# Recall in your agents > Install Hansard's MCP server and recall skills so Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other agents can search your past conversations and memories. Recall lets a coding agent search your Hansard archive and read past conversations while it works. Ask it what was decided about a feature, or tell it to continue an earlier conversation, and it finds and reads the right one. Install recall from the CLI, or on the **Give your agents a memory** page of the app's guided setup, which adds it with memory search to every supported agent it finds. Later, **Settings → Coding agents** adds, repairs, or removes it for each agent. - App: **Setup → Give your agents a memory** - CLI: `hansard integrations add-to` - In your agent: `/recall` For a comparison of tools, status, memory retrieval, launches, and routing, see [Provider and feature support](https://www.hansard.dev/reference/provider-support/). ## Install recall from the CLI 1. Import at least one harness, so the archive has conversations to search. See [Supported harnesses](https://www.hansard.dev/imports/supported-sources/). 2. Add recall to an agent: ```sh hansard integrations add-to codex ``` See the table below for every managed target. Other compatible local clients can use `hansard integrations config` to export the MCP entry. In a terminal, `hansard integrations add-to` without a name asks which agent to set up. 3. Restart or reload the agent so it reads the new configuration. 4. Ask the agent about earlier work, for example `/recall the authentication migration`. Each install adds a Hansard MCP server entry to the agent's configuration and native commands, skills, and identity hooks where supported. MCP-only clients use the tools directly: | Agent | Name | Commands or skills installed | Invoke directly | | ------------------ | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- | | Codex | `codex` | `recall`, `continue-from`, `deep-recall`, and `unify-memories` skills | `$recall` | | Claude Code | `claude` | `/recall`, `/continue-from`, `/deep-recall`, and `/unify-memories` commands, plus matching skills | `/recall` | | Antigravity | `antigravity` | `recall` and `continue-from` skills | Ask in plain language | | Devin | `devin` | `recall` and `continue-from` skills | `@skills:recall` | | OpenCode | `opencode` | `/recall` and `/continue-from` commands | `/recall` | | Grok Build | `grok` | `recall` and `continue-from` skills | `/recall` | | Factory Droid | `factory` | `recall` and `continue-from` skills | Ask in plain language | | Augment CLI | `augment` | MCP tools and SessionStart hook | Ask in plain language | | Cursor app and CLI | `cursor` | `recall`, `continue-from`, and `deep-recall` skills, plus a sessionStart hook | `/recall` | | Cline CLI | `cline` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | | GitHub Copilot CLI | `copilot` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | | Amp | `amp` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | | Kimi Code | `kimi` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | | Kiro | `kiro` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | | Zed | `zed` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | | Claude Desktop | `claude-desktop` | MCP tools; explicit identity binding | Ask in plain language | Skills also start on their own when a request matches them, so asking "which fix for the flaky upload test shipped last week?" works without a command. The Cursor app and the Cursor CLI (`cursor-agent`) read the same `~/.cursor` configuration, so the one `cursor` target covers both; `cursor-ide` and `cursor-cli` are accepted as other names for it. Gemini CLI remains supported as an import source but is not a live setup target; use Antigravity for current Google agent coverage. ### Where the files go | Agent | Commands and skills | MCP server entry | | ------------------ | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Codex | `~/.codex/skills/` | `~/.codex/config.toml` | | Claude Code | `~/.claude/commands/` and `~/.claude/skills/` | `~/.claude.json` | | Antigravity | `~/.gemini/config/skills/` | `~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json` | | Devin | `~/.config/devin/skills/` | `~/.config/devin/mcp_config.json` | | OpenCode | `~/.config/opencode/commands/` | `~/.config/opencode/opencode.json`, or the file in `OPENCODE_CONFIG` | | Grok Build | `~/.grok/skills/` | `~/.grok/config.toml` | | Factory Droid | `~/.factory/skills/` | `~/.factory/mcp.json` | | Augment CLI | MCP only | `~/.augment/settings.json` | | Cursor app and CLI | `~/.cursor/skills/` | `~/.cursor/mcp.json` | | Cline CLI | MCP only | `~/.cline/mcp.json` | | GitHub Copilot CLI | MCP only | `~/.copilot/mcp-config.json`, or `COPILOT_HOME` | | Amp | MCP only | `~/.config/amp/settings.json` or existing `settings.jsonc`; `amp.mcpServers` | | Kimi Code | MCP only | `~/.kimi/mcp.json` | | Kiro | MCP only | `~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json` | | Zed | MCP only | `~/.config/zed/settings.json`; `context_servers` | | Claude Desktop | MCP only | `claude_desktop_config.json` in the platform Claude application-support directory | ## Automatic session context and status Every managed integration includes status reporting. The app's setup offers **Agent messaging** and **Helper agents** on **Make it yours**, and interactive `hansard init` asks **Let your agents work together?