MCP server (AI integration)

ManicTime includes a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. This allows AI tools that support MCP to read your recorded activity data and write tags back to ManicTime.

Requirements

ManicTime v2026.1 or newer.

How it works

The MCP server runs inside the ManicTime client process. You start it by running the ManicTime executable with the mcp argument. Your AI tool communicates with it over stdio. No separate installation or configuration in ManicTime is needed.

ManicTime does not route any activity data through ManicTime servers for this feature. The data you query is sent directly from your computer to the AI provider you have configured.

Executable paths

If ManicTime is installed to a different location, adjust the path accordingly.

Setting up with AI tools

All integrations use the same principle: configure your AI tool to run the ManicTime executable with mcp as the argument. The examples below use the Mac path — replace it with the path for your platform from the table above.

Claude Code

claude mcp add manictime-client --transport stdio -- \
  "/Applications/ManicTime.app/Contents/MacOS/ManicTime" mcp

Claude Desktop

Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "manictime-client": {
      "command": "/Applications/ManicTime.app/Contents/MacOS/ManicTime",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

OpenAI Codex

codex mcp add manictime-client -- \
  /Applications/ManicTime.app/Contents/MacOS/ManicTime mcp

Visual Studio Code (GitHub Copilot)

Option A — UI:

1. Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P → MCP: Add Server

2. Select Command (stdio)

3. Enter the executable path followed by mcp, for example:

   Windows:

    "C:\Program Files\ManicTime\ManicTime.exe" mcp
   

   Mac:

    "/Applications/ManicTime.app/Contents/MacOS/ManicTime" mcp
   

4. Enter ManicTime as the server name

Option B — config file:

Create .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "ManicTime": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "C:\\Program Files\\ManicTime\\ManicTime.exe",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Open Copilot Chat and switch to Agent mode to use MCP tools.

What the AI can access

Once connected, the AI can query ManicTime activity for any time range:

• Computer usage (active/away periods)
• Applications used
• Documents opened
• Websites visited
• Tags

The AI can also write tags back to ManicTime, allowing it to create structured time entries from raw activity data.

Privacy

The MCP server runs locally on your computer. ManicTime does not send your activity data through ManicTime servers as part of this feature.

The activity data you ask the AI to analyze is sent to the AI provider you have configured (for example Anthropic, OpenAI). Whether that provider processes data locally or in the cloud depends on the tool and its settings.