Using Jotzen with AI

Let your own AI assistant search and read your notes and todos, and let AI agents work in your vault, with you in control.

Memory you own, for the AI you choose

AI assistants are good at thinking but forget between conversations, and the memory they keep belongs to each vendor. Jotzen keeps that memory in your files: plain Markdown notes and todos on your computer that any assistant you choose can work with.

Jotzen runs no AI of its own and sends nothing to an AI service. Your assistant does the thinking, with your account and provider; Jotzen gives it reliable, permissioned access to your notes.

Connect your assistant (MCP)

Jotzen includes an MCP server, the standard way AI assistants such as Claude Code, Claude desktop and Codex connect to tools. It runs on your computer, started by Jotzen’s command-line tool. It is read-only until you let it write (below): then it can add notes and text and change todos, labelled as AI-written until you review them, and never delete anything.

Claude Code

claude mcp add jotzen -- node /path/to/jotzen.mjs mcp --vault ~/Notes --exclude Private

Claude desktop and other assistants

Add a server that runs the same command. In Claude desktop’s configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jotzen": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/jotzen.mjs", "mcp", "--vault", "/path/to/Notes"]
    }
  }
}

What your assistant can do

Tool	What it does
`search_notes`	Full-text search with Jotzen’s filters: tags, open or done todos, due dates, folders
`read_note`	One note’s text, title, tags, headings and links
`list_todos`	Todos across every note, by status, due date, priority, tag, person or folder
`get_backlinks`	The notes that link to a note
`recent_changes`	What changed lately, for “what happened while I was away”
`create_note`	A new note in a folder you allow (writing on)
`append_to_note`	Text added at the end of a heading’s section, or of the note (writing on)
`update_todo`	Complete, reopen or reschedule a todo, or set its priority (writing on)

Things to ask, for example:

“What’s overdue, and what’s due this week? Group it by project.”
“Summarize everything I’ve written about the garden redesign, with links to the notes.”
“What changed in my notes since Monday?”
“Which notes link to my Japan trip plan, and what’s still open there?”

You stay in control

Choose what it sees: --include <folder> and --exclude <folder> limit the server to the folders you pick. Hidden folders are never shown.
Other people’s notes stay out: notes others shared with you are excluded unless you add --allow-shared.
Every request is logged on your computer, in your vault’s .jotzen/ai-access.log: what was asked and which notes were returned. The log is never synced.
Nothing is hosted: the server runs on your computer, and your sync stays end-to-end encrypted. What your assistant reads goes to its provider under your own account, as with anything you show it.
Notes are data, not instructions: the server tells assistants never to follow instructions found inside notes.

Letting it write

Writing is off until you turn it on: Settings → AI assistants → Let AI assistants change notes, for this vault on this computer. Then your assistant can create notes, add text under a heading and change todos. It can never delete anything.

Everything it writes is labelled. The reading view shows Written by … · not reviewed above added text, and changed todos show AI.
Review it: Review in the sidebar lists the notes with AI-written text. Read them, then Mark reviewed: the labels go and the text becomes your own.
No surprises: a write is refused, changing nothing, if the note changed since the assistant read it.
The labels are hidden comments (%%ai-written by="Claude Code"%%), so the text reads normally in Obsidian and other editors.

AI agents in your vault

Because your notes are plain files, AI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex can work in your vault directly: write a summary note, tidy a project page, or add todos.

Each vault has an AGENTS.md that explains its folders and Jotzen’s todo syntax to agents, so what they write works in Jotzen. Text you add outside its marked section is kept.
Changes an agent makes appear in Jotzen at once. If you were editing the same note, Jotzen asks which version to keep instead of overwriting either.
Changes across several notes can be undone in one step, and local history keeps earlier versions of each note.
The jotzen command-line tool lets agents sync the vault from a terminal (jotzen push, pull, sync), handing the work to the app when it is open.
Link a code repository as a folder, and its Markdown docs, plans and todos sit beside your notes for both you and your agents.

Coming next (planned, not built)

Todos for agents: assign a todo to an agent, and review what it did.
Seeing the access log in the app.
Local semantic search on your computer, for the app and the MCP server.