Keep every Claude Code conversation. On your own computer.

So everyone learns tricks

CLAUDE.md files, auto memory, hand-off notes, pasting a summary into the next chat, memory-bank files, memory servers. They help, and you should keep using them: they're curated guidance Claude loads every session. But each is a summary someone chose to write. It's partial, and it goes stale unless maintained.

Archive keeps what actually happened

What it's doing for us (one laptop, last 30 days)

Use both. CLAUDE.md for what Claude should do. Archive for what actually happened.

Why we built it: Keep Every Claude Code Conversation → (the Rootz blog)

Install in two commands

claude plugin marketplace add rootz-global/rootz-archive
claude plugin install rootz-archive@rootz

Then start a new Claude Code session and type /rootz-archive:accept to accept the use licence. Nothing is captured until you do. It needs Node.js 22.13 or newer. Then just ask Claude: "What did we decide about the login flow last month?"

Get Rootz Archive on GitHub

New in 0.7: share a conversation, with proof. Type /rootz-archive:share, or ask Claude to share a past session. You get a folder on your computer with the exact conversation and a capture receipt. You send it; the recipient checks it at receipts.rootz.global/verify, in their browser, with nothing uploaded. Change one byte and the check fails. Read it before you send it: it holds the whole conversation.

First, once

Install Rootz Archive (above), type /rootz-archive:accept, then start one new Claude Code session. That writes a launcher that every other tool uses, and keeps it current when the plugin updates:

~/.rootz-archive/bin/archive-free-mcp.mjs

In the settings below, replace /Users/you with your home folder (on Windows, C:\Users\you). Most tools need the full path; ~ is not expanded. Node.js 22.13 or newer must be on the path; if a desktop app cannot find node, use its full path (which node).

Claude desktop app, Cursor, Windsurf (now Devin Desktop), Gemini CLI

Add this to the tool's MCP settings file: Claude desktop claude_desktop_config.json · Cursor ~/.cursor/mcp.json · Windsurf / Devin Desktop ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json · Gemini CLI ~/.gemini/settings.json (or run gemini mcp add --scope user archive-free node /Users/you/.rootz-archive/bin/archive-free-mcp.mjs).

Gemini CLI only connects MCP servers in a folder you trust. The first time you run gemini in a project folder, choose "Trust folder"; in an untrusted folder the archive is listed but not started. Check with gemini mcp list: it should say "Connected".

{ "mcpServers": { "archive-free": {
    "command": "node",
    "args": ["/Users/you/.rootz-archive/bin/archive-free-mcp.mjs"] } } }

VS Code (GitHub Copilot, agent mode)

Add to your user mcp.json:

{ "servers": { "archive-free": {
    "type": "stdio", "command": "node",
    "args": ["/Users/you/.rootz-archive/bin/archive-free-mcp.mjs"] } } }

OpenAI Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.archive-free]
command = "node"
args = ["/Users/you/.rootz-archive/bin/archive-free-mcp.mjs"]

Then ask the tool: "Search my archive for the login flow decision." Answers end with "— Source: Rootz Archive · this computer". Search and capture both start once you have accepted the licence with /rootz-archive:accept. Tried one of these? Tell us what happened: steven@rootz.global.