Skip to content
Matt's Second Brain

Trilium backend

Why Trilium

  • Self-hosted — your knowledge base never leaves your infrastructure.
  • Structured query language — search by ancestor, attribute, content, modification date.
  • First-class labels — every brain note gets #claude-brain, retrievable by query.
  • Sync via Trilium’s own protocol or via shared Docker volume.

Install Trilium

Terminal window
docker run -d --name trilium \
  -p 127.0.0.1:8787:8787 \
  -v trilium-data:/home/node/trilium-data \
  -e TRILIUM_NETWORK_TRUSTEDREVERSEPROXY=loopback \
  triliumnext/notes:v0.95.0

For production with HTTPS, put it behind nginx — see the TriliumNext deployment docs.

Generate an ETAPI token

In the Trilium UI: Options → ETAPI → Create new token. The token gives the MCP read/write access to your notes via the External API.

Configure the MCP

Terminal window
export BRAIN_BACKEND=trilium                # default; can omit
export TRILIUM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8787    # default
export TRILIUM_ETAPI_TOKEN=<your token>

Or, for multi-user hosts, the adapter falls back to:

  1. /etc/claude-brain/trilium-token (mode 0640, owner root:claude)
  2. ~/.trilium-mcp/config.properties (compat with the trilium-mcp Java MCP)

Verify

brain_setup_check

You should see:

backend: [ok] using trilium backend
reachable: [ok] trilium reachable + credentials valid
root_note: [ok] root note exists (id=...)

Notes appear in Trilium as

  • Root: Claude Memory
  • Children: 00 — How to use this brain, Standards, Decisions, Lessons Learned, Apps, Reviews, Drafts
  • Each brain_remember call creates a child of the appropriate category, tagged #claude-brain
  • Body stored as plain text inside <pre> blocks (round-trip-safe; no markdown rendering)