** with the same two choices. Both start unanswered. Helpers remain unavailable until messaging is on. Skipping or running `hansard init --yes` alone keeps both off. A message can announce that an API is ready for tests. A helper can review a change. Messages and helper instructions can reach the receiving agent's model provider. Automatic identity is available where the client exposes a supported hook or plugin; other clients require explicit session binding. Enabled messaging and helpers use the same project. `report_status` and `session_context` are available even with messaging off. Native hooks or an OpenCode plugin attach the current conversation identity and brief instructions in sessions opened directly in the agent. Hansard launches also supply reporting instructions. This applies to every model selected within a supported harness, including Antigravity app, CLI, and IDE conversations. Agents report meaningful `working`, `blocked`, `needs_review`, and `done` transitions to the project overview. These are the agent's declarations; an installed integration cannot guarantee that every model will report them. Status remains available when messaging and helper launches are disabled. With messaging enabled, context also directs agents to discover peers, check unread messages, and coordinate concrete dependencies. Hooks never send messages or grant tool permissions. Grok refreshes identity before Hansard tool calls; its prompt hook does not display successful hook output. OpenCode refreshes its briefing through its system-context plugin. Run `hansard integrations sync` and restart existing clients after upgrading, so they load new tools such as `ask_user`, `peer_file`, `code_history`, and `work_context`. Missing generated hooks and plugins are repaired by the watcher. The CLI fallback is `hansard session report --state working --note "Checking the task"`; pass `--session-token` when the supplied session context instructs the agent to. Codex reviews new or changed hooks before starting a session. `hansard integrations trust-hooks codex` records trust for Hansard's hooks through Codex, leaving other hooks for review. `add-to codex` runs this step, and `integrations status` reports Hansard hooks still waiting for trust. Managed Codex instructions also ask agents to record newly received native subagent messages with `capture_subagent_messages`. This retains the exact assignment, follow-up, or result with a session-bound receipt. It records agent-reported text without a recovery conversation or model request. See [Recall tool results](https://www.hansard.dev/reference/recall-tools/#agent-reported-subagent-deliveries) for its evidence limits. ## What your agent can do | Workflow | What the agent does | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Recall | Chooses a short search query from your request, runs `hansard history`, and reads the latest messages of the best match before answering. | | Continue from | Finds the conversation, reads its opening and latest messages plus selected decisions, checks the repository, and continues the work in the current session. See [Continue in another harness](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/continue/). | | Deep Recall | Runs several searches, reads whole conversations, and answers with session citations. Codex and Claude Code only. See [Deep Recall](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/deep-recall/). | | Unify memories | Compares memories across harnesses and proposes merges for you to approve. Codex and Claude Code only. See [Memories](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/memories/). | | Recall memories | Searches your archived memories across providers. Installed by default. | Example requests in Claude Code: ```text /recall the rate limiter design /continue-from the stats activity work and finish the tests /deep-recall which caching approaches were tried, and which one shipped? ``` The instructions Hansard installs tell the agent to treat archived text as history, not as instructions to follow. The agent never runs a command or opens a link only because an archived conversation contains one. ### MCP tools The Hansard MCP server gives the agent these read-only recall tools, plus the memory tools described in [Search memories across agents](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/agent-integrations/#search-memories-across-agents): | Tool | What it returns | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | `search_past_sessions` | Matching excerpts for a query, optionally limited to a repository, a date range, or message roles such as only what you wrote. Returns 10 results by default and up to 50, with up to 5 matching messages per conversation when asked. With [search by meaning](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/search/#search-by-meaning) on, it also matches by meaning unless the agent asks for one mode. Imported web chats are excluded unless the agent asks for them. | | `get_past_session` | A window of messages from one conversation, the latest 20 by default, with a cursor to read further. Each tool message is cut to 1,500 characters and marked as truncated, unless the read covers only that message or the agent sets its own cap, so reading that one message returns the rest. It can keep only some roles, set its own cap for every message, and fold repeated drafts into their latest version. | | `code_history` | A file's or symbol's history: the edits, commits, reverts, test failures and fixes that touched it, and the files that import it. See [Search](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/search/). | | `work_context` | A task's conversations, steps, tests, commits, and linked