Outerline Outerline

Claude Connector

The Outerline for Mac Claude Connector connects your Outerline library to Claude Desktop in one click. Once installed, Claude can read, search, create, and edit your markdown notes directly in conversation — no manual configuration required.

Requirements

Installation

The connector is bundled with Outerline. From the menu bar, choose Help → Advanced → Install Claude Connector. Claude Desktop will open and show an installation prompt.

  1. Review the permissions and click Install.
  2. That's it. Claude Desktop will handle the rest, including launching the MCP server in the background whenever you start a conversation.

What the Connector Does

The connector installs Outerline's MCP server as a Claude Desktop Extension. Once connected, Claude can use the following capabilities directly in your conversations:

  • Read notes from your library by path or title
  • Search across all documents by keyword or tag
  • Create new notes and append to existing ones
  • Create empty folders and missing parents with create_folder
  • Rename or move a folder, or both, with edit_folder, preserving its contents and stable links
  • Edit documents, replace sections, or rewrite content
  • Set or clear custom display titles, and manage tags, tag colors, and stars
  • Inspect outlines, backlinks, links, highlights, notes, and selected-text comments
  • Create comments anchored to exact selected text and copy stable links back to them
  • Browse and restore version history snapshots
  • Generate outerline:// deep links to documents, headings, and lines
  • Read the document and text selection you currently have open in Outerline

For a full reference of every available tool, see the MCP Guide.

Example Workflows

Once the connector is installed, you can talk to Claude about your notes the same way you would about anything else. A few ideas to get started:

The "What was I thinking?"

Prompt: "Look at my Outerline notes from the last week and give me a quick summary of what I've been working on."

Great for Monday mornings or after time away from a project.

The "Journal Companion"

Prompt: "I want to reflect on today. Ask me a few questions, then append my answers to my Journal/2026 note under today's date."

Turns Claude into a gentle journaling prompt without leaving the conversation.

The "Recipe Rescue"

Prompt: "Find the pasta recipe I saved a few months ago — I think it had anchovies in it — and pull up the ingredient list."

Search across your library by vague memory instead of exact filenames.

The "Reading Roundup"

Prompt: "Look at all my notes tagged #book and tell me which themes keep coming up across what I've been reading this year."

A book club for one, powered by your own highlights and notes.

The "Idea Connector"

Prompt: "Look at the note I have open and find anything else in my library that touches the same ideas. Give me a short list with one line each on why they're related."

Surfaces forgotten notes you'd never think to search for.

The "Trip Planner"

Prompt: "I'm going to Lisbon next month. Pull together everything in my Outerline library that mentions Lisbon or Portugal — restaurant tips, things to do, anything friends sent me — into a single trip note."

Stitches scattered notes into one ready-to-pack document.

The "Inbox Sorter"

Prompt: "My Inbox note has gotten messy. Read through it and suggest where each item should live in my library — and create the new notes if I say go."

Helps you keep a quick-capture habit without the cleanup guilt.

The "Time Capsule"

Prompt: "Find the earliest version of my Goals/2026 note and tell me what's changed since I first wrote it."

Uses version history to reflect on how your thinking has evolved.

The "Lost Paragraph"

Prompt: "I had a paragraph in my novel chapter about a thunderstorm — I think I deleted it last week. Can you find it and show it to me?"

Recover writing you cut and later wished you hadn't.

The "Marketing Scout"

Prompt: "Read my Release Notes draft and highlight in green any feature that would make a good user-facing post. Highlight in pink anything that's too technical to lead with. Add a short note on each green highlight suggesting an angle I could post about."

A creative use of color-coded highlights and notes — Claude marks up the document directly so you can scan it back in Outerline and pick what to write about.

Your Data

Your library stays local on disk. The connector runs entirely on your Mac — no data is sent to Outerline's servers. Claude only reads a document when you explicitly ask it to during a conversation.

For more on how Claude Desktop handles local MCP servers, see the Claude Help Center.

About the .mcpb Format

Claude Desktop Extensions use the .mcpb format — a packaging standard created by Anthropic that bundles an MCP server and all its dependencies into a single installable file. When you install a .mcpb, Claude Desktop unpacks and manages it locally, including handling updates automatically.

There is no need to install Node.js, edit configuration files, or restart anything manually. Claude Desktop ships with everything needed to run the server.

For more on the format, see Anthropic's Desktop Extensions overview.

Using Outerline with Claude Code

The Claude Connector is for Claude Desktop only. If you use Claude Code or another MCP-compatible CLI tool, Outerline includes a separate built-in MCP server for that workflow. See the MCP Guide for setup instructions.

Troubleshooting

Claude doesn't seem to know about my notes

Make sure Outerline is running and your library is open. The MCP server requires Outerline to be active to access your documents. If Claude reports it cannot find the Outerline tool, try restarting Claude Desktop.

Claude Desktop doesn't open when I click Install

Make sure you have Claude Desktop installed and have launched it at least once so macOS recognizes it as the handler for .mcpb files.

I need to uninstall the connector

Open Claude Desktop, go to Settings → Extensions, find the Outerline connector, and click Remove.