Things MCP Server

This Model Context Protocol (MCP) server lets you use Claude Desktop to interact with your task management data in Things 3 from Cultured Code. You can ask Claude to create tasks, analyze projects, help manage priorities, and more.

This server leverages the Things.py library and the Things URL Scheme.

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Features

• Access to all major Things lists (Inbox, Today, Upcoming, etc.)
• Project and area management
• Tag operations
• Advanced search capabilities
• Recent items
• Detailed item information including checklists
• Support for nested data (projects within areas, todos within projects)
• Someday project filtering: tasks in Someday projects are automatically excluded from Today, Upcoming, and Anytime views, matching Things UI behavior

Available Tools

List Views

• get-inbox - Get todos from Inbox
• get-today - Get todos due today
• get-upcoming - Get upcoming todos
• get-anytime - Get todos from Anytime list
• get-someday - Get todos from Someday list, including tasks in Someday projects
• get-logbook - Get completed todos
• get-trash - Get trashed todos

Basic Operations

• get-todos - Get todos, optionally filtered by project
• get-projects - Get all projects
• get-areas - Get all areas

Tag Operations

• get-tags - Get all tags
• get-tagged-items - Get items with a specific tag
• get-tag-usage - Report how many items use each tag, sorted by usage; flag unused tags for cleanup

Search Operations

• search-todos - Simple search by title/notes
• search-advanced - Advanced search with multiple filters

Time-based Operations

• get-recent - Get recently created items

Things URL Scheme Operations

• add-todo - Create a new todo
• add-project - Create a new project
• add-area - Create a new Area (via AppleScript; Things URL scheme has no add-area command)
• update-area - Update an existing Area: rename or set tags (via AppleScript)
• update-todo - Update an existing todo
• bulk-update-todos - Apply the same update to many todos in a single operation
• update-project - Update an existing project
• show-item - Show a specific item or list in Things
• search-items - Search for items in Things

Tool Parameters

Pagination (most read tools)

The list/search read tools (get-inbox, get-today, get-upcoming, get-anytime, get-someday, get-logbook, get-trash, get-todos, get-projects, get-areas, get-tags, get-tagged-items, get-headings, search-todos, search-advanced, get-recent) accept optional pagination:

• limit - Maximum number of items to return (default: all; get-logbook defaults to 50)
• offset - Number of items to skip from the start (default: 0)

When neither is set, output is unchanged. When set, a Showing X-Y of Z items header is prepended so you know how much more there is. An offset past the end is reported distinctly from an empty result.

These same read tools also return structured content alongside the human-readable text: MCP clients receive the raw item dicts plus count/total/offset/limit under structured_content, so data can be consumed programmatically without parsing the formatted text.

get-todos

• project_uuid (optional) - Filter todos by project
• include_items (optional, default: true) - Include checklist items

get-projects / get-areas / get-tags

• include_items (optional, default: false) - Include contained items

search-advanced

• status - Filter by status (incomplete/completed/canceled)
• start_date - Filter by start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• deadline - Filter by deadline (YYYY-MM-DD)
• tag - Filter by tag
• area - Filter by area UUID
• type - Filter by item type (to-do/project/heading)
• last - Filter by creation date (e.g., '3d' for last 3 days, '1w' for last week)

get-recent

• period - Time period (e.g., '3d', '1w', '2m', '1y')

get-logbook

• period (optional, default: '7d') - Look-back window by completion date. Accepts d/w/m/y (e.g., '3d', '1w', '2m', '1y'); months ≈ 30 days, years ≈ 365 days
• limit (optional, default: 50) - Maximum number of completed items to return

get-tag-usage

• only_unused (optional, default: false) - Return only tags that no item references (cleanup candidates)

update-todo (checklist & tags)

• tags - Replace all tags on the todo
• add_tags - Append tags without removing existing ones
• checklist_items - Replace the entire checklist with this list
• prepend_checklist_items - Add these items to the top of the checklist
• append_checklist_items - Add these items to the bottom of the checklist

bulk-update-todos

Applies the same change to every todo in ids in a single operation. Requires the Things auth token to be enabled (Things → Settings → General → Enable Things URLs → Manage); the server reads it automatically.

• ids (required) - List of todo UUIDs to update
• list / list_id - Move all into a project/area (by title or UUID)
• tags / add_tags - Replace or append tags on all
• when - Reschedule all (keyword or YYYY-MM-DD)
• deadline - Set deadline on all (YYYY-MM-DD)
• heading / heading_id - Move all under a heading (by title or UUID)
• completed / canceled - Mark all completed or canceled

Scheduling with Reminders (add-todo, add-project, update-todo, update-project)

• when - Accepts multiple formats:
  • Keywords: today, tomorrow, evening, anytime, someday
  • Date: YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2024-01-15)
  • DateTime with reminder: YYYY-MM-DD@HH:MM (e.g., 2024-01-15@14:30)

Development

Running Tests

The project includes a comprehensive unit test suite for the URL scheme and formatter modules.