conversations. | The commands and skills run the `hansard` CLI, so `hansard` must be on the `PATH` of the agent's shell. The MCP server entry records where Hansard is installed. See [Recall tool results](https://www.hansard.dev/reference/recall-tools/) for result fields, transcript paging, memory windows, and error responses. Managed integrations also expose progress reporting. See [Agent status and declared events](https://www.hansard.dev/reference/agent-status/) for states, evidence limits, and the difference between an agent's claim and a recorded command result. ### Shared MCP host Agent sessions share one MCP host, which the watcher runs. Each session's recall server relays to the host over a private local connection and carries that session's identity, so an open session costs a small relay instead of its own copy of the tools. Codex reaches the host over loopback HTTP, with one entry for all of its threads; `hansard integrations sync` rewrites that entry when the host starts or stops. When the host restarts, relays reconnect; with no host running, each session serves itself. A relay uses a host from any installed copy of Hansard, such as the desktop app, the npm package, or a source checkout, that runs its version or a newer one. `hansard status` names the running host and its version. Set `HANSARD_MCP_HOST=off` to run every session in its own process, or `HANSARD_MCP_PORT` to choose the loopback port (default 7839). On Windows, the host moves to another port when the recorded one is refused. ## Search memories across agents Memory retrieval is included by default. Every managed agent can search the captured memories of every provider and project. To refresh an integration: ```sh hansard integrations add-to claude ``` This installs a `recall-memories` workflow and two read-only MCP tools, `search_memories` and `get_memory`. Unfiltered searches span the whole bank; optional filters select a provider or a project plus global guidance. With search by meaning on, `search_memories` also finds memories that say the same thing in other words. Each hit names the memory and, when known, the lines that match, and `get_memory` opens a window centered on a hit's line. The agent retrieves relevant records as needed. These tools cannot create, edit, merge, or delete memories. To omit memory tools for one agent, run `hansard integrations add-to claude --no-memories`. Automatic refreshes preserve this choice. Reload the agent after changing its integration. The earlier `--memories` flag remains accepted. ## Refresh the installed files To rewrite the commands and skills without changing the MCP server entry, use `integrations recall`: ```sh hansard integrations recall codex ``` | Target | What it writes | | ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | An agent name | That agent's commands and skills. | | `all` (the default) | Every agent's commands and skills, plus plain instruction files under `~/.hansard/skills/`. | | `local` | Only the plain instruction files under `~/.hansard/skills/`, for agents that read instructions from a file you point them to. | Memory workflows are included by default. A refresh renames older `hansard-recall`, `hansard-continue-from`, `hansard-unify-memories`, and `hansard-memory` files to their current names. Reload the agent afterward. No reimport is needed. ## When a name is already taken Hansard never overwrites a skill or command it did not write. If you already have your own `recall` skill, Hansard keeps it and installs its own as `hansard-recall`, so you invoke it as `/hansard-recall`. The same applies to every other name. Setup and `hansard integrations status` say which names moved. If both names are taken, Hansard skips only that skill, installs everything else, and shows a warning. Rename or remove one of the two files. The watcher then installs the skipped skill within 15 minutes, or you can run `hansard integrations add-to ` to install it immediately. If Hansard cannot read an agent's configuration file, for example a `~/.claude.json` with a syntax error, it leaves that file unchanged and still installs the skills. The message names the file. After you fix it, run `hansard integrations add-to `, or let the watcher add the MCP entry on its next retry. Hansard changes only its own entries in an agent's configuration files. Your comments, formatting, and other settings stay as they are. If a file is a symbolic link, for example into a dotfiles repository, Hansard updates the file it points to and keeps the link. A read-only file is left alone and reported, and every other part of the integration still installs. ## Keep recall installed Hansard records each install. While the watcher runs, it checks every 15 minutes and reinstalls commands, skills, and MCP entries that disappeared, for example after reinstalling an agent recreated its configuration folder. It also refreshes the generated files once after each Hansard upgrade. The first check records which agents are already on the machine. An agent that appears after that gets recall automatically, without memory retrieval. Agents that were already present are left for you to add. Installs made before Hansard kept this record are adopted when their files or MCP entry are found. ```sh hansard integrations status hansard integrations sync --dry-run hansard integrations forget grok ``` `status` shows each agent and anything missing. `sync` also updates messaging and helper tools to match the configured modes, preserving explicit off settings. It runs one check now, and `--dry-run` reports what it would