ctxfile

You work with more than one AI agent. Claude Code in the terminal, Cursor in the editor, a chat tab for thinking. Each one starts cold, because your working state (the plan, the key files, the git state, what you decided an hour ago) lives in your head and in scrollback.

ctxfile is a local-first MCP server that snapshots your project's working state into one structured context object, and hands it to any MCP agent in a single call. Save a session in one agent, continue it in another. Nothing leaves your machine.

you → ctxfile → the same context, in every agent

30-second quickstart

Claude Code

claude mcp add ctxfile -- npx -y ctxfile

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json globally)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ctxfile": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ctxfile"] }
  }
}

Claude Desktop: download ctxfile.mcpb from releases and drag it into Settings → Extensions.

Any other MCP client: it is a standard stdio server. npx -y ctxfile is the whole command.

Then, in your agent: "load my context" (or call get_context). Requires Node ≥ 20 (≥ 22 on Windows).

Related MCP server: mindmap-mcp-server

Private by default

This is the part we care about most, so it goes first:

• The default path makes zero network calls. Files and git only.

• Secret-looking content (cloud keys, tokens, private keys, JWTs, password= assignments) is redacted before it enters the snapshot. .env*, key files, and credential files are never read at all.

• Core is read-only over your project. It never writes to your repo, your git state, or anything else.

• No telemetry by default. An anonymous weekly install ping exists, and it is opt-in only.

• Network connectors (Notion, local Ollama summarization, Sync) activate only when you explicitly configure them.

The full model, including what Pro and Sync add and what they can never see, is documented at ctxfile.dev/security.

What it does

The monorepo

Open core, honestly

Everything in this repo is Apache-2.0 and works standalone, forever. The paid Pro add-on (a separate, closed package) adds session connectors that read your recent sessions from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Aider, OpenClaw, and Hermes Agent, plus encrypted cross-session memory, multi-provider consult, and local voice capture. Licensing is an Ed25519-signed key verified offline. No phone-home, ever. Pro funds the open-source work.

Contributing

We want your issues, your PRs, and your weird harness reports. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md. Every ingested format, every MCP client quirk, every redaction gap you find makes the whole thing better.

• Bugs and features: issues

• Questions and show-and-tell: discussions

• Security reports: SECURITY.md (please do not open public issues for vulnerabilities)

git clone https://github.com/ctxfile/ctxfile.git && cd ctxfile
npm install
npm run build && npm test    # the whole gate: lint, typecheck, tests

Star history

If ctxfile saves you a cold start, a star is how other people find it.

License

Apache-2.0. "ctxfile" and the ctxfile logo are trademarks of ctxfile; the license covers the code, not the name.