You can create powerful workflows by automating Agenda, which can be done both at a high level using Siri shortcuts or the Shortcuts app for example, or at low-level through x-callback-url support for example. The possibilities are endless!
Tip: We have created a dedicated area in the community to automating Agenda using Shortcuts where users share their worfklows and shortcuts, be sure to check it out.
App Shortcuts
Starting from Agenda 15, App Shortcuts are ways to quickly get one or more tasks done in Agenda through the Shortcuts app. By combining multiple Agenda Shortcuts, optionally with those from other apps you can create and automate your workflows. From the simple opening of a specific note from the Home Screen of your iPad, triggering a new note after a double-tap on the back of your phone, to complex workflows that grab all the things you need to do today from different apps and creates a new project in one tap.
Agenda for iOS also supports Siri shortcuts for common actions like opening a certain note, project or overview. Learn more about it here:
Search Notes in Shortcuts
You can use the Search Notes action in the Shortcuts app to find notes matching specific criteria. This is also available via x-callback-url. Search queries support action syntax like \color, \done, \pinned, and more, giving you the same power as in-app search from your automations.
Reference and Supported Shortcuts
Click here for a reference of the supported App Shortcuts…
Siri
You can use Siri to search your notes and interact with Agenda. For example, just ask Siri to search for something in Agenda, and you can preview the results directly. Siri also supports richer interchange of data between Agenda and other apps.
Control Center
On iOS, Agenda provides Control Center buttons that let you quickly jump to the Today or On the Agenda overviews without opening the app first. You can add these buttons in your device’s Control Center settings.
x-callback-url support
Agenda also supports for x-callback urls. These allow you to couple workflows between apps and/or automate certain actions within Agenda. It’s also supported by Apple’s Shortcuts app.
A quick intro to x-callback-urls:
- The URL scheme is
agendaoragenda-notes - Commands currently include
on-the-agenda,today,open-project, etc. See the reference for a complete list. - For “open-project” and “open-note”, you can stipulate the target using a
titleparameter. - As usual, you can supply callback URLs via optional
x-successandx-errorparameters.
For example, to open Agenda to a note called “Meeting With Peta”, you could use this URL:
agenda://x-callback-url/open-note?title=Meeting%20With%20Peta
Reference and Supported Actions
Click here for a reference of the supported x-callback-url actions…
MCP (Model Context Protocol) Integration
Agenda includes a built-in MCP server on macOS that allows AI assistants to interact with your notes, projects, and categories. MCP is an open protocol that tools like Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Codex use to communicate with apps.
Enabling the MCP Server
The MCP server is off by default. To enable it, go to the Agenda menu and choose Integrations > Enable MCP. The server runs locally on your Mac at http://127.0.0.1:16106/mcp and is only accessible from your own machine.
The Integrations menu also provides options to copy configuration commands for connecting various AI tools, as well as a Claude Desktop plugin that can be downloaded and installed directly.
Available Tools
The MCP server provides the following tools for AI assistants to use:
- search_notes — Search your notes by text, tags, dates, and other criteria
- get_note — Retrieve the full content of a specific note
- list_projects — List all projects, optionally including archived ones
- list_categories — List all categories
- open_note — Open a specific note in Agenda
- create_note — Create a new note in a project, with optional file attachments
- append_to_note — Add content and/or file attachments to an existing note
- edit_note — Modify the content of an existing note, with optional file attachments
- create_project — Create a new project
- create_category — Create a new category
Connecting AI Tools
To connect an AI tool to Agenda’s MCP server, use the configuration command from the Integrations menu, or set it up manually:
Claude Code:
claude mcp add --transport http agenda http://localhost:16106/mcp
Claude Desktop / Cursor:
Use npx mcp-remote http://localhost:16106/mcp as the command in your MCP configuration. Alternatively, install the Claude Desktop plugin directly from the Integrations menu.
Codex:
Add the following to ~/.codex/config.toml:
[mcp_servers.agenda]
url = "http://127.0.0.1:16106/mcp"
Attachments
The create_note, append_to_note, and edit_note tools support adding file attachments to notes. Attachments are sent as base64-encoded data, so an AI assistant can read a file from your Mac, encode it, and attach it to a note in one step. For example, you could ask your AI assistant to “attach this PDF to my Meeting Notes” and it will handle the rest.
Each attachment requires a filename (with extension, so Agenda knows the file type) and the base64-encoded file data. You can optionally control how the attachment is displayed using displayStyle (inline, thumbnail, thumbnail-with-details, or full-width) and displaySize (small, medium, or large).
Limits: up to 20 attachments per request, with a total maximum of 100 MB of file data.
Help Resources
The MCP server also exposes help resources covering common topics from the Agenda documentation, so AI assistants can look up how features work and provide better answers about Agenda.
Note: The MCP server is only available on macOS.