Prerequisites

• localWiki desktop app installed (the localwiki-mcp binary ships alongside it)
• The database must exist (open localWiki at least once to create it)

The MCP server is a separate binary called localwiki-mcp that reads the localWiki SQLite database directly in read-only mode. It does not require the desktop app to be running for wiki and page queries, but vault_status checks do connect to the running app via IPC.

Binary Location

The localwiki-mcp binary is in the same directory as the lol CLI:

Configuration

Add the following to your editor’s MCP configuration file. The binary auto-detects the database location, but you can override it with --db or the LOCALWIKI_DB_PATH environment variable.

Cursor

Place the config in .cursor/mcp.json in your project root, or in ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global access:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localwiki": {
      "command": "localwiki-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add to your .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "localwiki": {
      "command": "localwiki-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to your ~/.claude.json or project-level .claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localwiki": {
      "command": "localwiki-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Explicit Database Path

If auto-detection does not find your database, specify the path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localwiki": {
      "command": "localwiki-mcp",
      "args": ["--db", "/path/to/localwiki.db"]
    }
  }
}

Or set the environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localwiki": {
      "command": "localwiki-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "LOCALWIKI_DB_PATH": "/path/to/localwiki.db"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify Connection

After adding the config, restart your editor. You should see “localwiki” listed in the available MCP servers. Test with a simple prompt:

"List all my workspaces"

If the connection fails, check that localwiki-mcp --help works in your terminal and that the database file exists.