# Bear 2.8 Beta: Official CLI, Claude Connector, and MCP Server **URL:** \ **Category:** Announcement\ **Tags:** beta\ **Created:** [April 22, 2026, 9:12am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040 "2026-04-22T09:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrendanThompson](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/brendanthompson/32/4364_2.png) [@BrendanThompson](https://community.bear.app/u/BrendanThompson)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 8:21am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/61 "2026-04-27T08:21:46Z")
When I was trying to use `bearcli` Bear itself was unlocked 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![matteo](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/matteo/32/21_2.png) [@matteo](https://community.bear.app/u/matteo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 8:46am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/62 "2026-04-27T08:46:39Z")
> [@BrendanThompson](#): > > I am hoping that this new `bearcli` will be Bears only foray into the AI space. `bearcli` isn’t tied to AI, it’s just an enabler for external tools to read/write content directly from Bear and some AI tools can hook into that. We want Bear to be a tool that co-exist in your toolchain, so we’re finding new way to make the data interoperable, but our plan is always to keep it independent of any external tool/API 🙂 > [@BrendanThompson](#): > > When I was trying to use `bearcli` Bear itself was unlocked 🙂 When you set the lock on Bear, we disable `bearcli` entirely (for a bunch of technical reasons). Whether Bear is locked/unlocked doesn’t come into it. ---
**Author:** ![BrendanThompson](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/brendanthompson/32/4364_2.png) [@BrendanThompson](https://community.bear.app/u/BrendanThompson)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 8:53am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/63 "2026-04-27T08:53:36Z")
Excellent, on that first part 🙂 . Ahh, so to be able to use `bearcli` I will need to disable lock? ---
**Author:** ![mugpunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mugpunter](https://community.bear.app/u/mugpunter)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 9:00am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/64 "2026-04-27T09:00:09Z")
I wasn’t even aware of the tag-as-workspace feature in development. Check it out. Sounds good, and I thikn your proposed solution on focusing the API on a particular tag-as-workspace sounds grand. ---
**Author:** ![shaunpearce](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/shaunpearce/32/7815_2.png) [@shaunpearce](https://community.bear.app/u/shaunpearce)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 9:11am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/65 "2026-04-29T09:11:09Z")
This is awesome. Do you have any plans to just support a file system / markdown file note repository? ---
**Author:** ![xun](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/xun/32/5114_2.png) [@xun](https://community.bear.app/u/xun)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 10:06am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/66 "2026-04-30T10:06:26Z")
**Bug report:** When Claude reads a note, highlighted content like `==đŸ””29w==` is read as `==đŸ”” 29w==` — an extra space gets inserted inside the highlight markers. After the note is updated with this content, the extra space breaks the highlight rendering. ---
**Author:** ![pixel](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/pixel/32/4651_2.png) [@pixel](https://community.bear.app/u/pixel)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/67 "2026-04-30T18:01:02Z")
Hi! I setup Claude code using this config, but the MCP status is always “failed”. trying “Reconnect” acts like it works, but then still shows “failed” Has anyone gotten this working in Claude Code? ---
**Author:** ![Shazam](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/shazam/32/7808_2.png) [@Shazam](https://community.bear.app/u/Shazam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 7:25pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/68 "2026-04-30T19:25:52Z")
Thank you for doing this. I was _just_ about to try diving into Obsidian but Bear wins for entry so glad to be sticking around longer. ---
**Author:** ![krssno](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/krssno/32/1338_2.png) [@krssno](https://community.bear.app/u/krssno)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/69 "2026-05-03T16:35:42Z")
> [@matteo](#): > > The CLI and MCP server are not AI-specific, they’re general-purpose tools for accessing Bear data from the outside This thread is about topics I don’t know much about. So I just have one basic question: Would it be possible for a third-party developer to create an app that, for example, uses the notes in Bear to create a whiteboard? And would every new note created in that app then also appear in Bear and would any changes made to a note in Bear also be visible in the whiteboard app? ---
**Author:** ![ffmich](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/ffmich/32/1515_2.png) [@ffmich](https://community.bear.app/u/ffmich)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/70 "2026-05-03T18:48:31Z")
> [@krssno](#): > > This thread is about topics I don’t know much about. So I just have one basic question: Would it be possible for a third-party developer to create an app that, for example, uses the notes in Bear to create a whiteboard? And would every new note created in that app then also appear in Bear and would any changes made to a note in Bear also be visible in the whiteboard app? Basically, a CLI lets other programs do almost everything you can normally do inside the Bear app, but using the command line. The good thing is that the CLI uses the same “set of commands” that bear already uses, so you dont risk database corruption. So yes, it can absolutely be used to build exactly what you are asking 🙂 It essentially allows developers to use Bear in a “headless” mode, meaning they can build a completely custom interface (like a whiteboard app) that reads and writes directly to your Bear notes. Although it would theoretically be possible to completely rewrite Bear’s UI completely (not that it would make sense to do), it is the perfect tool for safely integrating Bear with third-party apps, AI tools, and custom automations. ---
**Author:** ![jvet93](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jvet93](https://community.bear.app/u/jvet93)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040/71 "2026-08-10T16:00:21Z")
Is it possible to connect ChatGPT or only Claude at the moment? [Previous page](https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-8-beta-official-cli-claude-connector-and-mcp-server/19040.md?page=3)