Connect AI assistants to Microsoft OneNote notebooks

OneNote MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI assistants with access to Microsoft OneNote. This server enables AI models to read from and write to OneNote notebooks, sections, and pages.

Project Overview

This project implements an MCP server that connects to Microsoft OneNote using the Microsoft Graph API. It provides tools for:

• Reading notebooks, sections, and pages from OneNote
• Creating new notebooks, sections, and pages in OneNote
• Converting HTML content to text for better RAG processing

Project Structure

onenote/
├── dist/                # Compiled JavaScript files (generated)
├── src/                 # TypeScript source files
│   ├── index.ts         # Main entry point and server implementation
│   └── types/           # Custom TypeScript type definitions
├── .vscode/             # VS Code configuration
│   ├── launch.json      # Debug configurations
│   └── tasks.json       # Build tasks
├── package.json         # Project dependencies and scripts
├── tsconfig.json        # TypeScript configuration
├── Dockerfile           # Docker configuration
├── .env.local.example   # Example environment variables
└── README.md            # This file

Authentication

The server uses Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) with device code flow for authentication:

1. When first run, the server generates a device code and URL
2. The code is saved to device-code.txt in the project directory
3. You must visit the URL and enter the code to authenticate
4. After authentication, tokens are cached in token-cache.json for future use

MCP Tools

The server provides the following MCP tools:

onenote-read

Read content from Microsoft OneNote notebooks, sections, or pages.

Parameters:

• type: "read_content"
• pageId: (optional) ID of the specific page to read
• sectionId: (optional) ID of the section to list pages from
• notebookId: (optional) ID of the notebook to list sections from
• includeContent: (optional) Whether to include the content of the page (default: true)
• includeMetadata: (optional) Whether to include metadata about the page (default: false)

onenote-create

Create new content in Microsoft OneNote.

Parameters:

• type: "create_page", "create_section", or "create_notebook"
• title: Title of the content to create
• content: Content in HTML format (for pages)
• parentId: (optional) ID of the parent section or notebook

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• npm (v6 or higher)
• Microsoft Azure account with a registered application
• OneNote account (Microsoft 365 subscription)

Azure Setup

1. Register a new application in the Azure Portal
2. Add the following API permissions:
   • Microsoft Graph > Notes.Read
   • Microsoft Graph > Notes.ReadWrite
3. Configure authentication:
   • Under "Authentication" settings, set "Supported account types" to:
     • "Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Microsoft Entra ID tenant - Multitenant) and personal Microsoft accounts (e.g. Skype, Xbox)"
   • Enable "Allow public client flows" for the app
4. Note your Application (client) ID for configuration

Installation

1. Clone the repository
2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env.local file with your Azure client ID:

CLIENT_ID=your-client-id-from-azure

Development

To run the application in development mode:

npm run dev

Building

To compile TypeScript to JavaScript:

npm run build

Running

To run the compiled application:

npm start

Docker Support

You can build and run the application using Docker:

# Create a data directory for persistence
mkdir -p data

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t onenote-mcp-server .

# Run the container
docker run -d \
  --name onenote-mcp-server \
  -e CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
  -v $(pwd)/data:/app/dist \
  onenote-mcp-server

Authentication with Docker

When running in Docker, the authentication flow works as follows:

1. Start the container as shown above
2. Check the device code file:

   cat data/device-code.txt
   

3. Follow the instructions to authenticate with Microsoft
4. The token will be cached in data/token-cache.json for future use

Setup with Claude Desktop

1. Clone this repository

2. Run npm install to install dependencies

3. In Claude Desktop, add a new MCP server:

   • Set the server directory to your cloned repository
   • Set the command to: npm run build && npm start
   • Add the following environment variable:
     • Name: CLIENT_ID
     • Value: [Your Microsoft Azure Application Client ID]

4. Save the configuration and connect to the server.

   Find the file location (claude_desktop_config.json):

   The file is typically located at:

   On Mac OS (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json)

   On Windows (C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json)

Authentication Flow

1. On first run, the server will generate a device code and URL
2. The code is saved to device-code.txt in the project directory
3. Visit the URL and enter the code to authenticate
4. After authentication, tokens are cached in token-cache.json
5. Subsequent runs will use the cached token if valid

Troubleshooting

• Authentication Issues: Delete token-cache.json to force re-authentication
• Module Errors: Ensure you're using Node.js 14+ with ES modules support
• TypeScript Errors: Run npm run build to check for compilation errors