Connect AI Assistants to The Dump
The Dump has an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects AI assistants on your computer — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and others — directly to your Dump. Once it's set up, you can tell your assistant "save this conversation to The Dump" and it lands in your notes, automatically titled, categorized, and tagged like everything else you capture. It works the other way too: ask "summarize my notes in the Recipes category" and your assistant pulls the right notes from your Dump and works with them.
What you'll need
- A Mac, Windows, or Linux computer with Node.js 18 or newer installed
- Your Dump account email and password
Step 1 — Connect your AI app
There's nothing to download — your app fetches the server from npm automatically.
Claude Desktop
In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Developer → Edit Config. This opens claude_desktop_config.json. Add The Dump as a server:
Save the file and restart Claude Desktop. You should see the-dump listed under its connected tools.
Claude Code
Run this one command in your terminal:
Cursor
Add the same JSON block as Claude Desktop to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (create the file if it doesn't exist), then restart Cursor.
Step 2 — Log in (one time)
In your AI app, just say:
The assistant will ask for your Dump email and password and use the server's login tool. Your session is saved locally on your computer (in ~/.the-dump) and refreshes automatically — you won't need to log in again unless you explicitly log out.
Step 3 — Dump away
From any conversation, try things like:
- "Save this conversation to The Dump"
- "Save a summary of this chat to The Dump"
- "Save that last response to The Dump"
The server provides these tools, and your assistant picks the right one automatically:
| Tool | What it saves |
|---|---|
| share_conversation | The full conversation, all messages |
| summarize_conversation | An AI-written summary of the conversation |
| share_response | One specific assistant response |
| share_selection | A highlighted portion of the conversation |
| send_initial_prompt | Just your opening prompt |
| conversation_link_and_title | A bookmark — link and title only |
Everything saved this way goes through the same pipeline as your other notes — it gets titled, categorized, and tagged automatically.
Step 4 — Ask about your notes
Your assistant can also read your Dump. Try things like:
- "What categories do I have in The Dump?"
- "Summarize my notes in the Recipes category from last month"
- "Find my notes about the trip to Portugal and turn them into an itinerary"
Three tools power this — your assistant translates what you ask into the right searches and filters:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| list_categories | Lists your categories and sub-categories |
| list_notes | Browses or searches your notes — by meaning, category, type, media kind, or date |
| get_notes | Fetches the full content of specific notes |
You can only ever see notes from the account you're logged in as.
On your phone?
No setup needed there — in the ChatGPT, Claude, or any other app, tap the share button and choose The Dump to send text straight to your notes.
Troubleshooting
- "Session expired" or "Not logged in" — say "log in to The Dump" again.
- The server doesn't appear in your app — make sure Node.js is installed (node --version in a terminal should print v18 or higher), double-check the config JSON, then fully restart the app.
- npx: command not found — install Node.js and try again (npx comes with it).
- Still stuck? Contact support — we're happy to help.