How do I install Keeping?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Keeping need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does Keeping use?

Keeping runs locally over stdio.

When was Keeping last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-09. MCP server for the Keeping time-tracking API

Keeping MCP server

keeping-mcp

Open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes the Keeping (api.keeping.nl) time-tracking API as tools an AI coding assistant can call. Built for solo developers who use Claude Code (or any MCP-capable client) and want their billable hours logged into Keeping at the end of a session instead of typed in by hand, while keeping Keeping's existing native Jortt invoicing integration intact. Every write tool is dry-run by default — your hours never reach Keeping until you explicitly confirm.

⚠ Writes are dry-run BY DEFAULT

Every write tool (keeping_add_entry, keeping_update_entry, keeping_delete_entry, keeping_start_timer, keeping_stop_timer, keeping_resume_timer) returns a preview unless you pass confirm: true in the tool call.

Setting KEEPING_REQUIRE_CONFIRM=false in your environment disables this gate. Writes then happen on the first call — there is no second chance.

Recommendation: never disable this gate unless you are running the server in a non-interactive automation context and have explicitly accepted the loss of the confirmation step.

Install

From npm

No install required — npx fetches the package on first run:

KEEPING_TOKEN=kp_live_your_token_here npx -y keeping-mcp

The server speaks the MCP stdio protocol and stays in the foreground waiting for JSON-RPC frames on stdin — exit with Ctrl+C. In practice you do not run it by hand; an MCP-capable client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) spawns it for you using the config snippets below.

Optional — install globally so keeping-mcp is on your PATH:

npm install -g keeping-mcp
KEEPING_TOKEN=kp_live_your_token_here keeping-mcp

Requires Node.js >=22. The package is published to npmjs.com/package/keeping-mcp with sigstore provenance attestations.

Claude Code on Windows 11

Add to %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json or to your project's .mcp.json file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "keeping-mcp": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "keeping-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "KEEPING_TOKEN": "kp_live_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

The cmd /c wrapper is required on Windows — npx resolves to npx.cmd, and Claude Code's process spawn does not search PATHEXT extensions (see anthropics/claude-code#58510).

Claude Code on macOS / Linux

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Linux), or your project's .mcp.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "keeping-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "keeping-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "KEEPING_TOKEN": "kp_live_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

Any MCP-capable client that supports the stdio transport works. The server is started by npx -y keeping-mcp and reads KEEPING_TOKEN from its environment. Discoverable in the MCP Registry as io.github.Red-Square-Software/keeping-mcp.

Get a Keeping access token

Sign in to your Keeping account.
Open Preferences (top-right menu).
Find the section Show features for developers and enable it.
A new Personal access tokens section appears.
Click Generate new token, name it (e.g. "Claude Code"), and copy the value.
Store it as KEEPING_TOKEN in your shell environment OR in your Claude Code config env block.

The token has full read+write access to your time entries — treat it like a password. Never commit it to git, never paste it into a chat, never read it back from a tool response (keeping-mcp never echoes it).

Configuration

Variable	Required	Default	Purpose
`KEEPING_TOKEN`	yes	—	Keeping personal access token (created via the section above).
`KEEPING_REQUIRE_CONFIRM`	no	`true`	When `true`, write tools return a preview unless called with `confirm: true`. Setting to `false` disables the gate entirely — see warning below.
`KEEPING_ORG_ID`	no	—	Pin all calls to one organisation id. When unset and the token has access to multiple orgs, write tools require explicit `organisation_id` input per call.
`KEEPING_LOG_LEVEL`	no	`info`	Server stderr log verbosity. Accepts: `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`.

⚠ Writes are dry-run BY DEFAULT

Every write tool (keeping_add_entry, keeping_update_entry, keeping_delete_entry, keeping_start_timer, keeping_stop_timer, keeping_resume_timer) returns a preview unless you pass confirm: true in the tool call.

Setting KEEPING_REQUIRE_CONFIRM=false in your environment disables this gate. Writes then happen on the first call — there is no second chance.

Recommendation: never disable this gate unless you are running the server in a non-interactive automation context and have explicitly accepted the loss of the confirmation step.

Tools

keeping-mcp registers 12 tools when the server starts. Read tools (keeping_me, keeping_organisations, keeping_projects, keeping_tasks, keeping_list_entries, keeping_timer_status) call Keeping's API without confirmation. Write tools (keeping_add_entry, keeping_update_entry, keeping_delete_entry, keeping_start_timer, keeping_stop_timer, keeping_resume_timer) return a dry-run preview unless invoked with confirm: true (default behavior controlled by KEEPING_REQUIRE_CONFIRM).

Dry-run workflow (example transcript)

Write tools follow a two-step pattern: propose-then-confirm. The first call returns a preview of the HTTP request the server would send; the second call (with confirm: true) actually sends it.

Step 1 — preview (no confirm, no API call made). Illustrative; actual field names match Keeping's OpenAPI (see https://developer.keeping.nl).

{
  "tool": "keeping_add_entry",
  "input": {
    "description": "Phase 4 release prep",
    "hours": 1.5,
    "project_id": 123
  },
  "response": {
    "would_post": {
      "method": "POST",
      "url": "https://api.keeping.nl/v1/456/time-entries",
      "body": {
        "description": "Phase 4 release prep",
        "hours": 1.5,
        "project_id": 123,
        "date": "2026-06-12",
        "purpose": "work"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 2 — confirm (confirm: true added, request is sent to Keeping). Illustrative; actual response shape mirrors Keeping's OpenAPI.

{
  "tool": "keeping_add_entry",
  "input": {
    "description": "Phase 4 release prep",
    "hours": 1.5,
    "project_id": 123,
    "confirm": true
  },
  "response": {
    "id": 98765,
    "day": "2026-06-12",
    "hours": 1.5,
    "description": "Phase 4 release prep",
    "project_id": 123,
    "purpose": "work"
  }
}

Verifying provenance

Releases are published via GitHub Actions OIDC trusted publishing (no long-lived npm tokens). Every release carries an npm provenance attestation linking the published tarball to a specific commit in this repository.

npm audit signatures
# or, for a single package:
npm view keeping-mcp --json | jq '.dist.attestations'

Local development

git clone https://github.com/red-square-software/keeping-mcp.git
cd keeping-mcp
npm ci
npm test
npm run build
KEEPING_TOKEN=kp_live_your_token_here node dist/bin/keeping-mcp.js

All server output goes to stderr — stdout is reserved for MCP JSON-RPC framing. Never write diagnostic output to stdout; use console.error for logging.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Keeping

Add this server

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Keeping?

Does Keeping need an API key?

What transport does Keeping use?

When was Keeping last checked?

Documentation

keeping-mcp

⚠ Writes are dry-run BY DEFAULT

Install

From npm

Claude Code on Windows 11

Claude Code on macOS / Linux

Other MCP clients

Get a Keeping access token

Configuration

⚠ Writes are dry-run BY DEFAULT

Tools

Dry-run workflow (example transcript)

Verifying provenance

Local development

License