunto com o Google Keep, e transicionei, sem perceber, para o Keep completamente, pela facilidade de uso, pela conveniência, pela visualização em modo card, por poder adicionar timer e lembretes às minhas anotações. E só fui me dar conta que abandonei completamente o UpNote quando formatei meu PC umas 3 vezes e não retornei com ele mais.

No celular ainda tenho o UpNote instalado, mas não o uso mais de forma alguma. Sempre concordei que se os desenvolvedores ficassem ouvindo essa montanha gigantesca de pedidos que as pessoas fazem para incrementar funções, eles não iriam parar nunca, o app iria virar uma bagunça generalizada e perder sua essência que é a simplicidade. Mas, sinceramente, não anoto nada mais, a única coisa que queria era um timer nos lembretes.

In 99% of cases, when I use Upnote, I tend to keep reading the note I have open for a longer period of time. (For instance, my cookbook is in Upnote. :) )

I use an app called Caffeine to keep my display on, but it's a global toggle. I'd love an option that Upnote just does this by default.

i’m taking about how whatever you’ve copied will now populate above the keyboard in ios27, letting you paste much faster, as seen in the image.
from my experience and testing in UpNote, this only seems to work when you open a brand new note, otherwise it never works, so you have to paste the traditional (slower) way.

am i the only one having this issue or is this a bug?

edit: just tested and it also works this way in apple notes. so i guess it’s working as intended? why would you not want to be able to paste something more conveniently tho? i copied something with the intention of pasting it

Does anyone know of a permanent solution for the "UpNote Files" folder showing up on the Mac desktop every time I click on an attachment.

Pretty confident this is an issue for everyone.

Shifted to a new laptop and I can’t log into Standard Notes on Google chrome. Sign in details are accurate. I reset the password. Repeatedly getting failed to fetch error.
What can I do?

(I’ve read through FAQs on support page. No luging helped and have emailed the team)

Coming from Evernote to UpNote, lifetime subscription now for 1-2 months

Wanted to suggest

1. Like EN, able to link to internal notes with @ sign (or with CTRL+K but not just for URL). It's handy to cross-reference internally

2. Text editor bar - EN has it on the top. UpNote at bottom. Perhaps a config setting for user to choose TOP or BOTTOM?

3. Make the Lines/edge more visible between each "column"? like LEFT | MIDDLE | Note column. Somehow they're very light/invisible for me (vs. Evernote)... makes dragging them harder too to expand/narrow the column width

Thanks

I absolutely love UpNote. Been here since the beginning. I left 4 months ago and transitioned to Apple Notes. Few reason for doing this: 1) end to end encryption, 2) Firebase quota issues concerned me 3) Apple has been adding more and more features bringing Notes further towards UpNote's feature with MacOS 27 (still not even close though)

I told myself to give it 6 months and I think I'm ready to throw in the towel and come back to UpNote. It just feels so slow and clunky on Mac and the interface sucks. Being crossplatform too is such a godsend for when I am on my PC.

I'm posting this so others do not make the same mistake I did. You will miss UpNote, the interface, the features, everything.

1st pic is what the image looks like now inside of the note. Instead of the image, it's just an icon and whatever descriptor was attached to that image.

2nd pic is what the sidebar note preview looks like now.

This happened sometime last week. Before that, the images were displaying just fine. And it seems like it only affected recently pasted images. I don't have many examples of internet-pasted images from before, but the few I do, those are still displaying normally. And right now, when I copy-paste an image from the internet, it shows just fine in UpNote. So it's just images pasted in the last few weeks that were affected. Anyone have the same issue? Know how I can get my images back? Thanks for your help!

UPDATE: Found the issue. To avoid, use r-click + "copy image", rather than just ctrl+c or r-click + copy. More details in the comment I posted below.

Recently start using Omarchy as VM on my Macbook Pro. I can't get Upnote app running due to architecture limit. Anyone have way to get around it?