Guide 03

Let your agent in.

Two doors, one line, a named teammate.

Said and Done. speaks MCP — the protocol AI agents use to work with tools. Connected, an agent can list your Chapters, search your notes, file Pages, change their status, resolve them, and leave Updates on a Page. Every action is signed with the agent's own name, exactly like yours. Everything below was done for real against the Mars or Bust sample Notebook — the one the first-boot wizard offers you — so you can follow along click for click.

1 · Two doors, both yours

While the desk is open, a Streamable-HTTP door answers on your own machine — nothing to install, nothing to spawn:

http://127.0.0.1:5181/mcp

And for clients that prefer to launch their own servers, the same desk speaks stdio through the installed binary:

said-and-done mcp

Both doors serve the same twenty-four tools and the same record. The HTTP door lives and dies with the window — the desk closed means no agent gets in. Settings → Connections carries the MCP switch and a copy button with your install's exact line; Doctor probes the door live and counts the tools.

2 · Claude Code, in one line

Register the door once, then just talk. Here is the whole thing, recorded live — the setup line, then a question about the sample Notebook's Fuel & Flight Chapter:

A real terminal session: claude mcp add registers the said-and-done HTTP door, then Claude reads the Fuel & Flight Chapter and lists every Page by status
One line to connect, one question — Claude reads the whole Chapter, Page by Page.

The first time an agent reaches for the desk's tools, Claude Code asks once and remembers; for headless runs, allow them once in your repo's.claude/settings.json — { "permissions": { "allow": ["mcp__said-and-done__*"] } } — and every command after that is just the question.

Zed, Cursor and Windsurf take the same two facts — the HTTP URL above, or the stdio command — pasted into their own MCP server settings. Whichever client you run, the server introduces itself as Said and Done. and hands over the desk's tools.

3 · Ask for something real

Reading is a parlor trick. The desk earns its keep when the agent files work — here Claude is asked to create a Page on Fuel & Flight, land it straight in todo, and leave an Update explaining the urgency. Watch the id come back:

A real terminal session: Claude files MARS-53, Dust filter swap, straight into the to-do status with an Update, and reports the id back
MARS-53 is born — filed to to-do with its Update, and the desk even suggested a reference on its own.

Note the last line: the desk auto-suggested a reference tobreathing-easy.md from the Notebook's own notes — new Pages get their references scanned at birth, whoever files them.

4 · The Page is on the record

Switch to the desk and there it is — MARS-53 on the record in to-do, with its Update count and its reference, next to the Pages you made yourself. No import, no sync, no refresh button. It was always the same record.

The Said and Done. record — MARS-53, Dust filter swap, filed by Claude, in to-do with an Update and a reference
Claude's Page on the record — one Update, one reference, signed work.

5 · Signed, every time

Open MARS-53 as a case file and the history reads like a ledger:agent:claude-code created it, moved it, left its Update on it. An agent's name comes from its own MCP handshake, so the same assistant keeps one name across a whole session. When a Page changed status and you didn't change it, the case file says exactly who did — there is no anonymous move in this house.

A case file where agent:quartermaster reports in an Update, signed by name
The Updates keep everyone honest — agents report under their own names, next to your Thoughts.

6 · Work the same Page together

Nobody owns a Page. You can be editing while an agent leaves an Update; its words land on the Page under its name, next to your Thoughts. From your phone, the remote client shows the same desk the agents are working — file a Page from the couch, let the agent pick it up at the keyboard.

What it can't do

  • It can't edit your markdown — your files aren't its to touch.
  • It can't act unasked — an agent works when you set it working.
  • It can't reach in from outside — the doors answer your machine only.
  • It can't hide — every move is signed and kept.