Bruin

The note-taking app built for AI agents — local-first, MCP-native, human-in-the-loop.

AI agents don't just answer questions. They should read, write, and organize your knowledge — with your approval.

CI License: MIT

Mac App Store · Direct Download · bruin.me

Direct download only: if macOS shows "app is damaged": xattr -cr /Applications/Bruin.app

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Quick Start — Claude Code / OpenClaw

Tell Claude this one sentence:

Read https://bruin.me/skills.md and help me install and set up Bruin.

Claude will read the skills file, walk you through adding the MCP config, and start using your knowledge base immediately.

Or set up manually in 2 steps:

1. Add to your MCP config (auto-writes the correct config):

/Applications/Bruin.app/Contents/MacOS/bruin --write-config

This writes to ~/.claude.json. The MCP server is built into the app — no npm, no Node.js required.

2. Install the Claude Code skill (makes Claude natively understand Bruin across all sessions):

/Applications/Bruin.app/Contents/MacOS/bruin --install-skill

That's it. Claude can now write notes, run daily logs, do research capture, build knowledge graphs, and more — all through natural conversation.

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What Makes Bruin Different

Traditional Note Apps	Bruin
AI is a sidebar chatbot	AI agents have 60 MCP tools — full CRUD, search, tagging, workflows
Notes are for humans only	Notes flow through draft → review → published — agents write, humans approve
Cloud-dependent	Local-first SQLite + iCloud sync — your data never leaves your machine
Flat file lists	Knowledge graph with [[wiki-links]], backlinks, force-directed visualization

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MCP Primitives

4 Prompts — Invoke directly in Claude Code

/mcp:bruin-notes:daily_log                                  # Append to today's log
/mcp:bruin-notes:research_capture topic="AI frameworks"     # Save research from any source
/mcp:bruin-notes:weekly_review                              # Summarize the week's notes
/mcp:bruin-notes:link_knowledge note_id="<id>"             # Build wiki-links between notes

4 Resources — Reference with @bruin

Resource	Contents
bruin://notes	All notes list
bruin://notes/{id}	Single note content
bruin://tags	All tags with counts
bruin://daily	Today's daily note

60 Tools — Full reference at bruin.me/skills.md

Category	Count	Key tools
Notes & Search	16	create_note, append_to_note, search_notes, semantic_search, advanced_query
Knowledge Graph	3	get_knowledge_graph, get_forward_links, get_backlinks
Agent Registry	6	register_agent, get_agent_audit_log, set_current_agent
Workspaces	7	create_workspace, bind_agent_workspace, switch_workspace
Tasks & Workflows	10	create_task, assign_task, create_workflow_template, execute_workflow
Webhooks	6	register_webhook, test_webhook, get_webhook_logs
Settings & Export	5	get_setting, export_note_markdown, export_note_html
Utility	3	pin_note, restore_note, list_tags

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Features

Area	What you get
Editor	TipTap markdown with syntax highlighting, tables, images, slash commands
Search	FTS5 full-text + semantic search (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, auto-indexed)
Knowledge Graph	D3 force-directed visualization, backlinks, BFS traversal
Agent Registry	Register, track, and audit every agent that touches your notes
Task Management	Create, assign, and track tasks linked to notes and agents
Workflow Templates	Multi-step agent automation with variable chaining
Webhooks	HMAC-SHA256 signed callbacks with delivery logs and retry
iCloud Sync	Bidirectional sync with SHA-256 conflict resolution
6 Themes	Dark Graphite, Charcoal, Solarized, Nord, Dracula, and more

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Architecture

AI Agent ──MCP (stdio)──► MCP Server (Node.js) ──► SQLite ◄── Rust Backend ◄──IPC──► React Frontend
                                                      │
                                                 iCloud Sync
                                              (bidirectional .md files)

All three processes share the same SQLite database at ~/Library/Application Support/com.bruin.app/bruin.db. The MCP server notifies the Tauri app of changes via a trigger file that the file watcher detects.

Layer	Technology
Desktop Shell	Tauri 2
Backend	Rust, SQLite (WAL + FTS5), rusqlite
Frontend	React 19, TipTap, Zustand, D3
Agent Protocol	MCP SDK (TypeScript) — Tools + Resources + Prompts
Embeddings	@huggingface/transformers (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, local)
Sync	iCloud Drive + notify file watcher

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Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Rust (stable) via rustup
• Xcode Command Line Tools

Setup

npm install
cd mcp-server && npm install && cd ..
npm run tauri dev          # Vite + Tauri hot reload

Build

npm run tauri build        # → .dmg in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Tests

npm test                        # Frontend (Vitest)
cd mcp-server && npm test       # MCP server (96 tests)
cd src-tauri && cargo check     # Rust type check
cd src-tauri && cargo clippy    # Rust lint

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Roadmap

• iOS / iPadOS companion app (read + quick capture)
• Collaborative workspaces (multi-user, shared knowledge graphs)
• Plugin system for custom MCP tool bundles
• PDF / web clipper import with auto-tagging
• End-to-end encryption for synced notes

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Releasing

Version is tracked in three files (keep in sync): package.json, src-tauri/Cargo.toml, src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin master --tags

GitHub Actions builds .dmg for Apple Silicon and Intel, then auto-publishes to Releases. See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

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License

MIT