Joplin MCP — Orchestration Guide

This skill covers non-obvious tool interactions. Tool parameters are already in the tool schemas — don't restate them here.

Setup

If Joplin MCP tools (e.g., ping_joplin) aren't available, the server isn't connected. Follow these steps to configure it automatically:

1. Ask the user for their Joplin API token. Tell them where to find it:

Open Joplin Desktop → Tools → Options → Web Clipper → copy the Authorization token.

1. Write `.mcp.json` to the project root with the token. Use the Write tool to create the file:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "joplin-mcp": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["--from", "joplin-mcp", "joplin-mcp-server"],
         "env": {
           "JOPLIN_TOKEN": "<paste_token_here>"
         }
       }
     }
   }

This file is already covered by .gitignore (.* rule) so it won't be committed.

1. Tell the user to restart Claude Code. The MCP server is loaded at startup, so a restart is required for the tools to appear.

1. After restart, call ping_joplin to verify the connection.

Critical: edit_note vs update_note

• `edit_note` — find/replace, append, prepend. Use this for partial changes.
• `update_note(body=...)` — replaces the entire body. Only use when you intend to rewrite the whole note.

If you need to change a paragraph, fix a typo, or append a section: always use edit_note.

Reading long notes

get_note returns a table of contents (not content) when a note exceeds ~50 lines. To read the actual content:

1. get_note(note_id) — see the TOC and line count
2. get_note(note_id, section="Section Name") — extract a specific section
3. get_note(note_id, start_line=1, line_count=50) — sequential reading by line range
4. get_note(note_id, force_full=True) — force full content (large context cost)

IDs vs names

Search results return IDs — use those IDs in subsequent calls.

Pre-check before bulk tagging

tag_note fails if the tag doesn't exist. Before tagging multiple notes:

1. create_tag("my-tag") — create it first (idempotent if it already exists)
2. Then loop: tag_note(note_id, "my-tag") for each note

Workflow recipes

Edit a long note

get_note(id)                          # see TOC + line count
get_note(id, section="Target")        # read the section you need
edit_note(id, old_string="...", new_string="...")  # surgical edit

Create a sub-notebook with notes

create_notebook("Sub")              # top-level notebook: omit parent_name
create_notebook("Sub", parent_name="Projects/Work")  # under an existing notebook (by name or path)
create_note("Title", notebook_name="Sub", body="...")

Bulk-tag notes from search

create_tag("project-x")              # ensure tag exists first
find_notes("project x")              # get note IDs
tag_note(id1, "project-x")           # tag each result
tag_note(id2, "project-x")

Move a note to a different notebook

list_notebooks()                      # find target notebook ID
update_note(note_id, notebook_id="<target_hex_id>")