Agent skill

Joplin

Orchestration guidance for Joplin note, notebook, and tag management tools

MITAuto-check passedKnowledge Management

Install Joplin

skills CLI

$ npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install alondmnt/joplin-mcp joplin --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/joplin .claude/skills/joplin && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Paste into Claude Code

Install the "joplin" agent skill from https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin into .claude/skills/joplin/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "joplin", then confirm the skill loads.

Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

$skill-installer

$skill-installer install https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin

Type this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a codex

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install alondmnt/joplin-mcp joplin --agent codex

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/joplin .agents/skills/joplin && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.

Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/

Paste into Codex

Install the "joplin" agent skill from https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin into .agents/skills/joplin/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "joplin", then confirm the skill loads.

Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a cursor

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install alondmnt/joplin-mcp joplin --agent cursor

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/joplin .cursor/skills/joplin && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.

Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/

Paste into Cursor

Install the "joplin" agent skill from https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin into .cursor/skills/joplin/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "joplin", then confirm the skill loads.

Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

gemini skills install

$ gemini skills install https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git --path skills/joplin

--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a gemini-cli

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install alondmnt/joplin-mcp joplin --agent gemini-cli

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/joplin .gemini/skills/joplin && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.

Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into Gemini CLI

Install the "joplin" agent skill from https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin into .gemini/skills/joplin/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "joplin", then confirm the skill loads.

Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install alondmnt/joplin-mcp joplin

Installs for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

skills CLI

$ npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a github-copilot

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/joplin .github/skills/joplin && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.

GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into GitHub Copilot

Install the "joplin" agent skill from https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin into .github/skills/joplin/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "joplin", then confirm the skill loads.

GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a opencode

OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install alondmnt/joplin-mcp joplin --agent opencode

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/joplin .opencode/skills/joplin && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.

OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into OpenCode

Install the "joplin" agent skill from https://github.com/alondmnt/joplin-mcp/tree/main/skills/joplin into .opencode/skills/joplin/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "joplin", then confirm the skill loads.

OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

Facts

Skill name: joplin
GitHub stars: 173
Token cost: ~897 tokens
SKILL.md length: 333 words
Files: 1
Skills in repo: 1
Repo updated: Sep 12, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: MIT

At a glance

Orchestration guidance for Joplin note, notebook, and tag management tools

Works in 4 steps: Ask the user for their Joplin API token.… → Write .mcp.json to the project root with… → Tell the user to restart Claude Code.… → …
Tasks that involve MCP servers
SKILL.md covers Setup, Critical: edit_note vs…, Reading long notes and IDs vs names, plus 2 more sections
Needs JOPLIN_TOKEN

What it does

Joplin is an agent skill from alondmnt/joplin-mcp. Orchestration guidance for Joplin note, notebook, and tag management tools

Its SKILL.md is about 900 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Knowledge Management, covering MCP servers and Note-taking. It works with Model Context Protocol. The repository describes itself as: MCP server for the Joplin note taking app. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

Tasks that involve MCP servers
Tasks that involve Note-taking

Example prompts

“/joplin”

Requirements

A credential in JOPLIN_TOKEN

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

Ask the user for their Joplin API token. Tell them where to find it
Write .mcp.json to the project root with the token. Use the Write tool to create the file
Tell the user to restart Claude Code. The MCP server is loaded at startup, so a restart is required for the tools to appear.
After restart, call ping_joplin to verify the connection.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b84c313. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are json).
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:
- JOPLIN_TOKEN
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Joplin loads about 897 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 20 tokens; SKILL.md has 333 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~20
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~897

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from alondmnt/joplin-mcp at commit b84c313, republished under its MIT licence (© alondmnt). 333 words, ~897 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/joplin/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).

name: joplin
description: Orchestration guidance for Joplin note, notebook, and tag management tools
user-invocable: true

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:

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.

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

json

{
  "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.

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

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

IDs vs names

Parameter	Accepts
`note_id`	32-char hex ID only
`notebook_name`	Human-readable name (e.g., "Work")
`tag_name`	Human-readable name (e.g., "important")
`parent_name`	Notebook name or path (e.g., "Projects/Work"); omit for top-level, `"/"` to move to top-level

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:

create_tag("my-tag") — create it first (idempotent if it already exists)
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>")

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/joplin of alondmnt/joplin-mcp.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b84c313

Compare with similar skills

Joplin next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Joplin compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
Joplin this skillalondmnt/joplin-mcp	173	—	~897	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	28 days ago
Solomdzhitongblog/solomd	1.2k	—	~2k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	today
Siyuan MCP Create Edityangtaihong59/siyuan-plugins-mcp-sisyphus	116	—	~665	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	2 days ago
AI BrainOotto-AI/claude-content-skills	130	—	~1.1k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	2 days ago
Obsidian Project Memorybrycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills	4.6k	—	~2.4k	Automated safety check: Pass	Custom licence	5 days ago
Confluence To Markdowniurykrieger/claude-bedrock	105	1 repos	~2.8k	Automated safety check: Notes	MIT	5 mo ago

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Works with

Model Context Protocol

Questions about Joplin

What does Joplin do?

Orchestration guidance for Joplin note, notebook, and tag management tools. Joplin is an agent skill from alondmnt/joplin-mcp.

When should I use Joplin?

Joplin fits situations like: tasks that involve MCP servers; tasks that involve Note-taking.

How do I install Joplin in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/joplin in alondmnt/joplin-mcp) into .claude/skills/joplin in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Joplin in Codex?

Run `npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/joplin in alondmnt/joplin-mcp) into .agents/skills/joplin in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Joplin in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add alondmnt/joplin-mcp --skill joplin -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/joplin, .gemini/skills/joplin, .github/skills/joplin and .opencode/skills/joplin in your project.

What does Joplin need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Joplin needs credentials named JOPLIN_TOKEN. Our summary lists: A credential in JOPLIN_TOKEN.

Does Joplin access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Joplin safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Joplin use?

Joplin is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Joplin use?

About 897 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Joplin?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Joplin: Solomd (zhitongblog/solomd, 1.2k stars), Siyuan MCP Create Edit (yangtaihong59/siyuan-plugins-mcp-sisyphus, 116 stars), AI Brain (Ootto-AI/claude-content-skills, 130 stars) and Obsidian Project Memory (brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills, 4.6k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Joplin?

alondmnt (a GitHub user) maintains it in alondmnt/joplin-mcp, which has 173 GitHub stars. The repository was last updated on September 12, 2026.

Source: alondmnt/joplin-mcp on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

Install Joplin

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Requirements

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

Joplin MCP — Orchestration Guide

Setup

Critical: edit_note vs update_note

Reading long notes

IDs vs names

Pre-check before bulk tagging

Workflow recipes

Edit a long note

Create a sub-notebook with notes

Bulk-tag notes from search

Move a note to a different notebook

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

Solomd

Siyuan MCP Create Edit

AI Brain

Obsidian Project Memory

Confluence To Markdown

MemPalace Memory

Related

Questions about Joplin