memlawb

Switch agents. Come back to a project next week. Keep the useful context.

OpenRecall is the memory layer for your agents: shared preferences, project decisions, and durable notes that Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Zero, OpenClaude, and your own agents can reuse. Memory is encrypted on your machine; the local store or sync server holds ciphertext. Start locally, then self-host when you want the same memory on more than one machine.

Built by Twigpine, alongside Zero and OpenClaude.

Why OpenRecall

Related MCP server: ctrl-memory

Quick start

npm i -g @twigpine/openrecall     # Node 24.22.1+
openrecall init                   # one passphrase, kept owner-only in ~/.openrecall
openrecall setup all --write      # connect every agent found on this machine
openrecall status                 # check the config and the store

Restart your agents and they share one memory. No server is involved: this is local mode. setup without --write is a dry run that prints every change first; where an agent has its own mcp add, that is what it uses, and any JSON file it edits is backed up. Per-agent notes, including Zero's sandbox and the Claude Code / OpenClaude plugin, are in docs/agents.md.

Zero-knowledge means no recovery. The passphrase in ~/.openrecall/config.json is the only key to your memory. Back that file up; nobody, including the host, can recover it.

Three ways to use it

One rule ties them together: the MCP server runs wherever the passphrase is. Recall ranks over plaintext after decryption, so it has to run on your machine. A server only stores and syncs ciphertext; it is what makes memory follow you across machines, never a place that can read it.

Use from any agent

openrecall setup covers Claude Code, Zero, OpenClaude, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, opencode, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, and VS Code. For anything else that speaks MCP, register a stdio server. The agent's config holds no secrets:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openrecall": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@twigpine/openrecall", "mcp"] }
  }
}

Claude Code and OpenClaude can install the plugin instead, which bundles the MCP server and the memory skill:

/plugin install openrecall --marketplace Twigpine/openrecall

Memory across projects

Project tools and multi-namespace recall need 0.2.1 or later.

Keep standing preferences and general feedback in your configured shared namespace. Keep project decisions and references in a separate project scope. The agent can discover and reuse those scopes:

1. memory_projects() lists known project IDs and their namespaces (20 per page; use offset for more).

2. memory_project(project: "github.com/twigpine/openrecall") registers or reopens that ID and returns its project namespace and the shared namespace. Use the same host/owner/repo ID across agents and machines; IDs are case-insensitive and ignore a trailing .git.

3. memory_recall accepts namespaces: [shared, project] to rank both scopes together with one result limit and size cap. Every hit names its source namespace. Include only the projects relevant to the task.

Pass the returned namespace explicitly to memory_save, memory_get, memory_list, memory_search, and memory_delete. Opening a project does not change defaults or move existing memories. Existing shared memories remain available, and callers that use a single namespace keep their current behavior. Project IDs live in the encrypted directory; their namespaces use hashed IDs.

Tools alone do not make an agent use memory well; it also needs the discipline to recall before answering, save only durable facts, and never duplicate. That lives in one place, skills/openrecall-memory/SKILL.md. setup installs it where an agent loads skills, and the MCP server exposes the same text as its memory_guide prompt and in its startup instructions, so every client gets it.

Self-host a server

A server lets several machines share one memory. Install Bun and ensure bun is on your PATH. The npm-installed openrecall serve launches Bun automatically; everything else in the package runs on Node. For local memory on one machine, use init and setup from the quick start above.

npm i -g @twigpine/openrecall
export STATIC_API_KEYS="me:$(openssl rand -hex 24)"   # owner:key, note the key
STORE=fs DATA_DIR=./data openrecall serve

# on each machine, the same passphrase everywhere (copy it from the first)
openrecall init --url https://memory.example.com --api-key <key> --namespace user:me

Each API key owns the user:<owner> namespace subtree. For many users, use the Supabase key table in migrations/ instead of static keys. ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED=true skips auth entirely, for a server bound to localhost only. A Docker image (ghcr.io/twigpine/openrecall) and a fly.toml are included; configuration is in .env.example. What lands on the server is ciphertext: grep its data directory for any plaintext and you will find nothing.

Use as a library

import { OpenRecallClient } from '@twigpine/openrecall'

const memory = new OpenRecallClient({
  url: 'https://memory.example.com',            // your server
  apiKey: process.env.OPENRECALL_API_KEY,
  passphrase: process.env.OPENRECALL_PASSPHRASE, // never leaves this process
})

await memory.push('user:me', { 'MEMORY.md': '# what I know about the user' })
const { entries } = await memory.pull('user:me')

The entry points (@twigpine/openrecall, /crypto, /secretscan) ship as plain ESM with type declarations, for Node 24+, Bun, or any bundler. An agent that only needs memory tools is better served by the MCP server; the library is for code that wants the sync protocol itself.

