brain-mcp v1.0

Transportable AI memory, now shipping as a distributable.

Your AI conversation history, queryable from any MCP-aware LLM, stored entirely on your machine.

What changed in v1.0

brain-mcp v0.x was a hosted SHELET reference implementation pointed at a Supabase substrate. v1.0 is a thin MCP server that wraps the Bob protocol. Storage moved from cloud Postgres to local parquets under ~/.bob/. The protocol is free; brain-mcp is one implementation; a paid bob managed * tier (cloud sync, recipes) is opt-in and lives in a separate package.

The 53 of you who starred v0.x: thank you. v1.0 is the version we were always going to build — memory belongs to the rememberer is the architecture that makes the product possible, not just the pitch.

What v1.0 inherits

• The 8-tool surface (bob_search, bob_recent, bob_what_do_i_think, bob_tunnel_state, bob_thinking_trajectory, bob_open_threads, bob_conversations_by_date, bob_health).

• The "AI assistant readme" frame — your LLM reads this README and gets dramatically more useful.

• The cite-or-die discipline — every claim from brain-mcp surfaces a conv_id, ts, and src so the LLM can show its work.

What v1.0 drops

• Cloud database connection (no Supabase, no anon keys).

• Semantic search (no embeddings yet; v1.0 is keyword-only — embeddings are a separate future protocol).

• The brainmcp.dev hosted demo dashboard (the protocol is the spec now, not a website).

Install (2 minutes)

Step 1 — Install Bob

In any LLM session that can fetch URLs (Claude Code, Claude.ai with web search, ChatGPT with browse, Cursor, etc.), paste:

Run this: https://apiiam.com/bob/init.0

The LLM fetches the XML protocol, runs duckdb against ~/.claude/projects/, ~/.codex/sessions/, your Cursor sqlite, and any ChatGPT / Claude.ai exports you've downloaded. Writes ~/.bob/turns.parquet (~5 min, ~30MB for an active user). No passwords, no signups, no network calls beyond the initial spec fetch.

Optional — promote L0 → L1 (noise filter):

Run this: https://apiiam.com/bob/init.1

Strips system-reminders, command outputs, build-log pastes. Writes ~/.bob/turns.l1.parquet + audit trail.

Step 2 — Install brain-mcp

uvx brain-mcp                    # ephemeral, no install
# OR
uv tool install brain-mcp        # persistent CLI
# OR
pipx install brain-mcp

Step 3 — Register with your LLM client

Claude Code / Claude Desktop — add to ~/.claude/mcp.json (or via claude mcp add):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brain": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["brain-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / Continue / other MCP clients — same shape, see their MCP docs.

That's it. Open a new LLM session and ask: "what was I working on last week?"

🤖 For AI Assistants

You're reading this because your human installed brain-mcp and gave you access to their AI conversation history. Here's how to use it well.

When to call which tool

What brain-mcp does NOT do

• No semantic / embedding search. v1.0 is keyword-only. Don't claim "I searched semantically" — claim "I searched the keyword X across their conversations." For sentences that should match semantically, try multiple keyword angles.

• No cross-LLM identity stitching. A conversation in ChatGPT and one in Claude on the same topic are two conv_ids. Surface both; don't merge.

• No future-looking inference. The data is what they typed. Don't speculate "they're probably about to X" — say "in conversation Y on date Z they said Q."

• No write-back. brain-mcp is strictly read-only on the parquets.

Cite-or-die discipline

Every fact you state from brain-mcp must include the ts, src, and conv_id from the row(s) it came from. Don't paraphrase what they said without telling them where you read it. "In your conductor-role-orchestra conversation on 2026-05-23, you wrote: ..." — not "you believe X."

👤 For Humans

What brain-mcp does

You've been chatting with AI for months or years across multiple tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, Claude Code). Each tool only sees its own slice. Bob captures all five into one local file. brain-mcp lets any MCP-aware LLM read that file.

The first time you ask a fresh LLM session "what was I working on last week?" and it answers with conversations from three different tools — that's the unlock.

What brain-mcp does NOT do

• It does not phone home. brain-mcp opens no network sockets. Your data stays on your machine. (Verify: run lsof -p <brain-mcp-pid> while it's serving.)

• It does not need an account. No signup, no API keys.

• It does not generate embeddings. v1.0 is keyword search only. Embeddings are a separate (also local) future protocol.

• It does not modify your AI conversation logs. brain-mcp reads ~/.bob/turns.parquet, which bob produced from your CC / Codex / Cursor / export files. The original logs are untouched.

Storage layout

~/.bob/
├── turns.parquet          ← L0: raw turns from up to 5 sources (init.0 output)
├── turns.l1.parquet       ← L1: noise-filtered (init.1 output; optional)
├── turns.l1.dropped.parquet ← L1 audit trail (which turns were filtered, why)
└── turns.l1.manifest.json ← counts + drop reasons (also optional)

brain-mcp prefers L1 when present, falls back to L0.

Refresh

Re-run init.0 in any LLM session. It overwrites ~/.bob/turns.parquet with the latest 30 days. No cron, no daemon — you choose when.

Architecture

• Protocol: apiiam.com/bob/init.0 (XML, fetched by your LLM)

• Storage: parquet files under ~/.bob/ (or $BOB_HOME)

• Query engine: duckdb (in-process, in-memory, read-only against parquets)

• MCP server: Python + FastMCP, stdio transport

• Optional service tier: bob managed * subcommands for cloud sync (separate package, opt-in, lives at a different binary — not bundled here)

Your LLM (Claude / ChatGPT / Cursor / ...)
        ↓ MCP stdio
brain-mcp (this package)
        ↓ duckdb read_parquet
~/.bob/turns.l1.parquet  (or L0 if no L1)
        ↑ written by
init.0 / init.1 (Bob protocol, run in an LLM session)
        ↑ reads
your raw AI conversation logs (CC / Codex / Cursor / exports)

No box in this diagram makes a network call after install except init.0 fetching the protocol URL once.

v0.x compatibility

If you registered the v0.x brain-mcp against a Supabase substrate: that config no longer works. v1.0 reads local parquets only. To migrate:

1. Run https://apiiam.com/bob/init.0 to produce ~/.bob/turns.parquet.

2. Upgrade: uv tool upgrade brain-mcp (or pipx upgrade brain-mcp).

3. Restart your LLM client (it re-spawns the MCP server with the new code).

Your old BRAIN_MCP_DB_URL / BRAIN_MCP_API_KEY env vars are now ignored. Remove them.

License

MIT. Use anywhere, including commercially. No warranty.

Links

• Protocol: https://apiiam.com/bob/init.0

• Author: Mordechai Potash — mordechaipotash.com

• Essays on the underlying thesis: daf.mordechaipotash.com

• Issues / discussion: GitHub