Emacs Org Mode Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that enables Claude to manage Emacs org-mode task lists, journal entries, and projects.

I use Emacs org-mode for organising myself. This mainly revolves around three things: tasks.org as a tracked task list (active and completed), a journal/ directory of daily journal files, and projects/ — one file per project — for longer-running work. Over time I have been leveraging Claude for bookkeeping and context-linking: reminding me to update a task, suggesting a journal entry, or noting what I worked on since the last summary.

Claude was surprisingly capable at working with org-mode files directly, but as those files grew it started hitting token limits. A dedicated MCP solves that: tools return only the data Claude needs, structure is maintained correctly, and there is a built-in visual approval step via Emacs ediff before any write lands on disk.

Token Efficiency

Operation	Without MCP (Read/Edit)	With MCP
Find a task	Read entire tasks.org (1000+ lines)	Returns only the matching task
Search tasks	Read file, Claude parses	Returns only matching results
List tasks	Read entire file	Returns structured list
Update task	Read file, generate Edit	Send task content, ediff for approval

Input tokens — raw file contents never enter the conversation context. Output tokens — Claude passes parameters to the MCP rather than generating careful string-matched Edit calls. Context accumulation — MCP responses are much smaller than repeated file reads over a long conversation.

There is also a reliability benefit: the MCP handles org-mode parsing correctly every time, whereas Claude occasionally makes formatting errors with raw Edit operations.

Features

• Task Management (~/org/tasks.org)

  • List, create, update, search, and move tasks
  • Automatic section movement when status changes (TODO → DONE)
  • Find tasks by :CUSTOM_ID:, ticket ID (e.g. GH-123), or headline
  • Auto-maintained High Level Tasks checklist
  • Visual approval via Emacs ediff before writes

• Journal Management (~/org/journal/)

  • List, create, update, and search journal entries
  • Date-based file organisation (YYYYMMDD format)
  • Tag support (:daily_summary:, :meeting:, etc.)
  • Visual approval via Emacs ediff before writes

• Project Management (~/org/projects/)

  • One org file per project (<slug>.org)
  • List, create, update, and search projects
  • Section-level updates (avoids rewriting entire files)
  • Cross-linking between projects, tasks, and journal entries
  • Auto-maintained index.org with all projects grouped by status
  • Status values: active, planning, on-hold, completed

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• uv for package management
• Emacs org-mode files in ~/org/

Installation

cd ~/projects/emacs-org-mcp

# Install dependencies
uv sync

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Prerequisites:

1. Ensure uv is in your PATH. Claude Desktop spawns processes without a login shell and may not inherit your shell's PATH. Use the full path to uv (e.g. /Users/yourname/.local/bin/uv) or add it to a system-wide location.

2. Create the virtual environment first:

   cd /path/to/emacs-org-mcp
   make sync   # or: uv sync
   

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emacs-org": {
      "command": "/Users/yourname/.local/bin/uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory", "/path/to/emacs-org-mcp",
        "run", "server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ORG_DIR": "/path/to/org"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: Replace /Users/yourname/.local/bin/uv with the output of which uv. If uv is reliably in your PATH you can use just "uv".

Claude Code

Add to user scope (available across all projects):

claude mcp add --scope user emacs-org \
  -- uv --directory /path/to/emacs-org-mcp run server.py

Or use the Makefile:

make mcp-install

Or edit ~/.claude.json directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emacs-org": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory", "/path/to/emacs-org-mcp",
        "run", "server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables

All settings can be overridden via environment variables or command-line flags:

Variable / Flag	Default	Description
ORG_DIR / --org-dir	~/org	Base org directory
JOURNAL_DIR / --journal-dir	$ORG_DIR/journal	Journal files directory
PROJECTS_DIR / --projects-dir	$ORG_DIR/projects	Project files directory
ACTIVE_SECTION / --active-section	Tasks	Section name for active/TODO tasks
COMPLETED_SECTION / --completed-section	Completed Tasks	Section name for completed/DONE tasks
HIGH_LEVEL_SECTION / --high-level-section	High Level Tasks (in order)	Section name for the high-level task checklist
EMACS_EDIFF_APPROVAL / --ediff-approval / --no-ediff-approval	true	Visual approval via Emacs ediff
EMACSCLIENT_PATH / --emacsclient-path	(searches PATH)	Custom path to emacsclient (optional)

Ediff Approval

By default, all create and update operations present changes visually in Emacs using ediff before applying them. A new Emacs frame opens with a side-by-side diff; you can edit the proposed content (Buffer B) before approving.

Controls (from the ediff control buffer):

Key	Action
C-c C-y	Approve — apply changes
C-c C-k	Reject — discard changes
q	Quit — approves by default

The frame and all buffers close automatically after your decision. If emacsclient is not available or Emacs is not running, the server falls back to auto-approve.

To disable ediff approval:

uv run server.py --no-ediff-approval
# or set EMACS_EDIFF_APPROVAL=false in the MCP server env

Available Tools

Task Tools (7)

Tool	Description
list_tasks	List all tasks in a section (Tasks or Completed Tasks)
get_task	Get a task by :CUSTOM_ID:, ticket ID, or headline substring
create_task	Create a new task from a complete org-formatted string
update_task	Replace a task; auto-moves between sections on status change
move_task	Move a task between sections without changing content
search_tasks	Search tasks by keyword across all sections

Journal Tools (5)

Tool	Description
list_journal_entries	List entries for a date (defaults to today)
get_journal_entry	Get an entry by time (HH:MM) or headline substring
create_journal_entry	Create a new journal entry
update_journal_entry	Update an existing entry
search_journal	Search entries across recent days

Project Tools (7)

Tool	Description
list_projects	List all projects, optionally filtered by status
get_project	Get a project by slug, :CUSTOM_ID:, or title substring
create_project	Create a new project file from a complete org-formatted string
update_project	Update project sections, properties, headline, or tags
search_projects	Search across all project files
link_task_to_project	Add a task link to a project's Related Tasks section
regenerate_project_index	Rebuild index.org from all project files

Other

Tool	Description
diagnostic_env	Show server configuration and file paths

MCP Resources

The server exposes resources that Claude can read directly for format documentation and live data:

Resource URI	Description
emacs-org://guide/task-format	Task format specification
emacs-org://guide/journal-format	Journal entry format specification
emacs-org://guide/project-format	Project file format and cross-linking guide
org://tasks/active	Live view of active tasks
org://tasks/completed	Live view of completed tasks
org://journal/today	Today's journal entries
org://projects/index	All projects grouped by status

Configuring CLAUDE.md

Add this section to your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md to instruct Claude to use the MCP server for all org-mode operations:

## Emacs Org-Mode (Journal, Tasks, Projects)

**CRITICAL: Always use the `mcp__emacs-org__*` MCP tools** for all journal,
task, and project operations. Never use Read/Write/Edit tools or bash commands
directly on these files.

### Format Reference

The MCP server exposes authoritative format guides as resources:
- `emacs-org://guide/journal-format`
- `emacs-org://guide/task-format`
- `emacs-org://guide/project-format`

Claude will fetch the detailed format documentation from those resources when needed, so you do not need to duplicate it in CLAUDE.md.

Testing

# Run all tests
make test

# Verify the server responds to tools/list
make test-mcp

License

MIT