# LotsNotes vs Guru Source: https://lotsnotes.com/blog/lotsnotes-vs-guru Published: 2026-10-22T00:30:54.796878+00:00 If you're a founder, small team or agency and want Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor to read the same business facts, with a Free plan to start and one $99 payment when your team joins, LotsNotes is the better fit. If you run a large company that needs verified knowledge, governance and a strategy team behind it, Guru is built for that. I built LotsNotes for one job: holding the context every AI agent needs (what you sell, who it's for, how you sound, the rules and the decisions) in one place every agent reads first. Guru is an enterprise knowledge platform: cards and connected sources, its own Knowledge Agents that answer with citations, verification, governance, and an MCP server that hands all of that to the AI tools your company already uses. Everything about Guru below comes from its own pricing page, MCP page, help center and developer docs, checked on 21 October 2026, with links at the end. ## LotsNotes vs Guru at a glance | | LotsNotes | Guru | |---|---|---| | Built for | Business context every AI agent reads: positioning, voice, rules, decisions and agent instructions | Verified company knowledge for large teams, delivered to people and AI tools with governance | | Agent access | Remote MCP at `https://api.lotsnotes.com/mcp` with OAuth, plus a REST API with an API key | Remote MCP at `https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp` with OAuth or an API token, plus a REST API with user or collection tokens | | Clients | Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf and any remote MCP client; cloud agents and scripts over REST | ChatGPT, Claude Desktop and Claude Code, Cursor, Microsoft Copilot, VS Code, OpenAI Agent Builder, n8n, Intercom, Dust and custom clients. OAuth is pre-approved for some apps; others may need Guru Support to allow them | | What the agent can do | 31 tools in [tools.json](https://api.lotsnotes.com/tools.json), checked 26 October 2026: find notes by title, read, create, update, move, archive, trash and restore notes, manage workspaces and folders, list and restore versions, invite and manage members, send and list support requests | Tool groups on Guru's help page, checked 21 October 2026: ask a Knowledge Agent, search cards and sources, read cards, browse collections and folders, create cards or draft edits, move and archive cards, manage drafts, run usage reports | | Keeping things from agents | Private notes are never returned to agents or the API. Shared notes follow roles; a member can be limited to selected folders | MCP follows the user's Guru permissions: collection, card and source permissions are inherited, so the agent reaches what that person can open | | Instructions agents read first | A note titled `AGENTS.md`, at workspace level (reaches every folder) or in one folder | Agents go through Knowledge Agents, which answer from verified, permission-aware knowledge | | Trust and review | Every save keeps a version; agents can list and restore versions, and a save with `expected_version` gets a conflict instead of overwriting an edit | Manual verification with expiry dates, automated verification by Knowledge Agents with a Quality Log, review and publishing workflows for agent edits, every MCP question logged in the AI Agent Center | | AI built in | None. The agents you already use do the work | Knowledge Agents (answers, chat, research) are the core of the product | | Price | Free for one person (1 workspace, 3 folders, unlimited notes, MCP and REST). Pro is $99, pay once: unlimited workspaces, folders and team members | Custom, sales-led: "Book a call". The package includes the platform, an AI and knowledge strategy team, and enterprise governance. No public price or free plan on the pricing page | | How you start | Sign up and connect your agent yourself | A call with Guru's team to scope the package | ## Where LotsNotes is the better choice ### You can start today, and you know the price Guru's pricing page has no price list. It says pricing is tailored to your organization's scale, knowledge complexity and AI maturity, and the first step is booking a call. For a company rolling out knowledge to hundreds of people, that makes sense: the package includes solution engineers who design the knowledge architecture and configure the agents. For a founder, a small team or an agency, it means you can't simply try it this afternoon. LotsNotes Free covers one person with 1 workspace, 3 folders, unlimited notes and checklists, and MCP and REST access, with no card and no time limit. When your team joins, [LotsNotes Pro](https://lotsnotes.com/pricing) is one payment of $99 for unlimited workspaces, folders and team members with roles. If you already have a Pro or Business plan of LotsSocial, LotsBlog, LotsTeam, LotsCRM, LotsInvoice, LotsBusiness or LotsStore, Pro is included while that plan is active. ### Private notes that agents never see In LotsNotes every note is shared or private. A private note stays on lotsnotes.com and never comes back through MCP or the REST API: to an agent it doesn't