How it works

agent (Claude Code · Zero · OpenClaude · Codex · Cursor · …)
   │   MCP tools: plaintext in, plaintext out
   ▼  openrecall mcp — runs on your machine, holds the passphrase
   │  [ client/crypto.ts — encrypt with a key derived from your passphrase ]
   │   ciphertext
   ▼
local store (~/.openrecall/data)   or   openrecall server (crypto-blind)
                                            ▼
                                  BlobStore: fs | s3 (Tigris/R2/AWS)

Security model

• Encryption. AES-256-GCM with key = scrypt(passphrase, salt = sha256("openrecall:" + namespace)).

• Integrity. The entry key is GCM additional authenticated data, so a blob is bound to its key and cannot be swapped or replayed.

• Determinism. A synthetic-IV nonce enables delta sync; the only leak is whether two entries are byte-identical.

• Key custody. The passphrase lives only in ~/.openrecall/config.json (mode 0600) or your environment, and only the local MCP/CLI process reads it. Agent configs never contain it.

• Defense in depth. The client-side secret scanner runs before encryption and blocks saves containing live-looking credentials by default (OPENRECALL_SCAN=warn|off to relax it).

• Tenancy. Each API key maps to an owner who controls exactly their own user:<owner> subtree, with per-account quotas and per-owner rate limits enforced server-side.

• Upgrade path. A version byte on every blob allows a move to XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id without breaking existing data.

Report vulnerabilities privately; see SECURITY.md for the process and the threat model.

HTTP API

All bodies are ciphertext; the server validates sizes and hashes without decrypting anything.

A namespace (user:me, repo:owner/name, agent:intern) is the unit of scoping, and entry keys mirror a memory directory (MEMORY.md, feedback/x.md). The hashes view also reports supports (capabilities a client can rely on) and erasure (whether this deployment's store really removes bytes on delete).

base is an optional per-entry precondition: the ciphertext hash the caller believes a key holds, or null for "should not exist". A disagreement is refused with 409 stale_base_version and a details.conflicts map naming what each key actually holds; omitting base writes unconditionally. A namespace whose manifest cannot be parsed answers 503 manifest_unreadable rather than appearing empty.

Configuration

• Client (CLI and MCP server): ~/.openrecall/config.json, written by openrecall init, holds url (local or a server URL), apiKey, passphrase, namespace, and scan (block | warn | off). OPENRECALL_URL, OPENRECALL_API_KEY, OPENRECALL_PASSPHRASE, OPENRECALL_NAMESPACE, and OPENRECALL_SCAN override it; OPENRECALL_HOME moves the whole directory.

• Server: .env.example documents STORE (fs | s3), ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED, STATIC_API_KEYS or Supabase auth, and the per-namespace and per-account limits.

Status

Beta. @twigpine/openrecall 0.2.1 is on npm, published from CI with provenance. The crypto-blind server, client crypto, CLI, local mode, MCP server, agent setup, secret scanner, quotas, and rate limiting are implemented and covered by bun test, including real MCP sessions over stdio under both Bun and Node and an install of the packed package under Node. Next: the hosted beta at memory.twigpine.com and a self-service console for API keys. See ROADMAP.md.

Development

bun install
bun run build       # dist/openrecall.js (the Node CLI) and dist/client/ (the library)
bun test            # the suite; build first so the Node bundle and package tests run
bun run type-check  # tsc --noEmit
bun run check       # biome lint + format

The codebase splits along the trust boundary:

client/    the zero-knowledge client — encrypts here; holds the key
src/       the crypto-blind server — only ever sees ciphertext
src/cli/   client settings, local mode, and `openrecall setup`
src/mcp/   the MCP server (memory tools) over the client
bin/       the CLI (init | setup | status | push | pull | mcp | serve)
skills/    the openrecall-memory skill, shared by every agent

The cardinal rule: plaintext, passphrases, and derived keys never reach the server. A test walks the import graph to enforce it. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide.

Community

• Use GitHub Discussions for Q&A, ideas, and community conversation

• Use GitHub Issues for confirmed bugs and actionable feature work

• Join the Discord to chat with the community in real time

• Follow @twigpine on X for updates and announcements

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. For larger changes, open an issue first so the scope is clear. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the dev setup, design principles, Conventional Commits, and DCO sign-off, and our Code of Conduct.

License

Released under the MIT License. Contributions are accepted under the same license.

The logo and brand assets are included as editable SVGs.