WikiLabs - TW MPC Server Plugin - EXPERIMENTAL

Plugins
#1

Hi foks,
I want to introduce my take on a TW MCP server, that I personally use to develop new TW code and especially TW wikitext. I use this server in conjunction with TW devtools [1], which has detailed info about internals and variables “in context”.

Works with TW >= v5.4.0

Plugin: TW MCP Server — connects LLMs to your wiki

What is it?

TW MCP is a plugin that turns any TiddlyWiki into an AI-accessible knowledge base. It uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) – an open standard that lets AI assistants talk to external tools. Once enabled, assistants like Claude, Gemini, and others can read, search, render, and edit your wiki directly. No copy-pasting, no exporting.

Who is this for? You’ll need Node.js and an MCP-compatible AI client – desktop apps like Claude Desktop work, as do CLI tools like Claude Code or Gemini CLI. If you’re comfortable running tiddlywiki from a terminal, you’re good.

After plugin installation, one command is all it takes:

tiddlywiki ./mywiki --mcp

Your wiki is now an MCP server. Any MCP-compatible AI client can connect to it.

What can the AI do with this MCP server?

Read & explore

  • Get tiddlers – fetch metadata or full content
  • List & search – browse by tag, run filter expressions, search across your wiki
  • Render – render tiddlers, fields, or arbitrary wikitext to plain text or HTML, including through the ViewTemplate cascade (so the AI sees what the browser shows)
  • Inspect – analyse widget trees, trace source positions, inspect variable scopes, and navigate TiddlyWiki’s internal $tw object
  • Wiki info – plugins, themes, tiddler counts, settings at a glance

Write (opt-in)

Writing is disabled by default. You explicitly enable it with --mcp rw.

  • Create, edit, delete tiddlers – the AI can modify your wiki when you allow it
  • Upload files – images, PDFs, and other binary files can be uploaded with an “external” command ‘tw-upload’, that does not use any tokens
  • Save as folder – export the wiki as a node.js folder structure, ready for version control or deployment. Directly executed by the mcp-server. Minimal tokens needed
  • Build HTML – render the entire wiki as a single HTML file the mcp-server can produce on demand

Key features

Token-aware by design

AI assistants charge by the token, so the server is careful about how much data it sends:

  • Metadata first – when you ask “show me the tiddler GettingStarted”, the AI gets field names, tags, and dates – but not the full text. Only when you say “show me the full contents” or “I want to edit it” does it fetch the body.
  • Small edits, small cost – changing a line in a long tiddler sends only that line, not the whole tiddler.
  • Large results stay manageable – browsing deep internal structures or running broad filters automatically caps the output size, so you don’t burn tokens on data you didn’t ask for.

Built-in conflict detection means two editors (human and AI, or two AI clients) can’t silently overwrite each other.

Readonly by default

The server starts in readonly mode. Safe for exploration, analysis, and Q&A. Enable writes only when you need them.

Multiple clients at once

Several AI clients can connect to the same wiki simultaneously. The first process becomes the primary server; others relay through it automatically. No conflicts, no stale data.

Want to see changes in the browser too? Start with --mcp rw listen – the HTTP server and MCP server share the same wiki store. Browser edits and AI edits see each other instantly.

Safety built in

  • Existing tiddlers aren’t overwritten unless explicitly requested
  • System tiddlers ($:/) are excluded by default
  • File operations are restricted to safe directories
  • Internal communication between tools is authenticated

Getting started

Quick start

tiddlywiki ./mywiki --mcp

Or with browser access:

tiddlywiki ./mywiki --mcp rw listen port=8080

Got a single-file wiki? Import it into a prepared wiki folder:

tiddlywiki ./mywiki --mcp file=path/to/wiki.html

The mcp-server analyzes the tiddler structure and proposes a directory layout before writing anything to disk.

For full setup instructions (plugin installation, client configuration, environment setup), see the Installation Guide.

Demo

A real conversation – you ask in plain language, the AI does the rest:

User: Fix the typo in the intro of GettingStarted

AI: Let me read the current content...

    1#VW: !! Introduction
    2#MV: 
    3#TR: ''Works with TW >= v5.4.0''
    4#SW: 
    5#TY: The ''TW MCP'' plugin adds a ... standarsied interface.

    I see "standarsied" on line 5. I'll fix that.
    [sends only line 5 with the corrected spelling]
    
    Done -- fixed "standardised" in GettingStarted.

The AI reads your tiddler, identifies the problem, and sends only the changed line. The 1#VW: prefixes are content hashes – if someone else edited the tiddler since the AI read it, the hashes won’t match and the edit is safely rejected. No silent overwrites.

Current status

Feedback, bug reports, and ideas welcome. Try it out and let me know what you think!

[1] TW devtools plugin

3 Likes
#2

Link to the DevTools thread: WikiLabs DevTools Plugin — Browser-Side Developer Tools for TiddlyWiki