Run a self-hosted life dashboard that Claude can control through an MCP server
Edris Ranjbar's open-source Edi Life OS combines habits, goals, Kanban, finance, focus timers and notes in one self-hosted PHP and MySQL dashboard. An optional MCP server lets Claude and other MCP clients read and update the dashboard in plain language.
The problem
Personal productivity often spreads across a to-do app, habit tracker, budgeting spreadsheet, Pomodoro timer and notes app, and none of them share data. The project aims to bring these into one private dashboard that an AI assistant can also operate.
How they did it
- Deploy the app with Docker Compose, on shared hosting, or locally with PHP 8.1+ and MySQL 8+.
- Generate a random token and set it as api_token in config.php or as the LIFEOS_API_TOKEN environment variable.
- Go to the mcp folder, run npm ci, and copy .env.example to .env with LIFEOS_BASE_URL and LIFEOS_API_TOKEN set.
- Start the MCP server with npm start; it runs over stdio, and there is no hosted MCP endpoint.
- Connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code or another MCP client following the MCP guide.
- Ask the assistant to show the dashboard, create goals and tasks, mark habits complete or log expenses.
From the official docs
cd mcp
npm ci
cp .env.example .env # set LIFEOS_BASE_URL and LIFEOS_API_TOKEN
npm startResults
- The MCP server exposes 15 tools covering the dashboard, goals, tasks, habits, finances and notes.
- The README shows an expense logged by Claude appearing in the Finance workspace through the real API, using sample data.
- The MCP server reaches the app only through its token-protected HTTP API and never touches the database or credentials.
- Limits noted by the author: one operator token for a single account, and no per-user tokens, scopes or rate limiting.
As reported by the source (GitHub repository README (edrisranjbar/lifeos)); AgentGid did not measure these figures.
Suits a solo user comfortable with Docker or PHP/MySQL hosting and a Node install, since you run the app and the stdio MCP server yourself. Watch the single operator token: no per-user scopes or rate limiting, so keep it private and the app off the open internet. The README demo uses sample data. Claude Code needs a paid plan ($20/mo); Pi (Free, OSS) is a cheaper terminal alternative, though you pay for its model provider.
The agent used here
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