exist. Shared notes follow your workspace roles: owners, admins and members edit, viewers read, and a member can be given selected folders only. Guru's MCP connection respects the same permissions as the web app: if you can open a collection, card or source, your AI tool can reach it through MCP. That is the right rule for a company knowledge base. In LotsNotes you can also keep salary notes, investor updates or half-formed ideas in the same workspace, marked private, and no agent will see them on any plan. ### Built around how agents read Guru organizes knowledge as cards in collections and puts Knowledge Agents in front of it, so your AI tool asks a question and gets a cited answer. LotsNotes hands the notes themselves to your agent: - **A note titled AGENTS.md is read first.** At workspace level it reaches every folder, so your house rules apply everywhere. A folder can hold its own AGENTS.md for one product, client or agent. - **Workspace notes come back with every folder.** When an agent calls `find_context` for a folder, it gets the workspace notes plus that folder's notes, each with a one-line summary, and reads only what the task needs. - **Every note carries its link.** Each note an agent reads or saves comes back with its lotsnotes.com URL, so the agent can hand you the page to review. I run LotsTech's own agents this way: one folder per agent with its AGENTS.md, plan, handoff and ledger, so any agent can pick up tomorrow where another stopped. Agencies do the same with one folder per client, as in [how agencies keep each client's context separate](https://lotsnotes.com/blog/keep-client-context-separate-chatgpt-claude-codex). ### Your agent saves the note, and you can undo it In Guru, AI tools can create cards or draft edits through MCP, and those changes go through the same review and publishing workflows your team uses in Guru. That fits a company where a knowledge team owns what gets published. In LotsNotes your agent saves the note directly, the way you would. Every save keeps a version, and the agent can list versions and restore an earlier one itself. If someone changed a note while the agent was working, a save with `expected_version` returns a conflict instead of overwriting the edit. Archive, trash and folder deletion all hide things that can be restored. The Workspace page lists every connected app with when it was last used, and you can disconnect one everywhere. ### Any MCP client, no approval step LotsNotes uses standard OAuth for every MCP client: add the URL, sign in, done. Guru's help center says OAuth is pre-approved for some popular applications, and other applications may need Guru Support to allow them; its MCP page names Claude and Cursor for OAuth today, with API tokens for other tools. Both work with the big assistants. LotsNotes just doesn't keep a list. ## Where Guru fits Guru is a mature enterprise product, and its strengths are real: - **Verification at scale.** People can verify cards with expiry dates, and Knowledge Agents run daily checks that verify or unverify content based on usage, feedback and AI analysis, with every decision in a Quality Log you can override. Verification also covers documents in Google Drive, Confluence and SharePoint. - **Answers across your tools.** Guru connects to 100+ tools, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Zendesk, Confluence and SharePoint. Over MCP, your AI tool asks a Knowledge Agent and gets an answer drawn from all of them, with citations. - **Governance.** Permissions are inherited from your systems, every MCP question is logged in the AI Agent Center with the person who asked, and agent edits go through review before publishing. - **Enterprise security.** SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GxP compliance, SSO, SCIM, role-based access, data loss prevention masking and audit logs. Guru says your data never trains its AI models. - **People to set it up.** Every package includes a team of solution engineers for knowledge architecture, agent configuration, rollout and ongoing reviews. If you run knowledge for a large company and want one governed layer that every person and every AI tool trusts, Guru does that well. ## Which one should you choose? **Choose LotsNotes if:** - You're a founder, a small team or an agency, and you use more than one AI agent. - You want to start today on a Free plan and pay $99 once when your team joins. - You want some notes agents can never see, in the same tool. - You want AGENTS.md instructions that reach every folder, and agents that save notes directly with version history. **Choose Guru if:** - You need verified answers across Slack, Salesforce, Confluence, SharePoint and other company tools. - You want a knowledge team to review agent edits before they're published. - You need SSO, SCIM, DLP, audit logs and compliance such as HIPAA or GxP. - You want solution engineers to design and roll out your knowledge layer. ## How to switch, or run both, from your AI agent You can run both. Guru stays the company's governed knowledge base, and LotsNotes holds the short, current context each agent or team reads first. 