MCP Server

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI assistants access external data through "tools." Retrace includes an MCP server that exposes your conversation data as tools Claude Desktop can call.

How it works

The MCP server runs as a stdio server: Claude Desktop launches it as a subprocess and communicates over stdin/stdout. No network port, no authentication needed.

When you ask Claude Desktop a question about your conversations, it calls Retrace MCP tools to fetch the relevant data, then uses that data to answer.

Setup

Open Retrace and go to Settings
Click the MCP tab
Click Install for Claude Desktop
Retrace writes the server config to Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json

You can also install manually. Add this to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "retrace": {
      "command": "bun",
      "args": ["run", "/path/to/retrace/packages/server/src/mcp-server.ts"]
    }
  }
}

Available tools

The MCP server exposes these tools to Claude:

Tool	Description
`search_conversations`	Search across all conversations (keyword or semantic)
`get_conversation`	Get a specific conversation with messages
`list_people`	List people in your network
`get_person`	Get details about a person and their conversations
`get_segments`	Get processed segments for a conversation
`get_topics`	List extracted topics
`get_reflections`	Get past reflections and time capsules

Permissions

The MCP server respects labels and permissions. You can create a consumer profile for the MCP server and restrict which conversations it can access.

For example, if you only want Claude Desktop to see work conversations, create a permission rule: MCP server can only access conversations labeled #work.

Example prompts

Once set up, try asking Claude Desktop:

"What have I been talking about with Sarah this month?"
"Summarize my recent WhatsApp conversations"
"What topics come up most in my conversations?"