name: agent-recall description: >- Persistent compounding memory for AI agents. 8 MCP tools: session_start, remember, recall, session_end, check, digest, project_board, project_status. Correction-first memory with decision trail tracking, watch_for warnings, palace rooms with salience scoring, cross-project insight matching, same-day journal merging, ambient recall hooks. Local markdown only. Zero cloud, zero telemetry, Obsidian-compatible. origin: community version: 3.3.28 author: Goldentrii platform: clawhub install: mcp: command: npx args: ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"] transport: stdio env: {} security: network: none credentials: none filesystem: read-write ~/.agent-recall/ only telemetry: none cloud: none tags:

• memory
• persistence
• multi-session
• mcp
• cross-project
• feedback-loop
• intelligent-distance
• auto-naming
• knowledge-graph
• obsidian trigger:
• "save"
• "save session"
• "/arsave"
• "/arstart"
• "remember this"
• "recall"
• "what did we do last time"
• "load context"
• "start session"
• "end session"
• "checkpoint"
• "保存"
• "记住"
• "上次做了什么"
• "加载上下文" skip:
• "don't save"
• "skip memory"
• "no need"
• "不用记"
• "算了"

AgentRecall v3.3.28 — Usage Guide

AgentRecall is a persistent memory system with 8 MCP tools. This guide describes how and when to use them.

Setup

AgentRecall requires the MCP server to be running. If tool calls fail with "unknown tool", the human needs to install it first.

Installation (human runs once)

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user agent-recall -- npx -y agent-recall-mcp

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "agent-recall": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"] } } }

VS Code / GitHub Copilot (.vscode/mcp.json):

{ "servers": { "agent-recall": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"] } } }

Windsurf (~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "agent-recall": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"] } } }

Codex:

codex mcp add agent-recall -- npx -y agent-recall-mcp

Hermes Agent (~/.hermes/config.yaml):

mcp_servers:
  agent-recall:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"]

Roo Code (.roo/mcp.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "agent-recall": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"] } } }

Any MCP-compatible agent:

command: npx
args: ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"]
transport: stdio

Tools

AgentRecall provides these MCP tools:

session_start

When: Beginning of a session, to load prior context.

What it returns:

• project — detected project name
• identity — who the user is (1-2 lines)
• insights — top 5 awareness insights (title + confirmation count + severity)
• active_rooms — top 5 palace rooms by salience (with staleness flag + last_updated)
• cross_project — insights from other projects matching current context
• recent — today/yesterday journal briefs
• watch_for — predictive warnings from past correction patterns + decision calibration
• corrections — P0 behavioral rules (max 10, always loaded, never expire)
• resume — structured re-entry briefing: last_date, last_trajectory, sessions_count

How to use the response:

1. Read identity to calibrate your tone and approach
2. Read insights — these are battle-tested lessons. Follow them.
3. Read watch_for — these are patterns where you've been wrong before on this project. Adjust your approach.
4. Read recent to understand where the last session left off
5. Present a brief to the human: project name, last session summary, relevant insights

Example call:

session_start({ project: "auto" })

remember

When: You learn something worth keeping. A decision, a bug fix, an insight, a session note.

What it does: Auto-classifies your content and routes it to the right store:

• Bug fix / lesson → knowledge store
• Architecture / decision → palace room
• Cross-project pattern → awareness system
• Session activity → journal

You do NOT need to decide where it goes. Just describe what to remember.

How to use:

remember({
  content: "We decided to use GraphQL instead of REST because the frontend needs flexible queries",
  context: "architecture decision"    // optional hint, improves routing
})

Returns: routed_to (which store), classification (content type), auto_name (semantic slug generated)

recall

When: You need to find something from past sessions. A decision, a pattern, a lesson.

What it does: Searches ALL stores at once using Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) — each source (palace, journal, insights) ranks internally, then positions merge so no single source dominates. Journal entries decay fast via Ebbinghaus curve (S=2 days); palace entries are near-permanent (S=9999). Returns ranked results with stable IDs.

