recall

A zero-dependency MCP server for cross-session memory recall in Claude Code. It exposes lexical search / list / get over your Claude memory files so a new session can find what past sessions decided and learned, without re-explaining.

No native deps, no SDK: pure Node stdlib implementing the MCP stdio JSON-RPC protocol by hand. It installs and runs anywhere Node 18+ exists.

Why

Context is fragile across sessions; power users build their own (Chronicle, Recall-with-Redis) to recall files, decisions, and chats. Memory consolidation work (RecMem, agentmemory) shows the value of distilling recurring knowledge rather than re-loading everything. recall is the minimal, dependency-free first step: make the memory you already write searchable from any session.

Related MCP server: mcp-server-claude

Tools

• recall_search(query, limit=5): ranked lexical search over memory files, returns name, score, snippet, file.

• recall_list(): all memory entries (name, description, file).

• recall_get(name): full content of one entry by frontmatter name or filename.

Read-only by design in v0.1. It never writes or deletes.

Install (Claude Code)

Add to your MCP config (~/.claude/settings.json, or wherever you manage MCP servers):

"mcpServers": {
  "recall": {
    "command": "node",
    "args": ["C:\\Users\\<you>\\recall\\server.js"],
    "env": { "RECALL_MEMORY_DIR": "" }
  }
}

• RECALL_MEMORY_DIR (optional): point at a specific memory folder. If unset, recall scans every ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/memory/ directory.

• As a plugin, .claude-plugin/plugin.json already declares the server via ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/server.js.

Restart Claude Code; the recall_* tools appear.

Verify it yourself (no network needed)

printf '%s\n%s\n' \
'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{}}}' \
'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}' | node server.js

You should get an initialize result with serverInfo and a tools/list with three tools.

Limits / roadmap

• v0.1 is lexical (term-frequency). It does not do semantic/embedding search yet.

• v0.2 (planned): optional embeddings + hybrid retrieval (e.g. sqlite-vec + BM25/FTS5) behind a flag, plus confidence/lifecycle tags. Those add native deps; v0.1 stays dependency-free on purpose.

License

MIT

Part of the claude-code-skills collection: a one-line Claude Code plugin marketplace of focused skills, plugins, and MCP servers.

/plugin marketplace add Zavelinski/claude-code-skills