recall-mcp

TL;DR: Local semantic search MCP server for markdown docs and Granola meeting transcripts. Ask Claude "what did we decide about X?" and it finds relevant content by meaning. Runs entirely on your machine - no API keys, no cloud, no cost.

What this is

A Model Context Protocol server that indexes your markdown files and Granola meeting transcripts into a local vector database. Claude Code can then search across everything by meaning, not just keywords.

You ask something like "what did we decide about the onboarding flow?" and it surfaces relevant chunks from your docs and meeting recordings, even if those exact words never appeared.

How it works:

Your markdown files + Granola meetings
           |
           v
  Ollama (nomic-embed-text)    <- local embedding model, no API key
           |
           v
       ChromaDB                <- local vector database on localhost:8000
           |
           v
    5 MCP tools                <- Claude Code calls these during conversations

Auto-indexing runs every 15 minutes in the background via a macOS LaunchAgent.

Prerequisites

macOS (LaunchAgent setup is macOS-specific; the core server works anywhere)
Node.js 18+ - brew install node
Ollama - ollama.com or brew install ollama
uv (for running ChromaDB) - brew install uv
Granola desktop app - granola.ai - only needed if you want meeting transcript search

Setup

1. Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/thetenzinwoser/recall-mcp.git
cd recall-mcp
npm install
npm run build

2. Install the embedding model

brew services start ollama
ollama pull nomic-embed-text

First pull is ~274MB. After that it's cached.

3. Run setup

./scripts/setup.sh

This will:

Ask where your markdown docs live (DOCS_PATH)
Write a .env file
Generate LaunchAgent plists from templates and load them
Start ChromaDB and schedule auto-indexing
Run an initial index of your docs and Granola transcripts
Print the MCP config block to paste into Claude Code

4. Add to Claude Code

Open ~/.claude.json and add under mcpServers:

"recall": {
  "type": "stdio",
  "command": "node",
  "args": ["/absolute/path/to/recall-mcp/dist/server.js"]
}

Use the exact path printed at the end of setup.sh. Then restart Claude Code and run /mcp to confirm it connected.

Tools

| Tool | What it does | |------|-------------| | semantic_search | Search docs and transcripts by meaning. Accepts query, optional limit (1-20), optional sourceTypes filter. | | get_transcript | Fetch a full meeting transcript. Accepts meetingId, searchTitle (with optional date), or listRecent. | | reindex_docs | Re-scan your docs folder. Incremental - only processes changed files. | | index_granola_transcripts | Pull and index new Granola meetings. Accepts limit and clearExisting. | | index_status | Show chunk counts by source type. |

get_transcript details

Title search with date: { searchTitle: "team sync March 14" } - extracts the date and fuzzy-matches the title
Explicit date: { searchTitle: "team sync", date: "2026-03-14" } - when multiple meetings share a title
Partial ID: First 8 characters of a meeting UUID is enough
List recent: { listRecent: 20 } to browse recent meetings with IDs

Configuration

All settings have sensible defaults. The only one most people need is DOCS_PATH.

Copy .env.example to .env and edit:

cp .env.example .env

| Variable | Default | Purpose | |----------|---------|---------| | DOCS_PATH | ~/docs | Folder to scan for markdown files (recursive) | | OLLAMA_URL | http://localhost:11434 | Ollama endpoint | | EMBEDDING_MODEL | nomic-embed-text | Model to use for embeddings |

ChromaDB runs on localhost:8000 by default. This is not configurable without editing the LaunchAgent plist directly.

Granola integration

recall-mcp reads your Granola auth token from the Granola desktop app's local data. No separate API key or login needed - just have Granola installed and signed in.

Auth token location: ~/Library/Application Support/Granola/supabase.json

If you don't use Granola, the doc indexing still works fine. Transcript-related tools will return errors, which Claude handles gracefully.

Manual commands

Reindex now (instead of waiting for the 15-min interval):

cd /path/to/recall-mcp && npx tsx src/scripts/auto-index.ts

Check ChromaDB is running:

curl -s http://localhost:8000/api/v2/heartbeat

Check what's indexed:

# Use the index_status MCP tool, or check logs:
tail -f /path/to/recall-mcp/logs/auto-index.log

Rebuild after pulling updates:

npm run build

Restart ChromaDB:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.recall.chromadb.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.recall.chromadb.plist

Troubleshooting

semantic_search returns nothing / MCP not connecting

Run /mcp in Claude Code to check server status
Make sure dist/server.js exists (npm run build)
Verify the path in ~/.claude.json is absolute and correct

ChromaDB not running

curl -s http://localhost:8000/api/v2/heartbeat
# Should return: {"nanosecond heartbeat": ...}

If it fails, check logs/chromadb-stderr.log or reload the LaunchAgent.

Ollama errors

ollama list
# nomic-embed-text should appear

If not: ollama pull nomic-embed-text

Granola auth fails Make sure the Granola desktop app is installed and you're logged in. The token file should exist at ~/Library/Application Support/Granola/supabase.json.

Results feel stale Force a reindex: npx tsx src/scripts/auto-index.ts. The auto-indexer only picks up file changes and new meetings - if you renamed files or restructured folders, a manual run helps.

Stack

| Component | Version | Purpose | |-----------|---------|---------| | @modelcontextprotocol/sdk | ^1.27.0 | MCP server framework | | chromadb | ^1.10.0 | Vector database client | | ollama (nomic-embed-text) | - | Local embeddings, 768 dimensions | | glob | ^10.0.0 | File scanning | | zod | ^3.23.8 | Config validation |

License

MIT

MCP Servers