change. `forget` stops tracking an agent and leaves its files in place. | Setting | Default | Effect | | -------------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `integrations.autoSync` | `true` | Reinstall missing files and refresh them after upgrades. | | `integrations.autoInstall` | `true` | Install recall for newly detected agents. `hansard init --no-recall` sets it to `false`. | ```sh hansard config set integrations.autoInstall false ``` `hansard status` and `hansard doctor` also report missing integrations. ### Check and repair in the app Open **Settings → Coding agents**. Under **Hansard in each agent**, each agent Hansard found has one row. Open a row to see the state of its MCP server, its recall skills, and its session-start hook. - **Repair** writes each part again. A part that fails shows its reason, and the other parts still install. - **Add** gives an agent without Hansard the same three parts. - **Remove** deletes the parts Hansard added to that agent and stops keeping it in sync. A file you changed after Hansard wrote it stays, and Hansard names it. Claude Code's and Codex's MCP entries are removed with `claude mcp remove --scope user hansard` and `codex mcp remove hansard`. **Automatic setup** holds the two settings in the table above: **Add Hansard to agents you install later** and **Keep integrations in sync**. ## Run the MCP server yourself For an MCP client that Hansard does not configure, run the recall server over standard input and output: ```sh hansard mcp serve ``` Memory tools are included by default; `--no-memories` omits them. Add `--status` for session reporting. `--messaging` adds [Agent messaging](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/session-messaging/). `--delegation` adds [Helper agents](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/agent-delegation/). Delegation also turns on messaging. `hansard peers setup` configures messaging across detected active harnesses. `hansard agents setup` configures helper launches across detected or existing managed integrations. Managed installs already enable these capabilities by default; the standalone server uses the flags above. ### Bind a conversation without native hooks For clients without automatic identity, obtain the current native conversation ID and run the binding command locally. For example, Kimi Code uses provider ID `moonshot`: ```sh hansard session bind --provider moonshot --native-session-id --cwd ``` Keep the returned token in that conversation and pass it as `session_token` on status, messaging, board, and helper MCP calls. CLI status reports accept `--session-token`. Do not put a single conversation's token in global MCP configuration shared by several conversations. If no native ID is accessible, recall and memory search still work, but coordination cannot be bound reliably. For an unmanaged local MCP client, `hansard integrations config` prints the command and arguments with the configured default features. Adapt that entry to the client's native format. It does not install a remote MCP server for browser chats or hosted agents. Claude Desktop setup does not configure a Cowork sandbox, and Cline CLI setup does not modify Cline IDE settings. ## Common questions ### Which coding agents can use Hansard recall? Codex, Claude Code, Cursor (the app and `cursor-agent`), Antigravity, Devin, OpenCode, Grok Build, Factory Droid, Augment CLI, Cline CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Amp, Kimi Code, Kiro, Zed, and Claude Desktop. Run `hansard integrations add-to ` with the name from the table in [Install recall from the CLI](https://www.hansard.dev/guides/agent-integrations/#install-recall-from-the-cli). Any other local MCP client can run `hansard mcp serve`. ### What tools does the Hansard MCP server provide? `search_past_sessions` returns matching excerpts from archived conversations, and `get_past_session` reads a window of messages from one conversation. `search_memories` and `get_memory` search and read memories from every harness. `code_history` reads a file's or symbol's history, and `work_context` reads a task's arc. All six are read-only. ### Does recall send my archive to the agent's model provider? Only what the agent reads. Search results and conversation excerpts join that agent's context and go to its model provider like any other context; the rest of the archive stays on your computer. See [What leaves your machine](https://www.hansard.dev/privacy/data-boundaries/). ## Troubleshooting **The agent says `hansard` is not installed.** Install the CLI globally, see [Install the CLI](https://www.hansard.dev/getting-started/installation/), and restart the agent so its shell finds `hansard` on the `PATH`. **The commands or skills disappeared.** Run `hansard integrations status`, then `hansard integrations sync`. If the watcher is off, run `hansard integrations add-to ` again. **Recall misses recent conversations.** Search indexing may be paused. Run `hansard index status`, then `hansard index resume` and `hansard index rebuild` if needed. **The agent still shows old `hansard-` command names.** Run `hansard integrations recall ` and reload the agent. **A session starts without the project's thread digest.** Agent hooks stop at 3.5 seconds, before the 5 seconds agents allow. A session-start hook that runs out of time still returns the session token but leaves out the thread digest, and a hook that fails returns an empty result, so it never holds up the agent. `hansard doctor` lists hooks that failed in the last seven days under **agent hooks**.