Restora

A read-only Model Context Protocol server that exposes your local Notion backups to any MCP-capable AI agent — Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Continue, Zed, and others. Ask questions about your backed-up workspace, query databases, and read pages, all from backup files sitting on your own machine.

It's the MCP component of Restora — a Notion backup & restore tool — packaged here as a standalone, source-available server. The ready-to-run version ships inside @restora/cli as restora mcp.

Why it's safe

• Offline by default. The server makes zero outbound network calls in its default mode — every answer is read from local backup .json files. The only tool that touches the network is run_drift_audit, and it is not even registered unless you pass --allow-live. When enabled, it talks only to your own Notion — never to an LLM, never to Restora's servers.
• The AI's own model does the reasoning. This server makes no LLM calls, holds no API key, and sends no telemetry.
• Read-only, structurally. Every tool is side-effect-free. Because no tool can write, delete, or take action in Notion, backup content is treated strictly as data, not instructions — a malicious string in a backup can at worst mislead output, never cause an action.
• Path-traversal guarded. A tool's path argument must resolve inside your configured backup folder.

Tools

Tool	What it does
list_backups	List your local Restora backup files (path, date, size, database/page counts).
describe_backup	Workspace map of a backup: databases → data sources → property schema, the relations graph, and views. Start here.
query_database	Rows of one database with readable values — relations resolved to linked page titles.
get_page	One page's properties and content, rendered to Markdown or plain text.
search	Find pages by case-insensitive substring across titles, property values, and block text.
read_id_map	Summarize a restore id-map (restore-map-*.json): old → new ids, to repoint integrations after a restore.
run_drift_audit	(requires --allow-live) Compare a backup against your current Notion to find deleted/emptied databases, removed properties, and type changes. Reads your own Notion only.

Quick start (recommended)

The published package is the fastest path — no clone or build. Add this to your agent's MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "restora": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@restora/cli", "mcp"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

• Claude Desktop (macOS): ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude Desktop (Windows): %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project)

To enable the live drift-audit tool, add "--allow-live" to args. Run npx @restora/cli mcp --print-config to print a ready-to-paste config.

Build from source (this repo)

npm install
npm run build      # → dist/restora-mcp.js (single self-contained bundle, zero runtime deps)
node dist/restora-mcp.js --print-config

Point an agent at the built binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "restora": { "command": "node", "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dist/restora-mcp.js"], "env": {} }
  }
}

Flags: --file <path> (a specific backup), --dir <path> (a backups folder), --allow-live (enable run_drift_audit), --print-config (print an MCP config and exit).

Getting backups to read

This server reads Restora backup files. Create some for free with the CLI:

npx @restora/cli backup --to local

or from restora.cc. Backups are plain .json — your data stays on your machine.

License

MIT © Taha Bakri