Connect Claude or another AI assistant to your to-do list with MCP

By Basil, maker of Alcove · Updated 28 October 2026 · 7 min read

Short answer

On the Mac, open Alcove's settings, go to MCP and turn on the local MCP server. Copy MCP config gives you a snippet to add to Claude Desktop, Cursor or another local assistant app, and Claude Code takes one command. The first time the assistant connects it waits for your approval, you choose whether it may read, create, update or delete, and every request appears in an activity log.

Sometimes I'd rather say what I need than click through it. "Move everything tagged #finance to next week." "What's still open on the launch list?" With the Model Context Protocol, an AI assistant can do that kind of thing with your real tasks, as long as you've said it may.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI assistant apps use tools provided by other apps. Alcove's Mac app (Alcove: Tasks & Notes on the App Store) includes a small MCP server. When it's on, an assistant you've approved can call Alcove's tools, such as list_tasks, create_task, update_task, complete_task and create_note, to work with your lists, tags and notes. There are 40 tools, including ones for boards and for reading files and pictures, and each is marked with the permission it needs. Assistants can also set reminder types.

How do you connect an assistant to Alcove?

Open Alcove ▸ Settings on the Mac and choose MCP.
Turn on Local MCP server. It's off until you turn it on.
Click Copy MCP config and add the snippet to your assistant app, as described for each app below.
Ask the assistant something about your tasks. The first time it connects, Alcove shows it as waiting and asks for your approval.
Approve it, and choose what it may do. A new assistant starts with read access only.

Alcove's MCP settings with the Local MCP server switched on and a connected client called claude-code allowed to read, create and update, with delete switched off — The MCP pane: the server switch, and each connected assistant with its own permissions.

AI assistants come with Alcove Unlock, and work during its free 14-day trial. On the free version the server answers every request by saying so, and nothing is read or changed.

Which assistant apps work?

Alcove's server is a local program that the assistant app starts on your Mac, so it works with apps that can start local MCP servers. The setup steps below come from each app's own documentation.

App	Can use Alcove's server	Where to add it
Claude Desktop (Mac)	Yes	Settings, Developer, Edit Config
Claude Code	Yes	One `claude mcp add` command
Cursor	Yes, as a local server	`~/.cursor/mcp.json`
VS Code with GitHub Copilot	Yes, as a local server	`~/.copilot/mcp-config.json`, or the MCP: Add Server command
Zed	Yes, as a local server	Settings, AI, MCP Servers, Add Local Server
Claude on the web, iPhone and iPad	No	They reach servers over the internet
ChatGPT	No	It reaches servers over the internet

Claude Desktop

In Claude Desktop, open Settings from the Claude menu in the menu bar, choose Developer and click Edit Config. This opens claude_desktop_config.json, in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/.
Paste the snippet from Copy MCP config. If the file already has an mcpServers section, add only the alcove entry inside it, so there's one mcpServers section in all.
Quit Claude Desktop completely and open it again, then ask it about your tasks and approve it in Alcove.

Local servers added this way work in Claude Desktop's chats. Anthropic says they aren't available in Cowork or in Claude on the web.

Claude Code

Run this once in Terminal:

claude mcp add --scope user alcove -- /Applications/Alcove.app/Contents/MacOS/alcove-mcp

That's the path if Alcove is in your Applications folder; Copy MCP config shows the exact one. --scope user makes Alcove available in every project; leave it out to add it to the current project only. Run claude mcp get alcove, or /mcp inside Claude Code, to check that it connected. Alcove lists it as claude-code under Connected clients.

Cursor, VS Code and Zed

Cursor: paste the snippet from Copy MCP config into ~/.cursor/mcp.json to use Alcove in every project, or into .cursor/mcp.json in one project.
VS Code with GitHub Copilot: paste the snippet into ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json for every workspace, or .mcp.json at a project's root. Both take the same mcpServers format. You can also run MCP: Add Server from the Command Palette and give it the path to alcove-mcp.
Zed: open Settings, then AI, then MCP Servers, click Add Server, choose Add Local Server and enter the path to alcove-mcp as the command. Zed's settings file uses context_servers rather than mcpServers, so let the dialog write it.

Why ChatGPT and Claude's phone app can't connect

Claude on the web and on your phone, and ChatGPT, connect to MCP servers over the internet. OpenAI's documentation asks for a public HTTPS address or its Secure MCP Tunnel, a developer tool set up through an OpenAI Platform account. Alcove's server has no internet address: it's a program on your Mac that talks only to the app that started it, which is what keeps the connection on your Mac. To-do apps with remote servers, such as Todoist and TickTick, do work there; see to-do apps that work with Claude for the full comparison.

What can the assistant do?

That's up to you. Each assistant has four permissions you can switch on or off:

Permission	Lets the assistant
Read	See your tasks, lists, tags and notes
Create	Add new tasks, lists, tags and notes
Update	Change tasks, finish them, move them between lists and reorder them
Delete	Remove tasks and other items

Read only gives an assistant read access and nothing else, and Block refuses every request it makes. The Tools exposed list in the same pane shows which permission each tool needs, so there are no surprises.

Can you see what the assistant did?

Yes. Every request is written to the activity log in Alcove's settings, with the time, the assistant's name and what happened, including requests it wasn't allowed to make. For example: "create_task · claude-code · Created task Prepare board deck".

Is it private?

The connection runs on your Mac, between Alcove and the assistant app. Nothing goes through an Alcove server, because there isn't one. What you allow an assistant to read goes to that assistant's app, which may send it to its provider as part of your conversation. That provider's privacy policy then applies, so only connect assistants you trust. For everything Alcove keeps on your devices, see a private to-do list.

Ideas to try

"Add 'Book the venue' to my Work list for Friday at 10."
"What's due this week that's marked high priority?"
"Move the unfinished tasks from today to tomorrow."
"Give me a summary of my day."

For a morning plan, a brain dump, a board stand-up and a weekly review, with a prompt library, see planning your day with Claude.

Sources

Checked in October 2026:

Connect to local MCP servers, Model Context Protocol documentation, for Claude Desktop
Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP, Claude Help Center
Connect Claude Code to tools via MCP, Claude Code documentation
Model Context Protocol in Cursor, MCP servers in VS Code and MCP in Zed
Connect and test your plugin, OpenAI

Questions people ask

Which Claude apps can use Alcove?

Claude Desktop on the Mac and Claude Code. Claude on the web and Claude's phone apps can't, because they reach MCP servers over the internet and Alcove's server runs only on your Mac.

Does Claude on iPhone work with Alcove?

No, because the MCP server runs on the Mac. What Claude adds or changes through Claude Desktop or Claude Code on the Mac syncs to your iPhone and iPad through iCloud as usual.

Can an assistant set reminders in Alcove?

Yes. It can set when a task's reminder goes off, and whether it's quiet, a notification or an alarm. Alcove itself delivers the reminder, as it does any other.

Can the assistant delete my tasks?

Only if you allow it. Delete is its own permission, separate from read, create and update, and you can leave it off.

Does ChatGPT work with Alcove?

No. ChatGPT connects to MCP servers over the internet, and Alcove's server is a program on your Mac with no internet address, so ChatGPT can't add it.

Does Alcove send my tasks to an AI company?

Alcove doesn't. The connection runs on your Mac. When you let an assistant read something, the assistant's app receives it and may send it to its provider as part of your conversation, under that provider's privacy policy.