How to use:

recall({ query: "authentication design", limit: 5 })

Feedback: After using results, rate them. Ratings use a Bayesian Beta model — the mathematically optimal estimate of true usefulness:

recall({
  query: "auth patterns",
  feedback: [
    { id: "abc123", useful: true },   // Beta(2,1) → ×1.33 next time
    { id: "def456", useful: false }   // Beta(1,2) → ×0.67 next time
  ]
})

Feedback is query-aware — rating something "useless" for one query doesn't penalize it for unrelated queries.

session_end

When: End of session, after work is done.

What it does in one call:

• Writes daily journal entry
• Updates awareness with new insights (merge or add)
• Consolidates decisions/goals into palace rooms
• Archives demoted insights (preserved, not deleted)

How to use:

session_end({
  summary: "Built auth module with JWT refresh rotation. Fixed CORS bug.",
  insights: [
    {
      title: "JWT refresh tokens need httpOnly cookies — localStorage is vulnerable",
      evidence: "XSS attack vector discovered during security review",
      applies_when: ["auth", "jwt", "security", "cookies"],
      severity: "critical"
    }
  ],
  trajectory: "Next: add rate limiting to API endpoints"
})

Rules for insights:

• 1-3 per session. Quality over quantity.
• Must be reusable. "Fixed a bug" is NOT an insight. "API returns null when session expires — always null-check auth responses" IS an insight.
• applies_when keywords determine when this insight surfaces in future sessions across ALL projects.

Return fields:

• journal_written — boolean, true if journal entry was saved
• awareness_updated — boolean, true if any insight was stored
• palace_consolidated — boolean, true if palace rooms were updated
• insights_processed — number of insights accepted
• quality_warnings — advisory warnings if insights are too short, lack evidence, or use event-verb phrasing (never blocks saves)
• card — formatted save summary (box-drawing card)
• merge_suggestions — array of similar recent entries (optional)

check

When: Before executing a complex task where you might misunderstand the human's intent. Also for tracking decision quality over time.

What it does:

• Records your understanding of the goal
• Returns watch_for — patterns from past corrections on this project
• Returns similar_past_deltas — times you misunderstood similar goals before
• After human responds, record the correction for future agents
• Optionally tracks decision trails with prior/posterior/evidence for calibrated judgment

Two-call pattern (correction tracking):

Call 1 — before work:

check({
  goal: "Build REST API for user management",
  confidence: "medium",
  assumptions: ["User wants REST, not GraphQL", "CRUD endpoints", "PostgreSQL backend"]
})

Read the watch_for response. If it says "You've been corrected on API style 3 times", ASK the human before proceeding.

Call 2 — after human corrects (if they do):

check({
  goal: "Build REST API for user management",
  confidence: "high",
  human_correction: "Actually wants GraphQL, not REST",
  delta: "API style preference — assumed REST, human prefers GraphQL"
})

This feeds the predictive system. Future agents on this project will get warnings.

Decision trail (Bayesian-inspired calibration):

For major decisions, track confidence and outcome to calibrate judgment over time:

check({
  goal: "Use GraphQL instead of REST",
  confidence: "medium",
  prior: 0.7,                    // initial confidence (0-1)
  evidence: [
    { factor: "Frontend needs flexible queries", direction: "supports", weight: 0.2 },
    { factor: "No GraphQL experience on team", direction: "weakens", weight: 0.3 }
  ],
  posterior: 0.55,               // updated confidence after evidence
  outcome: "rejected"            // final result: "confirmed", "rejected", "partial", or free text
})

When outcome is provided, the decision trail is persisted to the palace decisions room. After 3+ closed decisions, session_start surfaces calibration warnings: "Your priors average 0.8 but outcomes average 0.5 — you're overconfident."

Returns: recorded, watch_for, similar_past_deltas, decision_id (when outcome provided), decision_trail_saved, calibration_note

project_board

When: Start of a new session when you don't know which project to work on.

What it does: Scans all projects and returns a status board — last activity date, pending work, active blockers. Use this before session_start to pick which project to load.

project_board()

project_status

When: Quick check on a specific project's health without loading full context.

