How to Use Claude Desktop with Your Notes — MCP Setup Guide

Claude Desktop is a powerful AI assistant. SlashNote is a fast note-taking app for macOS. With MCP, they talk to each other — and your productivity gets a serious upgrade.

This guide walks you through the setup and gives you 10 prompts to start using immediately.

What You’ll Need

macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later
SlashNote installed from the Mac App Store
Claude Desktop installed from claude.ai/download

Both apps must be running for MCP to work.

Step 1: Install SlashNote

If you haven’t already, download SlashNote from the Mac App Store. Open it once — you’ll see the icon appear in your menu bar. Create a test note to make sure everything works.

SlashNote’s MCP server is included with SlashNote Pro. No extra downloads or configuration inside SlashNote needed.

Step 2: Add MCP Config to Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings:

Click Claude in the menu bar → Settings (or press Cmd+,)
Go to the Developer tab
Click Edit Config to open claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following to the file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slashnote": {
      "command": "/Applications/SlashNote.app/Contents/MacOS/slashnote-mcp"
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP servers configured, add the slashnote entry inside the existing mcpServers object:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "existing-server": {
      "command": "some-other-server"
    },
    "slashnote": {
      "command": "/Applications/SlashNote.app/Contents/MacOS/slashnote-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Save the file and restart Claude Desktop (quit and reopen).

Step 3: Verify the Connection

After restarting Claude Desktop, you should see the SlashNote MCP tools available. Try this prompt:

“List all my notes.”

If Claude responds with a list of your notes (or says you have no notes yet), the connection is working. If you see an error, check the Troubleshooting section below.

10 Prompts to Try Right Now

1. Quick capture from conversation

“Create a note titled ‘Meeting Action Items’ with the following content: Review Q1 metrics, schedule design review, update API documentation.”

Claude calls the create_note tool and your note appears in SlashNote instantly.

2. Search your notes

“Search my notes for anything related to ‘API design’.”

Claude uses search_notes and returns matching results with context.

3. Daily summary

“Read all my notes from today and write a one-paragraph summary.”

Claude lists your notes, reads each one, and synthesizes a summary.

4. Decision documentation

“Create a note documenting that we decided to use PostgreSQL instead of MongoDB for the user service. Include the reasons: better support for relational data, team familiarity, and ACID compliance.”

Perfect for capturing decisions made during AI-assisted work sessions.

5. Weekly review

“Review all my notes from the past 7 days. Group them by topic and create a new note called ‘Weekly Review’ with the summary.”

AI reads your week, identifies patterns, and creates an organized review.

6. Note cleanup

“Read all my notes. Find any that seem like duplicates or overlap significantly. List them so I can decide which to keep.”

Use AI to audit and organize your notes.

7. Extract action items

“Read all my notes from today. Extract any action items, to-dos, or tasks mentioned, and create a new note called ‘Today’s Tasks’ with a checklist.”

Turn scattered notes into a focused task list.

8. Research organization

“I’m going to paste some research findings. Create a note titled ‘Competitor Analysis’ and organize the information with headers for each competitor.”

Dictate your research to Claude and let it create a well-structured note.

9. Color-coded organization

“List all my notes. For any that mention ‘urgent’ or ‘deadline’, change their color to peach. For any about meetings, set them to blue.”

Automate visual organization across your notes.

10. Context-aware coding help

“Read my note titled ‘API Endpoints’ and then help me write the Express route handlers for each endpoint listed.”

Give Claude your design notes as context, then use that context for coding.

Advanced: Using Prompt Templates

SlashNote includes 6 prompt templates that provide structured workflows. In Claude Desktop, you can trigger them like this:

“Use the Meeting Notes template to create a note for today’s standup. Attendees: Alex, Sarah, Mike.”

Claude follows the template structure — attendees, agenda, discussion points, action items — and creates a well-formatted note.

Available templates:

meeting-notes — Meeting Notes with action items
todo-list — Project-based task generation
checklist — Step-by-step procedure
summarize-notes — Consolidate notes into summary
organize-tasks — Consolidate checkboxes by status
weekly-review — Weekly accomplishments and goals

Advanced: HTTP Bridge API

For more complex automations, SlashNote also offers an HTTP Bridge API — a REST endpoint that runs alongside the MCP server. This lets you integrate notes with scripts, webhooks, and other tools.

See the full MCP documentation for API details.

Troubleshooting

”Claude doesn’t show SlashNote tools”

Make sure SlashNote is running (check for the icon in your menu bar)
Verify the config JSON is valid (no trailing commas, correct path)
Restart Claude Desktop completely (Cmd+Q, then reopen)
Check that the path is correct: /Applications/SlashNote.app/Contents/MacOS/slashnote-mcp

”Permission denied” error

If you see a permission error, make sure SlashNote has been opened at least once and passed macOS security checks. Try opening SlashNote manually, then restart Claude Desktop.

”No notes found” when I know I have notes

The MCP server reads notes from SlashNote’s local database. If you just installed SlashNote, create a note first through the app, then try the search in Claude.

Claude asks for confirmation before using tools

This is normal. Claude Desktop shows you which MCP tool it wants to use and asks for approval. You can allow it once or allow for the entire conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this send my notes to Anthropic?

The MCP server runs locally. Your notes data goes from SlashNote’s database to Claude Desktop — both on your Mac. However, when Claude processes your notes as part of a conversation, the content is sent to Anthropic’s API as part of the conversation context, just like any other message you send to Claude.

Can Claude edit my existing notes?

Yes, Claude can use the update_note tool to modify notes. It will always ask for your confirmation before making changes.

Does this work with Claude Pro or the free tier?

MCP works with any Claude Desktop plan. The SlashNote MCP server is available with SlashNote Pro.

How many notes can Claude access?

All of them. The MCP server provides access to every note in your SlashNote database. The free tier includes unlimited notes. Pro adds MCP access, voice input, and 50 AI requests per day.

Setting up SlashNote’s MCP server with Claude Desktop takes 60 seconds and transforms how you work with notes. Instead of notes being a passive archive, they become an active part of your AI workflow.

Download SlashNote | Full MCP Documentation