Job-application tracker

tracker-mcp

An MCP server for the spreadsheet where you track your job applications: Excel, CSV or Google Sheets. Connect it to Claude (or any MCP client), and the assistant keeps the tracker for you: it answers from it, reminds you what is due, and records what happened, with your yes for every change.

По-русски: как подключить.

You: Which follow-ups are due this week?

Claude: Three. Acme (applied 17 Sep): nudge Sarah Kim on LinkedIn, overdue by

two days. Globex: due Thursday, no contact yet. Initech: due Friday.

You: I can't reach anyone at Globex until Monday. Move it.

Claude: Row 8 · Globex — Head of Engineering. Follow-up date: 23 Oct → 27 Oct;

follow-up log: + "follow-up moved to 2026-10-27: no contact yet". Write it?

You: Yes.

Claude: Done. A backup was taken first; say "undo" to revert.

Also: "Which channel gets me the most replies?", "Initech rejected me", "I applied to Hooli via a referral today", "close everything that hasn't answered in 45 days".

Why a server? Can't Claude just do this?

It can, if you set it up. Claude reads a spreadsheet you attach, and with access to your files (Claude Code, or Claude working in a folder on your computer) it can edit the tracker by writing a little code, and in claude.ai the Google Sheets connector lets it edit a Google Sheet directly. Give it good instructions (where the tracker is, what each column means, how follow-ups are counted, "back up and ask me before every write") and it works: tracker-mcp grew out of exactly that setup. The difference is where the rules live: in instructions the model reads and follows, or in a program that applies them.

So tracker-mcp mostly does not give Claude new abilities. It gives the everyday part of a job search (record what happened, see what is due, see what works) fixed rules and fixed safety, with no instructions to write. The one thing Claude cannot do later is know when a reply came if nobody wrote it down; the server writes it down as it happens.

• Rules belong in code, not in a prompt. "Which follow-ups are due?" is date arithmetic with your rule: 10 days after applying, then every 14, weekends moved to Monday, nothing for closed applications. A model gets it right most of the time, but it works it out anew in each chat, and the slips are the quiet kind: a follow-up for a rejected application, a date on a Sunday, a status spelled differently from your dropdown. Here the rule is code covered by tests. The same goes for silent applications and the funnel.
• Safety the model cannot skip. You see the exact cells that will change, and your yes is checked by the server, not taken on the model's word. That matters most where no one re-reads the instructions: a scheduled weekly review, a long chat, a note pasted from a job post that tells the model to do something.
• Fewer steps. One tool call instead of writing and running a script, so answers come quicker and the model's attention stays on your question.
• The same tracker everywhere. Every chat, a scheduled review and every client you use work on the same file, and each change lands in it right away.

Your spreadsheet stays yours: you keep opening it in Excel or Sheets, sorting and editing it. Nothing about a particular tracker is in the code; the server reads your headers and dropdowns and keeps what it learned in a small config file.

You don't need tracker-mcp if you only want a one-time analysis of your applications, if you rarely update the tracker, or if you only use Claude in a browser or on your phone and don't want to run a server of your own: Claude's Google Sheets connector may be enough. If Claude already keeps your tracker well with instructions you wrote, what you gain is reliability, not new features.

Quick start

Let an agent do it. Paste this into Claude Code or Codex; it installs what is needed, asks where your tracker is, connects it and checks the result:

Install tracker-mcp for me: an MCP server that lets AI keep my job-application spreadsheet.

Read the instructions for agents and follow them: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/butyavk/tracker-mcp/main/docs/agent-setup.md First ask me where my tracker is and which app to connect it to. Don't edit the tracker yourself, and check at the end that it works.

Or by hand. You need uv, which also fetches Python for you. Pick your client:

Claude Desktop, the easy way: download tracker-mcp- .mcpb from the latest release, double-click it, press Install, choose your tracker file in *Your tracker*, Save, and switch the extension on. On a Mac this also avoids the Documents folder problem.