What it returns: Last trajectory, active blockers, palace room freshness (stale flag), next steps, summary line. Lighter than session_start — no awareness or cross-project loading.

project_status({ project: "auto" })

Session Flow

Start of session

1. session_start()           → load context, read insights and warnings
2. Present brief to human    → "Last session: X. Insights: Y. Ready."
3. check() if task is complex → verify understanding before work

During work

4. remember() when you learn something   → auto-routes to right store
5. recall() when you need past context   → searches everything
6. check() before major decisions        → verify understanding

End of session

7. check() with corrections if any       → record what human corrected
8. session_end()                          → save journal + insights + consolidation
9. Done — all data saved locally (only push to git if user explicitly asks)

How Memory Compounds

Each layer feeds the next. The system gets better the more you use it.

SAVE: remember("JWT needs httpOnly cookies")
  → Auto-named: "lesson-jwt-httponly-cookies-security"
  → Indexed in palace + insights
  → Auto-linked to "architecture" room (keyword overlap)
  → Salience scored: recency(0.30) + access(0.25) + connections(0.20) + ...

RECALL: recall("cookie security") — 3 sessions later, different project
  → Finds the JWT insight via keyword match + graph edge traversal
  → Agent rates it useful → feedback boosts future ranking
  → Next recall on similar query → this result surfaces higher

COMPOUND: After 10 sessions
  → 200-line awareness contains cross-validated insights
  → watch_for warns about past mistakes before they repeat
  → Corrections auto-promote to awareness at 3+ occurrences
  → Graph connects related memories across rooms automatically

Best Practices

1. Call session_start at the beginning. Insights from past sessions prevent repeated mistakes.
2. Call session_end when done. If the session produced decisions, insights, or corrections, save them.
3. Insights should be reusable. Write them for a future agent who has never seen this project.
4. Match the human's language. If they write in Chinese, save in Chinese.
5. Don't over-save. 1-3 insights per session. 1-2 remember calls during work. More is noise.
6. Rate your recall results. Feedback makes future retrievals better.
7. Use check for ambiguous tasks. 5 seconds of verification beats 30 minutes of wrong work.
8. Read watch_for warnings. If session_start or check returns warnings, adjust your approach.

Storage

All data is local markdown + JSON at ~/.agent-recall/. No cloud, no telemetry, no API keys.

~/.agent-recall/
  awareness.md                              # 200-line compounding document (global)
  awareness-state.json                      # Structured awareness data
  awareness-archive.json                    # Demoted insights (preserved, not deleted)
  insights-index.json                       # Cross-project insight matching
  feedback-log.json                         # Retrieval quality ratings
  projects/<name>/
    journal/YYYY-MM-DD.md                   # Daily journals (legacy)
    journal/YYYY-MM-DD--arsave--NL--slug.md # Smart-named journals (auto-save)
    palace/rooms/<room>/                    # Persistent knowledge rooms
    palace/rooms/decisions/                 # Decision trail records (prior/posterior/outcome)
    palace/identity.md                      # Project intention + goals
    palace/graph.json                       # Memory connection edges
    alignment-log.json                      # Correction history for watch_for
    digest/                                 # Pre-digested context summaries

Obsidian-compatible. Open palace/ as a vault to see the knowledge graph.

Platform Compatibility

| Platform | How to install | |----------|---------------| | Claude Code | claude mcp add --scope user agent-recall -- npx -y agent-recall-mcp | | Cursor | .cursor/mcp.json | | VS Code / Copilot | .vscode/mcp.json | | Windsurf | ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json | | Codex | codex mcp add agent-recall -- npx -y agent-recall-mcp | | Hermes Agent | ~/.hermes/config.yaml under mcp_servers: | | Roo Code | .roo/mcp.json | | Claude Desktop | claude_desktop_config.json | | Gemini CLI | MCP server config | | OpenCode | MCP server config | | Any MCP client | command: npx, args: ["-y", "agent-recall-mcp"], transport: stdio |

All platforms use the same tools. No platform-specific behavior.

Security & Privacy

• Zero network: No outbound HTTP requests, no telemetry, no analytics, no cloud sync. All operations are local filesystem reads/writes.
• Zero credentials: No API keys, tokens, or environment variables required.
• Scoped filesystem access: Reads/writes only to ~/.agent-recall/ (configurable via --root flag). Does not access files outside this directory unless the agent explicitly passes project-specific paths.
• No code execution: The MCP server does not execute arbitrary code, run shell commands, or spawn child processes.
• Transparent storage: All data is human-readable markdown and JSON. Inspect it anytime: ls ~/.agent-recall/ or open it as an Obsidian vault.
• Open source: Full source at github.com/Goldentrii/AgentRecall. MIT license.

