GistPad Knowledge Manager
STDIOMCP server for managing and sharing personal knowledge and notes via GitHub Gists.
MCP server for managing and sharing personal knowledge and notes via GitHub Gists.
An MCP server for managing and sharing your personal knowledge, daily notes, and reuseable prompts via GitHub Gists. It's a companion to the GistPad VS Code extension and GistPad.dev (for web/mobile), which allows you to access and edit your gists from any MCP-enabled AI product (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Claude Desktop).
Using VS Code?
Install the GistPad extension and then reload VS Code
Note: This requires VS Code 1.101.0+, so if you're on an older version, it's time to upgrade!
Open the GistPad tab and sign-in with your GitHub account. After that, you can begin using GistPad from Copilot chat (in Agent mode) without doing any extra setup or token management 💪
Other MCP clients...
Generate a personal access token that includes only the gist scope: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new
Add the equivalent of the following to your client's MCP config file (or via an "Add MCP server" GUI/TUI):
{ "mcpServers": { "gistpad": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "gistpad-mcp"], "env": { "GITHUB_TOKEN": "<YOUR_PAT>" } } } }
Once your client it setup, you can start having fun with gists + MCP! 🥳 For example, try things like...
Exploring content
How many gists have I edited this month?What's the summary of my <foo> gist?Creating content
Create a new gist about <foo>Update my <foo> gist to call out <bar>Daily todos
What are my unfinished todos for today?Add a new todo for <foo>Collaboration
Add a comment to the <foo> gist saying <bar>Give me a share URL for the <foo> gistView my starred gistsGist organization
Archive my gist about <foo>Add a new <foo> file to the <bar> gist and migrate the <baz> content into itReusable prompts
Create a new prompt that searches the web ofor a specified manga series and then provides a summary about itDelete my prompt about <foo>list_gists - List all of your gists (excluding daily notes and archived gists).get_gist - Get the contents of a gist by ID.create_gist - Create a new gist with a specified description and initial file contents.delete_gist - Delete a gist by ID.update_gist_description - Update a gist's description by ID.duplicate_gist - Create a copy of an existing gist with all its files.refresh_gists - Reload your gist lists, ignoring any cached data.update_gist_file - Update the contents of a specific file in a gist.add_gist_file - Add a new file to an existing gist.delete_gist_file - Delete a file from a gist.rename_gist_file - Rename an existing file within a gist.get_todays_note - Get or create today's daily note.update_todays_note - Update the content of today's daily note.list_daily_notes - List all of your daily notes.get_daily_note - Get the contents of a specific daily note by date.delete_daily_note - Delete a specific daily note by date.list_starred_gists - List all your starred gists.star_gist - Star a specific gist by ID.unstar_gist - Unstar a starered gist by ID.list_archived_gists - List all of your archived gists.archive_gist - Archive one of your gists.unarchive_gist - Unarchive an archived gist.list_gist_comments - List all comments for a specified gist.add_gist_comment - Add a new comment to a gist.edit_gist_comment - Update the content of an existing comment.delete_gist_comment - Delete a comment from a gist.add_prompt - Add a new prompt to your prompts collection.delete_prompt - Delete a prompt from your collection.In addition to the above tools, the GistPad MCP server also exposes your gists as resources (using the gist:/// URI scheme), which allows clients to read them without requiring tool execution.
When you add/delete/duplicate a gist, or change a gist's description, then a notification will be provided to MCP clients, indicating that the list of resources have changed. And if your MCP client supports resource subscriptions, then you can subscribe to a specific gist and get notified when it's updated.
Additionally, for MCP clients that support resource templates, GistPad also exposes a resource at gist:///{gistId}/comments, which allows querying the comments for a gist (without needing to execute the list_gist_comments tool).
If you'd like to expose either your archived gists, starred gists, and/or daily notes as resources, then simply update your MCP server config to pass the --archived, --starred, and/or --daily flags to the gistpad-mcp CLI.
GistPad allows you to create and manage parameterized/reusable prompts that are stored as markdown files in a gist. You can manage prompts using the add_prompt and delete_prompt tool, by simply asking your MCP client to create/delete a prompt, with the specified contents/arguments you want.
Behind the scenes, prompts are stored as markdown files in a gist called 💬 Prompts (which is automatically created by the add_prompt tool). The prompt files include their prompt as the body, and optionally, a description and arguments using front-matter. And if the prompt makes use of arguments, the body of the prompt should include {{argument}} placeholders, which will be replaced when the MCP client retrieves it.
The gistpad-mcp CLI accepts the following optional flags:
--archived - Include archived gists in the list of MCP resources (Note: The list_archived_gists tool is always available)--starred - Include starred gists in the list of MCP resources (Note: The list_starred_gists tool is always available)--daily - Include daily notes in the list of MCP resources (Note: The list_daily_notes tool is always available)--markdown - Filter the list of gists that are returned, to only those that are composed of Markdown files.refresh_gists tool (e.g. running #refresh_gists in VS Code Copilot chat).