Claude Desktop, by hand. Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config and add:

{

"mcpServers": { "tracker": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["tracker-mcp"], "env": { "TRACKER_PATH": "/Users/you/Documents/job-tracker.xlsx" } } } }

On Windows the path looks like C:\\Users\\you\\Documents\\job-tracker.xlsx (double backslashes in JSON). Restart Claude Desktop. If Claude can't find uvx, put its full path in command (which uvx / where uvx). On macOS, if your tracker is in Documents, Desktop or Downloads, see macOS privacy.

Claude Code: as a plugin (the server plus a weekly-review skill; it asks for the path to your tracker):

/plugin install tracker-mcp --marketplace butyavk/tracker-mcp

or just the server:

claude mcp add tracker -e TRACKER_PATH="$HOME/Documents/job-tracker.xlsx" -- uvx tracker-mcp

Cursor, VS Code, others: a stdio server with command uvx, arguments ["tracker-mcp"] and the environment variable TRACKER_PATH. Cursor reads the same JSON as Claude Desktop from ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

From a clone (to change the code, or before a release is out):

git clone https://github.com/butyavk/tracker-mcp && cd tracker-mcp && uv sync

and use "command": "uv", "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/tracker-mcp", "run", "tracker-mcp"].

First start

On its first start the server reads your tracker, finds the sheet and the header row, maps headers to fields (English and Russian headers are understood), works out what each status in your dropdown means, and writes job-tracker.tracker-mcp.toml next to the tracker. It does not touch the tracker itself. Ask Claude to describe your tracker: it shows the mapping and the guesses worth checking. Edit the config whenever you like; changes apply on the next request, no restart needed.

To see the guess before anything is written, run it yourself:

uvx tracker-mcp init ~/Documents/job-tracker.xlsx     # writes the config, lists what to check

uvx tracker-mcp --check --tracker ~/Documents/job-tracker.xlsx # how the config maps the tracker

No tracker yet? uvx tracker-mcp new ~/Documents/job-tracker.xlsx creates an empty one with dropdowns, a filter, a summary sheet and its config; add --lang ru for Russian headers and statuses.

A weekly routine

The server answers when asked; it does not send reminders. Two habits make it pay off:

• Once a week, run the Weekly review prompt (or just ask "review my job search for this week"): what is due, what went silent, how the funnel moves, and a plan. If your client can run scheduled tasks, schedule that sentence for Monday morning.
• After each event, tell Claude in a sentence: "applied to X via Y", "X rejected me", "sent the follow-up to X", "can't follow up with X until Friday". It finds the row, shows the change and writes it when you say yes.

Where your tracker can live

Google Sheets

Sign in once and pick your tracker; there is nothing to set up in Google Cloud:

uvx tracker-mcp auth google

Your browser opens Google's sign-in and then Google's file picker. Choose the spreadsheet with your applications. tracker-mcp writes its config for that sheet and prints what to add to your client: the same setup as for a file, with the sheet's URL as TRACKER_PATH.

• What tracker-mcp can reach: only the files you pick in Google's picker (or that it creates), through Google's drive.file permission. It cannot see your other sheets or files, your e-mail or your contacts. To use another sheet later, run the command again and pick it.
• Where the sign-in is kept: on your computer, in ~/.tracker-mcp/google-token.json (readable by you only), with backups of changed cells in ~/.tracker-mcp/backups/. There is no tracker-mcp server; the program talks to Google directly. To withdraw access, remove tracker-mcp at myaccount.google.com/permissions. The privacy policy has the details.
• On Google's screens you sign in "to continue to tracker-mcp", with links to its home page and privacy policy. Google has not reviewed the app's brand, so it shows no logo; the access it asks for (drive.file) is one Google lets apps request without a review.
• No browser on that computer (a server over SSH): uvx tracker-mcp auth google --no-browser prints the link; the browser mus