/arstatus, /arsave, /arstart, and /arsaveall

[!TIP] New to AgentRecall? Read the → Command Reference — full instructions, all example outputs, installation, and troubleshooting in one place.

[!IMPORTANT] Run /arstatus at the start of every session. It shows all your projects, what's pending, what's blocked, and lets you pick what to work on — by number, not by remembering project names. Without it, a fresh agent has no idea where to begin.

| Command | When | What it does | |---------|------|-------------| | ⭐ /arstatus | Every session — run this first | Status board across ALL projects: pending work, blockers, numbered pick list. The true cold start. | | /arstart | After picking a project | Load deep context for one project: palace rooms, corrections, task-specific recall | | /arsave | End of session | Write journal + consolidate to palace + update awareness | | /arsaveall | End of day (multi-session) | Batch save all parallel sessions at once — scan, merge, deduplicate, done |

The session flow: /arstatus → pick a number → /arstart <project> → work → /arsave.

Running 5 agents in parallel? Don't /arsave five times. Type /arsaveall once — it scans all of today's sessions across all projects, merges them into consolidated journals, deduplicates insights, and updates awareness in one shot. Each session writes to its own file (session-ID scoped), so no conflicts, no data loss, no matter how many windows you have open.

What You'll See

Type /arstatus → see everything in flight across all projects, pick by number:

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  AgentRecall  Status Board        2026-04-21    5 projects
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  1  ⚠ novada-site       2026-04-21   BLOCKED
       Blocked: .env.local missing — Phase 1 cannot proceed

  2  ● novada-mcp        2026-04-21
       Next: fix novada_search POST /request → publish v0.8.0

  3  ● prismma-scraper   2026-04-17
       Next: UI upgrade Option A — light mode + 3D visuals

  4  ✓ AgentRecall       2026-04-21   complete
       Collecting real production data

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Enter a number, or:
    N  New project (with memory — agent knows your full history)
    X  New project (clean slate — no prior context, pure objectivity)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Type /arsave → the system saves everything and renders a card with exact file paths and counts:

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  AgentRecall  ✓ Saved    my-project   2026-04-20   #12
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Journal       ~/.agent-recall/projects/my-project/journal/
                └─ 2026-04-20--arsave--15L--review-feedback.md    [written]

  Awareness     2 insights added  (8 total)

  Palace        ~/.agent-recall/projects/my-project/palace/
                ├─ rooms/Architecture       [updated]
                └─ rooms/Goals              [updated]

  Corrections   3 stored  (always loaded at session start)

  ⚡ Similar entries found — consider merging:
     2026-04-19  (review, feedback, architecture)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Type /arstart → loads all context from memory in one shot:

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  AgentRecall  ↻ Loaded    my-project   2026-04-21
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Project       my-project — SaaS platform for AI agents
  Last session  2026-04-20 — review + feedback loop shipped

  Insights (top 3):
    [5×] Server-rendered cards beat agent templates
    [3×] Per-message dedup beats per-session dedup
    [2×] Stemming + synonyms improve keyword recall

  ⚠ Past corrections — watch out:
    - "No dark backgrounds" (corrected 3×)
    - "Use bb-browser, not Playwright" (corrected 2×)

  Cross-project: 2 related insights from novada-mcp

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Type /arsaveall → batch-saves all parallel sessions at once:

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  AgentRecall  ✓ Batch Saved    2026-04-20
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Sessions scanned    5
  Projects saved      my-project, novada-mcp, prismma-scraper
  Insights merged     4 (deduplicated from 7)
  Corrections         2 new (auto-captured via hooks)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

The cards are rendered server-side — computed from actual operation results, not agent interpretation. What you see is always accurate.

# Install commands (one-time, Claude Code only)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/commands
curl -o ~/.claude/commands/arstatus.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Goldentrii/AgentRecall/main/commands/arstatus.md
curl -o ~/.claude/commands/arstart.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Goldentrii/AgentRecall/main/commands/arstart.md
curl -o ~/.claude/commands/arsave.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Goldentrii/AgentRecall/main/commands/arsave.md
curl -o ~/.claude/commands/arsaveall.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Goldentrii/AgentRecall/main/