Notes app v5.0.0 has scenarios where the API returns a JSON list where the
MCP server expects a single note object — notably the notes_api#fail
catch-all returning [] for unmatched routes. Without a guard, callers hit
a cryptic Pydantic "argument after ** must be a mapping, not list" from
Note(**payload).
Add a small _expect_note_object helper at the client layer:
- dict → pass through (the healthy case)
- single-element list → unwrap and warn (Notes v5.0.0 quirk)
- empty list, multi-element list, non-dict → raise a diagnostic ValueError
that names the operation and points at the likely root cause (URL prefix,
unmatched route, wrong API version)
Wire it into get_note / create_note / update so any list-shaped response
fails clearly instead of cryptically.
Six unit tests pin every branch of the helper.
Note: The 405s the issue reports for update_note / append_content match
Notes v5.0.0's documented routes (PUT /api/v1/notes/{id}) per upstream
appinfo/routes.php. They are most likely a downstream effect of #732
(missing /index.php URL prefix on installs without Pretty URLs) — the fix
in PR #733 should resolve those once it lands.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
