TaskNotes · MCP setup

Reconnect TaskNotes to Claude Desktop

TaskNotes 4.13.0 requires authentication. Claude must send the same API token that is configured in TaskNotes.

44 seconds · silent, captioned walkthrough with typed edits. Illustrations and Linux Obsidian capture; example token only.

Download video (0.5 MB)Download example config Written instructions

Keep your real token private. Replace the placeholder only in the file on your computer. Do not post your token in an issue, screenshot or recording.

1. Copy your TaskNotes API token

In Obsidian, open Settings → TaskNotes → Integrations and scroll to HTTP API.

Make sure Enable HTTP API and Enable MCP server are on.
Copy the API authentication token and note the API port.
If you have just enabled the server, restart Obsidian. An empty token is generated when the server starts; copy that generated token.

2. Open Claude Desktop’s config

In Claude Desktop, go to Settings → Developer → Edit Config. If this opens a folder, open claude_desktop_config.json in a plain-text editor such as Notepad.

On Windows, the file is located at:

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

3. Add the matching token

Update your TaskNotes entry using the example below. Preserve any other entries already in mcpServers; do not overwrite your entire configuration if it contains other servers.

Example · replace the token placeholder and check the port

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Tasknotes": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote",
        "http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp",
        "--header", "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer YOUR_TASKNOTES_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_TASKNOTES_API_TOKEN with your current TaskNotes token. Keep Bearer , including the space after it.
Change 8080 if TaskNotes uses a different port.
Keep Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER} exactly as written. The environment variable format avoids a documented Windows argument-quoting issue.
This configuration uses npx, which comes with Node.js. If you already used mcp-remote successfully, keep your existing working command if it differs.

4. Save and restart

Save the file with Ctrl+S. Make sure it remains claude_desktop_config.json, not claude_desktop_config.json.txt.
Leave Obsidian running.
Fully quit Claude Desktop, including its system-tray process, and reopen it.
Check the TaskNotes MCP server in Claude’s Developer settings.

Why the error mentions OAuth

With a missing or stale token, TaskNotes returns an authentication error. mcp-remote then attempts OAuth client registration, which the TaskNotes plugin does not support. Older versions can display a confusing ServerError from registerClient.

The matching-token connection was verified locally with Claude Code, both directly and through mcp-remote. Windows Claude Desktop itself was not tested.

Still stuck? Share your TaskNotes version and configuration with the token removed in issue #2329.