1. Connect LotsNotes: add `https://api.lotsnotes.com/mcp` to your agent and sign in. The [setup page](https://lotsnotes.com/mcp) has the steps for Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, and [this guide](https://lotsnotes.com/blog/connect-claude-chatgpt-codex-cursor-to-lotsnotes) walks through each one. 2. Keep the Guru MCP (`https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp`) connected in the same agent. 3. Give the agent this prompt: > Use Guru to search our cards on positioning, brand voice, pricing rules and current decisions, and read each one. Prefer verified cards. Then in LotsNotes: list my workspaces and use the one for this business. Create a folder called Marketing. Create a workspace-wide note titled AGENTS.md that says, in under 300 words, who we are, who we sell to, how we write, what agents must never do, and that the full knowledge base lives in Guru. Then create one shared note per topic in the Marketing folder, rewritten as short, current facts. Give me the lotsnotes.com link for every note you create. In LotsNotes that runs on `lotsnotes_list_workspaces`, `lotsnotes_create_folder` and `lotsnotes_create_context_note`. Guru's exact tool names depend on your client, so check its tool list. Later, when a decision changes, ask any agent to update the note: it reads it with `lotsnotes_read_note` and saves it with `lotsnotes_save_context_note`, and the old version stays in history. Anything personal or sensitive you move over, mark private on lotsnotes.com, and no agent will see it. ## Common questions ### Is LotsNotes a Guru alternative? Yes, for giving AI agents your business context. Both have a remote MCP server and a REST API, and both work with Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. LotsNotes adds a Free plan, private notes agents never see, AGENTS.md notes that reach every folder, and a one-time $99 Pro. It doesn't replace Guru's verification, answers across connected company tools, or enterprise governance. ### How much does Guru cost? Guru doesn't publish prices. Its pricing page says each package is tailored to your organization's scale, knowledge complexity and AI maturity, includes the platform, a strategy team and enterprise governance, and starts with booking a call. There's no free plan on the pricing page. Checked on 21 October 2026. ### Does Guru have an MCP server? Yes. Guru's MCP server is at `https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp`, over HTTP streaming. You connect with OAuth (pre-approved for some apps, others may need Guru Support) or with an API token from Guru's admin settings. Your AI tool can ask Knowledge Agents, search and read cards, and create cards or draft edits, all within your Guru permissions. ### Can an AI agent edit Guru cards? Yes. Guru's help center lists creating cards, drafting edits, moving and archiving cards, and managing drafts over MCP. Guru's MCP page says these changes trigger the same review and publishing workflows your team uses in Guru. In LotsNotes an agent saves a note directly, and every save keeps a version you can restore. ### Can my AI agent read my private notes? In LotsNotes, no. Private notes stay on lotsnotes.com and are never returned through MCP or the API. In Guru, MCP follows your permissions, so an agent can reach every card and source the signed-in person can open. ### How much does LotsNotes cost? Free for one person: 1 workspace, 3 folders, unlimited notes and checklists, MCP and REST. LotsNotes Pro is $99, pay once, for unlimited workspaces, folders and team members, and it's included while you have a Pro or Business plan of LotsSocial, LotsBlog, LotsTeam, LotsCRM, LotsInvoice, LotsBusiness or LotsStore. ## Start with your agent Give your agent this and let it set itself up: > Read https://lotsnotes.com/skill.md and connect LotsNotes for me. The MCP server is https://api.lotsnotes.com/mcp. Free covers one person, with MCP and REST included. See [pricing](https://lotsnotes.com/pricing), [how to connect your agent](https://lotsnotes.com/mcp), [LotsNotes vs Slite](https://lotsnotes.com/blog/lotsnotes-vs-slite), the [best knowledge base tools with MCP support](https://lotsnotes.com/blog/best-knowledge-base-tools-with-mcp-support), or [all comparisons](https://lotsnotes.com/compare). ## Sources Guru facts checked on 21 October 2026 on Guru's own pages: - Pricing and package: https://www.getguru.com/pricing - MCP server (supported actions, OAuth and API tokens, review workflows): https://www.getguru.com/features/mcp-server - Using Guru as an MCP server (endpoint, tool groups, permissions, AI Agent Center): https://help.getguru.com/docs/connecting-gurus-mcp-server - Connecting to Claude Desktop and Claude Code: https://help.getguru.com/docs/connecting-gurus-mcp-server-to-claude-desktop - Connecting to ChatGPT: https://help.getguru.com/docs/connecting-gurus-mcp-server-to-chatgpt-desktop - Verification: https://help.getguru.com/docs/what-is-verifcation - REST API: https://developer.getguru.com/docs/getting-started LotsNotes: https://lotsnotes.com/pricing, https://lotsnotes.com/mcp, https://lotsnotes.com/skill.md, https://api.lotsnotes.com/tools.json, https://api.lotsnotes.com/docs.md.