ticktick-mcp

# ticktick-mcp

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MCP server for TickTick task management. Create, update, complete, move, and filter tasks via the TickTick v2 API, with field-preserving updates, day-of-week date validation, read-after-write verification, and idempotent completion tracking.

Designed for [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code) and other [MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) clients.

Unofficial. Not affiliated with TickTick Ltd. Built on [`ticktick-py`](https://github.com/partymola/ticktick-py) (MIT).

## Features

- **Full task lifecycle** - create, update, complete, move, subtask, and delete
- **Field-preserving updates** - `ticktick_update_task` re-fetches the task and overlays only the fields you set, so the API never wipes the ones you omit
- **Day-of-week validation** - any call that sets a date must confirm the weekday, catching off-by-one date mistakes before they reach the server
- **Read-after-write verification** - create/update re-read the task and surface `_verification_warnings` when the server echo doesn't match
- **Compact listing** - list tools return a trimmed view by default so large projects stay under the MCP result-size cap (see below)
- **Fresh reads** - read tools re-sync server state on demand, so edits made from the TickTick app on other devices show up without a restart
- **Completion tracking** - mark completed tasks as processed so an agent reviews each one exactly once

## Requirements

- Python 3.13+ (tested on 3.13 and 3.14, on Linux, macOS and Windows, in CI)
- [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) (recommended - see the install note below)
- A TickTick account
- A registered TickTick app for OAuth credentials (free - [developer.ticktick.com](https://developer.ticktick.com/manage))

## Install

```bash
git clone https://github.com/partymola/ticktick-mcp
cd ticktick-mcp
uv sync
```

This creates a `.venv` and installs from `uv.lock`, giving you the console script at `.venv/bin/ticktick-mcp`, or `.venv\Scripts\ticktick-mcp` on Windows. Every command below names it the POSIX way.

`pip install .` works too. The fork of `ticktick-py` this server needs is pinned as a direct git reference inside `dependencies`, which pip and uv both honour; `uv sync` is recommended because it installs the exact versions in `uv.lock` rather than re-resolving them.

## Credentials

TickTick sign-in needs two things: an OAuth app (client ID + secret) and your own account login.

1. Register an app at [developer.ticktick.com](https://developer.ticktick.com/manage). Set the **Redirect URI** to `http://localhost:8080/redirect`. Note the **Client ID** and **Client Secret**.
2. Copy the template into the directory the server reads, and fill it in:

   ```bash
   mkdir -p ~/.config/ticktick-mcp && cp .env.example ~/.config/ticktick-mcp/.env
   ```

   ```
   TICKTICK_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
   TICKTICK_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
   TICKTICK_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost:8080/redirect
   TICKTICK_USERNAME=your_ticktick_email
   TICKTICK_PASSWORD=your_ticktick_password
   ```

3. This file holds your account password in plain text, and the server does not create it, so tighten it yourself. On POSIX:

   ```bash
   chmod 700 ~/.config/ticktick-mcp
   chmod 600 ~/.config/ticktick-mcp/.env
   ```

   Those are POSIX mode bits, and on Windows they do nothing: access there follows the ACLs the file inherits from its parent directory. No Windows equivalent of the two commands is documented here.

   The two token files beside it are created owner-only, and a config directory the server creates is too - but one it finds already there is left as it is. Those are POSIX modes as well, set on Windows too, where they do not narrow who may read what.

**Authorise once, at a terminal, before registering the server:**

```bash
.venv/bin/ticktick-mcp auth
```

It opens a browser and asks you to paste back the URL you land on, then exits. The token is cached next to your `.env` as `.token-oauth`, and every later start reuses it. TickTick issues no refresh token, so this recurs when the token expires - run the same command again.

Do not let that step happen inside the MCP server. The prompt reads from standard input, which for a stdio server is the JSON-RPC channel, so an unauthorised first tool call opens a browser on the host and blocks. In a container it cannot be completed at all - run `auth` on the host and mount the config directory in.

The username/password half needs no separate step: the server logs in lazily on the first tool call and caches that session token as `.token-v2`, so it does not re-submit your credentials on every start.

