search_notes
Search every note with Jotzen’s filters: tags, open or done todos, due dates and folders.
“Find my notes about the garden redesign.”
Your notes, ready for your AI.
AI assistants think well but forget between conversations, and the memory they keep belongs to each vendor. Jotzen keeps your memory in plain files you own, and gives the assistant you choose a safe, permissioned way to use it.
Bring your own assistant
One command, and your assistant knows your notes.
Jotzen includes an MCP server, the standard way assistants such as Claude Code, Claude desktop and Codex connect to tools. It runs on your computer and starts read-only: your assistant can search and read your notes and todos. Let it write when you’re ready.
Set it up →Example
$ claude mcp add jotzen -- \
node jotzen.mjs mcp --vault ~/Notes
> What's overdue, and what's due this week?
• jotzen · list_todos(due: "overdue")
• jotzen · list_todos(due: "week")
Overdue: Book the dentist (3 days, Home).
This week: Renew passport (Japan trip),
Draft the roadmap (Quarterly planning) …What it can do
Five tools to read, three to write.
read_note
Read a note’s text with its title, tags, headings and links.
“Summarize my Japan trip plan.”
list_todos
Todos across every note, by status, date, priority, tag, person or folder.
“What’s overdue, and what’s due this week?”
get_backlinks
Every note that links to a note, with the line of each link.
“What else connects to my quarterly plan?”
recent_changes
What changed lately, newest first.
“What happened in my notes this week?”
create_note
A new note in a folder you allow, labelled as AI-written. Writing must be on.
“Write up today’s meeting as a note in Work.”
append_to_note
Text added at the end of a heading’s section, labelled. Writing must be on.
“Add Nara to the plan section of my Japan trip.”
update_todo
Complete, reopen or reschedule a todo, or set its priority. Writing must be on.
“Mark the passport renewal done.”
You stay in control.
Jotzen runs no AI of its own and hosts nothing. What your assistant reads goes to its provider under your own account, as with anything you show it, and only what you allow.
- Choose the folders it may see, and keep the rest away from any AI.
- Notes other people shared with you stay out unless you allow them.
- Every request is logged on your computer: what was asked, and which notes were returned.
- Your sync stays end-to-end encrypted; nothing new reaches Focalward.
- Assistants are told that note text is data, never instructions.
Agents in your vault
Plain files that agents can work in.
Your notes are ordinary Markdown, so AI coding agents can write a summary, tidy a project page or add todos, right in your vault.
How agents work with Jotzen →- AGENTS.md in every vault explains its folders and todo syntax, so what agents write works in Jotzen.
- Agent edits appear at once. If you were editing the same note, Jotzen asks which version to keep.
- Undo and history cover changes across notes, and keep earlier versions.
- Sync from the terminal: agents can push and pull the vault with the
jotzencommand.
When you’re ready
Let it write, with every change labelled.
Turn on writing for a vault and your assistant can create notes, add text under a heading, and complete or reschedule todos. It can never delete anything.
How writing works →- Off until you turn it on, for each vault, in Settings.
- Labelled: added text shows “Written by Claude Code · not reviewed”, and changed todos show “AI”.
- Reviewed by you: Review lists what your assistant wrote; Mark reviewed makes it your own.
- Never overwrites: a change is refused if the note changed since the assistant read it.
Coming next
Planned, not built yet.
Todos for agents
Assign a todo to an agent, and review what it did when it’s done.
The access log in the app
See what each assistant session read, right in Jotzen.
Local semantic search
Find notes by meaning, on your computer, for you and your assistant.