Retrace Docs
Features

Labels & Permissions

Control exactly what each tool and agent can see.

What it does

Labels let you tag conversations and people, then set rules about what each tool can access. This is how you keep private conversations private, even when using features like Claude chat or the MCP server.

How labels work

There are three types of labels:

  • Platform labels (automatic): Every conversation gets a label for its source (whatsapp, chatgpt, messenger, etc.)
  • Topic labels (automatic): Extracted topics become labels (career, travel, health, etc.)
  • Custom labels (manual): You create these yourself (private, work, family, etc.)

You can attach labels to conversations and to people. A person's label applies to all their conversations.

Setting permissions

Each consumer (tool or agent) has a permission profile that defines what it can see:

ConsumerExample rule
Embedded ClaudeCan see everything except #private
MCP serverCan only see #work conversations
SearchNo restrictions (local-only, no data leaves)

Examples

  • Tag personal therapy conversations as #private so Claude never sees them
  • Tag work conversations as #work so your MCP server (used by Claude Desktop) only accesses work data
  • Tag family group chats as #family to create a dedicated search scope

How to manage labels

  1. Open any conversation in Retrace
  2. Click the Labels button
  3. Add or remove labels
  4. To set permission rules, go to Settings > Permissions

Privacy

This is the core privacy control in Retrace. While your data is stored locally, some features (Claude chat, MCP server) send data to external services. Labels and permissions ensure you control exactly what leaves your machine.

On this page