ContextForge MCP — Persistent Memory for Claude, Cursor & Copilot

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Give Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot persistent memory across sessions via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Stop re-explaining your project every time.

ContextForge MCP is an open-source MCP server that connects your AI coding assistants to long-term, searchable memory. Decisions, architecture notes, debugging context, and project knowledge stay available across every session — across every tool that supports MCP.

🧠 Persistent memory — your AI remembers everything across sessions, days, and weeks
🔍 Semantic search — find knowledge by meaning, not keywords
🔗 One memory, every tool — Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Claude Desktop, Windsurf
🐙 Git integration — sync commits and PRs automatically
✅ Task tracking — issues, assignments, and project status
👥 Team collaboration — share projects and memory with your team
🆓 Free tier — get started without a credit card

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Quick Start

1. Install

No install step needed — the setup below runs the server via npx -y contextforge-mcp, which fetches it on demand and keeps it up to date.

Prefer a global install for slightly faster cold starts? npm install -g contextforge-mcp is optional; if you do it, you can drop the npx -y prefix from the commands below.

2. Get your API key

Go to contextforge.dev
Sign up (free tier available)
Settings → API Keys → Generate API Key
Copy your key (starts with cf_)

3. Connect to your AI tool

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextforge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "contextforge-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add contextforge -s user \
  -e CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY=your-api-key-here \
  -- npx -y contextforge-mcp

Restart Claude Code and run /mcp to verify it's connected.

Cursor

Add to your Cursor MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextforge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "contextforge-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Add to your Copilot MCP config:

{
  "servers": {
    "contextforge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "contextforge-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Initialize your project (required)

Set up your project so your AI editor knows to use ContextForge memory:

npx contextforge-mcp init

By default, init auto-detects which editor your project uses and writes three rule sections:

Memory rules — route memory questions to ContextForge instead of the built-in file memory
Session Presence rules — make parallel sessions check for each other at conversation start and before big changes
Startup Context rules — load a short project summary (overview, open tasks, live sessions) from ContextForge at the start of every conversation

Files written:

CLAUDE.md for Claude Code (signals: existing CLAUDE.md or .claude/ directory)
.cursorrules for Cursor (signals: existing .cursorrules or .cursor/ directory)

If no editor is detected, both files are generated.

Without this step, your AI will silently ignore ContextForge for memory queries — even though the MCP is connected — because the built-in auto-memory wins by default.

Override with `--editor`

| Flag | Behavior | |---|---| | --editor=claude | Generate only CLAUDE.md | | --editor=cursor | Generate only .cursorrules | | --editor=all | Generate both, skip detection |

Re-running init is idempotent per section — sections you already have are left untouched; missing ones are appended. Upgrading from an older version? Just re-run npx contextforge-mcp init: it adds the new Startup Context section without touching the rest of your file.

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Available Tools

ContextForge provides tools for Knowledge Management, GitHub Integration, Issue Tracking, and Collaboration.

Knowledge Management

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | memory_ingest | Save knowledge to memory | | memory_query | Search your knowledge semantically | | memory_list_items | List all stored items | | memory_delete | Remove specific items | | memory_ingest_batch | Save multiple items at once | | memory_delete_batch | Delete items by filter |

Spaces & Projects

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | memory_list_spaces | List your spaces | | memory_create_space | Create a new space | | memory_delete_space | Delete a space | | memory_move_space | Move space to project | | memory_list_projects | List your projects | | memory_create_project | Create a new project | | memory_delete_project | Delete a project | | memory_link_project | Link directory to project | | memory_unlink_project | Unlink directory | | memory_current_project | Show linked project |

GitHub Integration

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | memory_git_connect | Connect a GitHub repo | | memory_git_list | List connected repos | | memory_git_activate | Activate/deactivate webhook | | memory_git_sync | Import existing history | | memory_git_commits | List synced commits | | memory_git_prs | List synced PRs | | memory_git_disconnect | Disconnect a repo |

Issue Tracking

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | issues_list | List your issues | | issues_create | Create a new issue | | issues_start | Mark as in progress | | issues_resolve | Mark as resolved | | issues_resolve_by_name | Resolve by title | | issues_assign | Assign to collaborator | | issues_what_next | Get recommendation |

Collaboration

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | project_share | Share project by email | | collaborators_list | List collaborators |

Snapshots & Export

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | memory_snapshot_create | Create a backup | | memory_snapshot_list | List all snapshots | | memory_snapshot_restore | Restore from backup | | memory_snapshot_delete | Delete a snapshot | | memory_export | Export to JSON/MD/CSV | | memory_import | Import from file |

Utility

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | memory_stats | View usage statistics | | memory_relate | Link two items | | memory_help | Show help |

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Session Presence (multi-session coordination)

Running several Claude Code sessions in parallel (worktrees, agent teams)? Each MCP process automatically registers itself as a live session and heartbeats while it runs. On a clean exit the session is removed at once (a detached helper delivers the goodbye even while the host process is being killed); if the process dies hard, the session expires ~10 minutes after its last heartbeat. Three tools let the agent coordinate:

| Tool | What it does | |------|--------------| | session_update | Declare what this session is working on ("working on the auth module") | | session_list | See other live sessions in the same project and their focus before touching shared areas (pass all_projects: true for the whole org) | | session_end | Explicitly end this session's presence (also automatic on exit) |

By default session_list is scoped to the current project — where work actually collides. In a multi-project organization, pass all_projects: true to see every session, or project: "<name-or-id>" to scope elsewhere.

Recommended pattern for your CLAUDE.md: call session_list when a conversation starts; call session_update when starting or switching tasks.

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Natural Language Examples

You don't need to memorize commands — just talk naturally to your AI:

# Knowledge
"Save this: we use PostgreSQL for the main database"
"What database do we use?"
"List my spaces"

# GitHub
"Connect my repo github.com/myuser/myproject"
"What commits did I make today?"
"Show PRs merged this week"

# Issues
"Create an issue: Update the login page design"
"What's pending?"
"What should I work on next?"
"Mark the login issue as done"

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Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY | Yes | Your API key from the dashboard | | CONTEXTFORGE_API_URL | No | API endpoint (defaults to production) | | CONTEXTFORGE_DEFAULT_SPACE | No | Default space for operations |

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How it works

ContextForge MCP is a thin client that translates Model Context Protocol tool calls into authenticated HTTP requests against the ContextForge API. Your knowledge is stored, indexed (semantic embeddings), and retrieved on the server side — the MCP client itself is stateless.

This means:

No infra to manage — no local databases, no embeddings to run, no vector stores to maintain
Works everywhere your AI works — same memory across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.
Team collaboration — shared projects sync in real time

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Dashboard

Manage your memory visually at contextforge.dev:

View and organize your knowledge
Search and filter memories
Manage API keys and billing
Track issues and collaborate
Export and backup data

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Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/alfredoizdev/contextforge-mcp.git
cd contextforge-mcp
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Watch mode
npm run dev

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/alfredoizdev/contextforge-mcp.

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Support

📖 Documentation
🐛 Report Issues
💬 Questions: support@contextforge.app

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contextforge-mcp