The server looks for `.env` in this order: the `--dotenv-dir <path>` argument, then the `TICKTICK_MCP_DOTENV_DIR` environment variable, then `~/.config/ticktick-mcp/`. If no `.env` is found it falls back to the `TICKTICK_*` environment variables directly, which is convenient for container/CI use.

## Privacy and the unofficial API

Your TickTick credentials live only in your local `.env` (or the environment) and are sent only to TickTick's own servers - never to the developer or any third party. The server reads and writes only your own account.

This server uses TickTick's unofficial v2 API (via `ticktick-py`) rather than the official Open API. That is a deliberate choice: the official API has no list-completed-tasks endpoint, no tags, and no cross-project task listing - all of which this server relies on. See [docs/why-not-the-official-api.md](https://github.com/partymola/ticktick-mcp/blob/main/docs/why-not-the-official-api.md) for the full rationale, the risk trade-off, and the triggers that would make us reconsider.

## Register with Claude Code

```bash
claude mcp add -s user ticktick -- /path/to/ticktick-mcp/.venv/bin/ticktick-mcp --dotenv-dir /path/to/config
```

`--dotenv-dir` is optional if your `.env` lives in `~/.config/ticktick-mcp/` or you supply the `TICKTICK_*` variables through the environment.

Then ask Claude things like:
- "What's on my TickTick list for this week?"
- "Add a task to call the dentist on Friday at 9am."
- "Mark the grocery task as done."
- "Move the budget task to the Finance project."

## Docker

Images are published to `ghcr.io/partymola/ticktick-mcp`. Tags carry a `v` prefix (`:vX.Y.Z`), and `:latest` follows the most recent release.

**Authorise on a machine with a browser first, then mount that directory in.** This is the only route, and it holds even with `docker run -it`: the underlying library opens the browser itself and **never prints the URL**, so there is nothing to copy out of a container that has no browser. It then waits for that URL on standard input, which for a stdio server is the JSON-RPC channel - so a container started against a directory with no cached token does not fail cleanly either, it consumes your client's requests waiting for input that never arrives.

Authorising needs a source install ([Install](#install)) and the credentials from [Credentials](#credentials) - there is no published package to run it from. **Do not `pip install ticktick-mcp`:** that name on PyPI belongs to an unrelated project with a near-identical description.

```bash
.venv/bin/ticktick-mcp auth       # once, on the host, in a terminal

claude mcp add -s user ticktick -- \
  docker run --rm -i --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  -v ~/.config/ticktick-mcp:/data \
  ghcr.io/partymola/ticktick-mcp:latest
```

`-i` is required - the server speaks JSON-RPC over stdin and stdout.

`--user` is there because the container runs as root by default, and anything it writes into the mounted directory becomes root-owned - after which the host-side `ticktick-mcp` can no longer update its session-token cache and falls back to a throttled signon on every start. You will run it on the host again: the OAuth token has no refresh, so `auth` recurs at expiry.

**Mount a directory that is already authorised, never an empty volume.** `/data` holds the `.env`, the cached OAuth token, the v2 session token and the completion-tracking database. A fresh volume has none of them, and the password-signon fallback is throttled into a 15-30 minute lockout.

If you would rather not keep a `.env` on disk at all, pass the credentials as environment variables instead. The mount is still needed - it holds the token cache, not just the `.env`:

```bash
docker run --rm -i --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  -v ~/.config/ticktick-mcp:/data \
  -e TICKTICK_CLIENT_ID -e TICKTICK_CLIENT_SECRET \
  -e TICKTICK_USERNAME -e TICKTICK_PASSWORD \
  ghcr.io/partymola/ticktick-mcp:latest
```

Naming each variable without a value passes it through from your shell, so no secret appears in the command or in shell history. These **override** a mounted `.env`: the file is loaded without `override`, so anything already in the environment wins. Authorising still needs those variables exported on the host, since `auth` has no `.env` to read either.

## CLI

```
ticktick-mcp                       Start the MCP server (stdio transport)
ticktick-mcp --dotenv-dir PATH     Directory holding the .env file
ticktick-mcp --version             Print the installed package version
```

`auth` is the only other subcommand, and it exists so the browser step happens at a terminal rather than inside the server. All task operations happen through the MCP tools below.

## MCP tools

| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `ticktick_create_task` | Create a task, preserving date/reminder/priority/timezone fields; warns if n