# Install test dependencies
uv sync --extra test

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run tests with verbose output
uv run pytest -v

# Run a specific test file
uv run pytest tests/test_url_scheme.py

# Run tests matching a pattern
uv run pytest -k "test_add_todo"

MCP Integration Test

The project includes an integration test plan that can be executed by Claude (via Claude Cowork or Claude Code) to verify all MCP tools work correctly against a live Things database.

See docs/mcp_integration_test_plan.md for the full test plan.

Project Structure

things-mcp/
├── src/things_mcp/      # Main package
│   ├── __init__.py      # Package exports
│   ├── __main__.py      # Entry point for python -m
│   ├── server.py        # MCP server implementation
│   ├── url_scheme.py    # Things URL scheme implementation
│   └── formatters.py    # Data formatting utilities
├── tests/               # Unit tests
│   ├── conftest.py      # Test fixtures and configuration
│   ├── test_url_scheme.py
│   ├── test_formatters.py
│   ├── test_someday_filtering.py
│   └── test_mcp_server_filtering.py
├── docs/                # Documentation
│   └── mcp_integration_test_plan.md  # Claude-executable integration test
├── manifest.json        # MCPB package manifest
├── build_mcpb.sh        # MCPB package build script
├── pyproject.toml       # Project dependencies, build config, and pytest config
├── .env.example         # Sample environment configuration
└── run.sh               # Convenience runner script

HTTP Transport

By default, the server uses stdio transport for communication with MCP clients. For remote access scenarios, you can run the server with HTTP transport.

Configuration

Set these environment variables to enable HTTP transport:

Example

# Using uvx
THINGS_MCP_TRANSPORT=http THINGS_MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 THINGS_MCP_PORT=8000 uvx things-mcp

# Or from source
THINGS_MCP_TRANSPORT=http THINGS_MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 THINGS_MCP_PORT=8000 uv run things-mcp

See .env.example for a sample configuration file.

Installation

Prerequisites

• macOS (Things 3 is Mac-only)
• Things 3 app with "Enable Things URLs" turned on (Settings → General)
• A MCP client, such as Claude Desktop or Claude Code
• uv Python package manager: brew install uv

Install via uvx (Any MCP Client)

Things MCP is published on PyPI and can be run directly with uvx:

uvx things-mcp

Configure your MCP client to use uvx with things-mcp as the argument.

Claude Desktop

Option 1: One-Click Install (Recommended)

1. Download the latest file from the releases page
2. Double-click the .mcpb file
3. Done!

Option 2: Manual Config

1. Go to Claude → Settings → Developer → Edit Config
2. Add the Things server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "things": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["things-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

3. Save and restart Claude Desktop

Claude Code

claude mcp add-json things '{"command":"uvx","args":["things-mcp"]}'

To make it available globally (across all projects), add -s user:

claude mcp add-json -s user things '{"command":"uvx","args":["things-mcp"]}'

Verify it's working

After installation:

• If using Claude Desktop, you should see "Things MCP" in the "Search and tools" list
• Try asking: "What's in my Things inbox?"

Sample Usage with Claude Desktop

• "What's on my todo list today?"
• "Create a todo to pack for my beach vacation next week, include a packing checklist."
• "Evaluate my current todos using the Eisenhower matrix."
• "Help me conduct a GTD-style weekly review using Things."
• "Show me tasks that haven't been modified in over a month."

Tips

• Create a project in Claude with custom instructions that explains how you use Things and organize areas, projects, tags, etc. Tell Claude what information you want included when it creates a new task (eg asking it to include relevant details in the task description might be helpful).
• Try adding another MCP server that gives Claude access to your calendar. This will let you ask Claude to block time on your calendar for specific tasks, create todos from upcoming calendar events (eg prep for a meeting), etc.
• Use task ages to identify stale items: "Which tasks in my Anytime list are older than 2 weeks?"

Troubleshooting

If it's not working:

1. Make sure Things 3 is installed and has been opened at least once

   • The Things database needs to exist for the server to work

2. Check that "Enable Things URLs" is turned on

   • Open Things → Settings → General → Enable Things URLs

3. Claude Desktop can't find uvx

   • Install uv globally with Homebrew (brew install uv)
   • Alternative: Use the full path to uvx in your config. Find it with which uvx (typically /Users/USERNAME/.local/bin/uvx)