📓 GistPad MCP
An MCP server for managing and sharing your personal knowledge, daily notes, and re-useable 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).
- 🏃 Getting started
- 🛠️ Included tools
- 📁 Included resources
- 💬 Custom prompts
- 💻 CLI reference
🏃 Getting started
ℹ️ The GistPad MCP server is built using Node.js and so before you perform the following steps, you need to ensure that you've got Node.js already installed.
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": ""
}
}
}
}
Restart your MCP client (optionally, depending on the tool)
:partying_face: Start having fun with gists + MCP! For example, try things like...
1. **Exploring content**
* `How many gists have I edited this month?`
* `What's the summary of my <foo> gist?`
1. **Creating content**
* `Create a new gist about <foo>`
* `Update my <foo> gist to call out <bar>`
1. **Daily todos**
* `What are my unfinished todos for today?`
* `Add a new todo for <foo>`
1. **Collaboration**
* `Add a comment to the <foo> gist saying <bar>`
* `Give me a share URL for the <foo> gist`
* `View my starred gists`
1. **Gist organization**
* `Archive my gist about <foo>`
* `Add a new <foo> file to the <bar> gist and migrate the <baz> content into it`
🛠️ Included tools
Gist management
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.
File management
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.
Daily notes
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.
Starring
list_starred_gists - List all your starred gists.star_gist - Star a specific gist by ID.unstar_gist - Unstar a starered gist by ID.
Archiving
list_archived_gists - List all of your archived gists.archive_gist - Archive one of your gists.unarchive_gist - Unarchive an archived gist.
Comments
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.
Prompts
add_prompt - Add a new prompt to your prompts collection.delete_prompt - Delete a prompt from your collection.
📁 Included resources
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).
Resource configuration
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.
💬 Custom prompts
GistPad allows you to create and manage parameterized/re-usable 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.
💻 CLI Reference
The gistpad-mcp CLI accepts the following optional flags:
--archived - Include archived gists in the list of MCP resources (Note: Thelist_archived_gists tool is always available)--starred - Include starred gists in the list of MCP resources (Note: Thelist_starred_gists tool is always available)--daily - Include daily notes in the list of MCP resources (Note: Thelist_daily_notes tool is always available)--markdown - Filter the list of gists that are returned, to only those that are composed of Markdown files.
