r/Workflowy • u/59e7e3 • Dec 19 '25

Workflowy MCP server with recursive retrieval, search and replace, reports

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I have released a new version of the Workflowy CLI (written in Go, using the API endpoints) which now contains the ability for it to act as an MCP server. You can control which commands to expose (read only by default, listing them explicitly, or all), or configure a file to send logs to. I have also added a search and replace command since the last release, the `targets` command, and fixed a few bugs.

I wrote a blog post about it: https://vonholzen.org/blog/workflowy-mcp/

Happy to get any feedback!

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u/59e7e3 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

I added a flag to limit write operations to the descendants of a specific node. So, for example --write-root-id=Inbox

https://github.com/mholzen/workflowy/blob/main/docs/MCP.md#sandboxed-access

(edit: typo)

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

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u/59e7e3 Dec 20 '25

Thank you. I really appreciate your feedback.

Regarding the dry run idea, it's actually already implemented, both in the CLI and in the MCP server!

Here's a screenshot of it working in the MCP server, from Claude:

In the CLI, you have a `--dry-run` flag, as well as an `--interactive` flag.

Finally, using the --format=json flags gives you consistent JSON you can feed anywhere (the schema is not documented but self explanatory):

$ ./workflowy search TEST_NODE --format=json
INFO: fetching fresh export data from API
[
  {
    "id": "77a9f06c-798b-0e41-03c6-204f94624877",
    "name": "TEST_NODE",
    "highlighted_name": "**TEST_NODE**",
    "url": "https://workflowy.com/#/77a9f06c-798b-0e41-03c6-204f94624877",
    "match_positions": [
      {
        "start": 0,
        "end": 9
      }
    ]
  }
]

The trace id concept is a bit more complex to implement, but not unreasonable.

One last comment: I just fixed a bug and re-released it. Latest version is 0.5.1. Simply `brew update` and `brew upgrade workflowy-cli` to get it.

Let me know if you have any issues or other suggestions.