Your handwriting, inside your AI assistant.
Penlo MCP connects your handwritten notes to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI assistants. Ask about anything you wrote on your e-ink tablet, and get answers that point back to the page.
Start free
Works with the AI you already use
Penlo MCP is a standard Model Context Protocol server. Connect it once and your assistant can search and read your notes whenever you ask.
Search every page
Your assistant searches the text of every notebook, with phrases, excluded words and date ranges like “last week”.
Find a notebook by name
Say “my Q4 planning notebook” and the assistant finds it, even from part of the title or file name.
See what's new
Your most recent notebooks with their AI summaries, for a quick “what did I write this week?”.
Read a whole notebook
The full transcribed text, page by page, so the assistant can summarize it, turn it into tasks or draft from it.
See it in a chat
Ask in your own words. Your assistant picks the right Penlo tool and answers from your pages. Pick an example to see it.
Set up once
Connected in about a minute
No API key to copy and no file to install. Your assistant signs in to Penlo like any other app.
- 1
Copy the address
https://notes.penlo.app/api/mcp, the same for every assistant.
- 2
Add a connector
Paste it as a custom connector in Claude or ChatGPT, or as an MCP server in your editor.
- 3
Sign in and Allow
Penlo asks you to approve the assistant. Nothing is shared until you do.
- 4
Ask about your notes
Mention your notes or a notebook, and the assistant uses Penlo when it needs to.
Connect your assistant
One address works everywhere: https://notes.penlo.app/api/mcp. The exact steps for each app are in Penlo under Settings › AI assistants & API.
Claude
Settings › Connectors › Add custom connector. Name it Penlo, paste the address, sign in and click Allow. Works on web and desktop.
ChatGPT
Settings › Apps & Connectors › Advanced: turn on Developer mode, create a connector with the address and choose OAuth.
Claude Code and Cursor
Run one command in Claude Code, or add the address to Cursor's mcp.json. Sign in once and it's ready.
Private by design
Your assistant only sees what it asks for, only while you allow it, and can never change a thing.
Read-only
Penlo MCP can search and read your notes. It can't edit, delete, share or export anything.
You approve each assistant
Every connection starts with you signing in to Penlo and clicking Allow. Access expires after 90 days.
Disconnect in one click
See every connected assistant, and when it last read your notes, in Settings › AI assistants & API.
Part of the Power plan.
Penlo MCP comes with Power, together with Penlo AI chat, unlimited OCR pages, the REST API and webhooks. Every new account starts with a free trial, so you can connect your assistant today.
Prefer an API key? Claude Desktop also installs Penlo from a one-click extension file, found in the same Settings tab.
See plansQuestions about Penlo MCP
What people ask before they connect.
Can't find what you're looking for? Contact our support team
Which plan do I need?
Penlo MCP is part of the Power plan. New accounts start with a free trial that includes it, so you can try it with your own notes first.
Does Penlo send my notes to OpenAI or Anthropic?
Penlo doesn't. When your assistant asks, Penlo returns the matching note text to it, and the assistant processes it with its own AI provider, under that provider's terms. Nothing is sent until you connect an assistant and ask about your notes.
Can the assistant change or delete my notes?
No. Penlo MCP is read-only: it can search notebooks and read their text, nothing else.
Which notes can it see?
Notebooks Penlo has finished reading. Notebooks from sources you hide in Settings › Sources are left out, and so are notebooks you've deleted from Penlo.
Which assistants work with it?
Claude (web and desktop), ChatGPT with Developer mode, Claude Code, Cursor and any other app that supports remote MCP servers with sign-in. Claude Desktop can also use the one-click extension file with an API key.