Recollect

Recollect gives your coding agents a shared Brain and the right tools to act. Connect Codex, Claude Code and OpenCode to one self-hosted service. Carry repository knowledge, decisions, runbooks and session memory across agents and repositories, so the next session can pick up where the last left off.

Bring memory and execution into one workflow: retrieve context with supporting evidence, authorize the tools an agent can use, and route approved MCP calls through the Recollect service or a paired private runner. Reach an internal filesystem or service from another machine while keeping execution inside your network.

Long-term memory, knowledge graphs, hybrid search and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) coordinator work together around the same Brain. Memories retain links to their sources, repository revisions and environments. Your coding agent stays in its familiar host; Recollect provides the shared knowledge, access rules and tool coordination. Inspect it all in the desktop web UI.

Early project: intended for individuals and trusted internal teams. The desktop redesign and private-runner workflow have local acceptance evidence. Remaining work and limits include further native-host direct-MCP acceptance and memory evaluation.

Product illustrations use example data and show the main workflows.

Why Recollect

A shared Brain, governed tools and private execution in one self-hosted service.

• Keep engineering context across agents and sessions. Capture supported sessions automatically, recall relevant knowledge with citations, and reuse decisions and fixes across repositories. Memory stays connected to its evidence and correction history.
• Give agents the right tools for each environment. Organize MCP connections into tool groups with independent Use, Manage and Share permissions. A person can read a Brain without permission to run its tools; environment scope keeps tool availability tied to the selected work context.
• Reach private tools from wherever you work. A paired runner connects outbound to Recollect and executes approved calls inside your network. The caller and runner can be different people or devices, and each connection has an explicit execution location.
• Keep control of your data and infrastructure. Self-host the service, choose capture, retention and AI-processing policies, and inspect knowledge, connections, permissions and tool-call outcomes in one UI. Model calls follow your configured provider policy.

When to use Recollect

• Continue work across sessions. Keep decisions, investigations, fixes and handovers available to the next coding agent.
• Understand a workspace across repositories. Connect code and configuration relationships with documentation, revision history and environment knowledge.
• Share context with a team. Organize knowledge in access-controlled Brains and give agents separately authorized tools for the work they need to do.

Run locally

Install Docker with Compose and Python 3.11+, then run:

git clone https://github.com/MikeK184/Recollect.git
cd Recollect
./scripts/stack.sh up --build

Open http://127.0.0.1:8787. The first run generates login credentials in the ignored .env file: use RECOLLECT_OWNER_USERNAME and RECOLLECT_OWNER_PASSWORD. The script builds the application and starts the complete recollect Compose group: PostgreSQL, Neo4j, UI/API and worker, with a one-shot migration first.

./scripts/stack.sh stop         # Stop everything; keep all data
./scripts/stack.sh up           # Start again
./scripts/stack.sh status       # Show service state
./scripts/stack.sh logs         # Follow API and worker logs
./scripts/stack.sh up --build   # Rebuild after code or UI changes

The root compose.yaml also supports standard docker compose commands. Use ./scripts/docker.sh compose if your Docker installation needs the repository's CLI wrapper. stop keeps containers and data; down removes the containers/network and keeps data. Do not add --volumes when retaining data.

For native development, stop the Compose stack, install Rust/Cargo and Node.js/npm, then run ./scripts/dev.sh. It runs only the databases in Docker and starts the API and worker in the terminal. Stop it with Ctrl+C before returning to Compose.

Learning and semantic search require an OPENAI_API_KEY in .env and an enabled Brain model policy. Model requests are billed by the provider. Browser-created Brains include the managed autonomous preset. Existing Brains keep their policy until Enable autonomous memory is selected; API creation defaults remain disabled unless managed setup is requested.

For Docker installation and shared HTTPS access, see the installation guide.

Connect your coding agent

Open Agents → Connect agent for Codex, Claude Code or OpenCode. Install the packaged plugin, connect once to your Brain, then start your coding host normally. The plugin bundles automatic capture, cited memory recall, local checkout discovery and repository publication. Independent local/private tool execution is optional through --with-runner. Advanced direct HTTP MCP remains available. Public marketplace distribution and native MCP OAuth login are not available yet.

The connection guide covers host configuration and a real tool-call check. Session capture depends on the supported host's hooks and your Brain's policies. Direct MCP uses a host configuration and access token; it does not install the plugin's automatic session-capture hooks.

For reproducible quality evidence, see the public retrieval benchmark and its measured results and limits.

Environments and tool access

Set up a connection once, include it in a tool group, and grant people or groups Use. Choose an environment when the tools should be available only for that work context. Execution placement controls which executor makes the MCP call.

The agent requests tools through Recollect. For centrally placed HTTP connections such as Exa, Recollect checks access and makes the MCP request to the remote service. The environment limits availability; it does not host the MCP server.

A Brain-wide connection can belong to an environment-specific tool group. That group limits its use to the selected environment; it does not move the MCP server. An environment-bound connection can only belong to a group in that same environment. A group cannot widen a connection's scope.

Without an enabled matching tool group and an explicit Use grant, the agent cannot execute that connection's tools. Brain administrators inherit Manage and Share, not Use. Gran