Everything you need to get started — the interface, search, Pins, Memory Briefs, Obsidian Sync, and how to uninstall cleanly when needed.
Current release: v1.0ThreadRecall lives in your Mac menu bar as a small dot icon. Click it to open the popover. You do not need to keep a window open — it runs quietly in the background and captures conversations as you work.
ThreadRecall captures conversations from the apps you have installed and connected:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Source chips | Coloured dots near the top showing which AI apps are being captured. A filled dot means active. A hollow or grey dot means the app is not running or not connected. |
| Session list | Recent captured conversations, newest first. Each row shows the source app, a generated title, and the date. Tap a row to expand or search within it. |
| Memory Brief | A short digest of your most relevant recent context, updated automatically. Useful for picking up where you left off. See Memory Briefs below. |
| Privacy Pause toggle | Stops capture temporarily. See Privacy Pause below. |
| v1.0 | Your installed version number. Quote this when contacting support. |
| Help | Opens this page. |
| Feedback | Opens the feedback form at threadrecall.ai/feedback. |
| Live Logs | Opens the capture log file in Console. Useful for troubleshooting if a session is not appearing. |
| Import History | Appears until you have imported your existing conversation history. See Import History below. |
| Quit | Stops the menu bar app. The background capture daemon continues running. To stop capture entirely, use Privacy Pause or unload the daemon via the uninstaller. |
There are two ways to search ThreadRecall depending on where you are:
1. In the ThreadRecall app — use the search bar in the popover. Type any keyword, topic, or phrase. Full-text and semantic search run together, so you do not need exact wording.
2. From inside a supported AI app — type trecall: followed by your query directly in the chat. The trecall: prefix is required — it tells the AI to call ThreadRecall rather than answer from its own knowledge.
trecall: — for example trecall: rebase strategy. Without the prefix, the AI answers from its own knowledge and ignores your captured history.
trecall: your topic in any chat. The assistant may need to load ThreadRecall the first time in a new chat, and may ask for permission on first use.
trecall: does not trigger a search, use the explicit form instead — this is more reliable across all supported apps and chat sessions:
trecall: Pokémon cardsUse ThreadRecall to search for: Pokémon cardsUse ThreadRecall to search my past chats for: Pokémon cards
Supported trecall: commands:
| What you type | What it does |
|---|---|
trecall: rebase strategy |
Searches your captured sessions for conversations about rebase, even if those exact words were not used. |
trecall: that book about regret |
Finds a session by meaning rather than exact keyword — works for vague or half-remembered queries. |
trecall: pricing decision Q3 |
Surfaces conversations where pricing direction was discussed, across all captured apps. |
trecall: pin this |
Pins the current session so it stays accessible and is weighted more heavily in future search and Memory Briefs. You can also write trecall: pin this as [title] to set a custom name. |
trecall:) are a separate feature that only work in apps where ThreadRecall's MCP server is connected and the tools are loaded.
trecall: commands — search those sessions from the ThreadRecall app instead.
Pins let you mark important sessions so they stay accessible at the top of your list, regardless of how many newer conversations have been captured since.
To pin a session: hover over it in the session list and click the pin icon that appears. To unpin, click the same icon again.
Pinned sessions are also given priority in Memory Briefs and semantic search — the system knows they are important to you.
A Memory Brief is a short digest of your most relevant recent AI work — automatically assembled from your captured sessions. It surfaces when you open the popover and is most useful at the start of a work session or when returning to a project after time away.
The Brief considers recency, how often topics appear, and which sessions you have Pinned. It is not a summary of every conversation — it is a signal of what probably matters right now.
Memory Briefs also surface through trecall: commands in Claude Desktop, Cowork, and Codex (when Codex is configured to use the Claude MCP). In Claude and Cowork, ThreadRecall tools may need to be loaded the first time in a new chat. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity do not support direct recall — their sessions are captured but cannot call ThreadRecall back.
Privacy Pause stops ThreadRecall from capturing new conversations for a set period. It does not delete anything already saved — it just pauses new capture.
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | Capture resumes automatically after 30 minutes. |
| 1 hour | Capture resumes automatically after 1 hour. |
| Indefinitely | Capture stays paused until you turn it back on manually. |
The menu bar icon changes to indicate pause is active. You can cancel a pause early by clicking the icon and toggling capture back on.
Optional Obsidian Sync exports captured sessions as Markdown notes directly into your Obsidian vault — one note per session, auto-titled, tagged by topic. Notes link to each other using Obsidian's [[wikilink]] format when topics overlap.
To connect your vault: open ThreadRecall settings and point it at your Obsidian vault folder. Sync runs automatically in the background after that.
ThreadRecall may regenerate ThreadRecall-managed notes during sync, but it should not delete your own Obsidian notes. If you remove ThreadRecall, your vault notes stay exactly as they are.
ThreadRecall only captures conversations from the moment it is installed onwards. Import History lets you bring in your existing conversation history from supported exports so your memory starts with real context.
Supported imports:
| App | How to export |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Settings → Data controls → Export data. You will receive a ZIP file by email. Point ThreadRecall at the conversations.json file inside. |
| Claude | Settings → Privacy → Export data. Point ThreadRecall at the exported JSON file. |
| Gemini | Google Takeout → select Gemini Apps activity. Point ThreadRecall at the exported file. |
Import runs in the background and may take a few minutes for large histories. A backup of your existing memory is created automatically before the import begins.
The Import History button opens the import screen for supported sources. Once you have completed your first import, it may no longer appear in the footer.
The safest way to uninstall is to run Uninstall ThreadRecall.command, which is included in your download package alongside the app. Double-clicking it opens a Terminal window that stops background services and cleans up all installed files correctly.
memory.db), backups, and caches. You are asked separately — with an explicit prompt — if you want those deleted too. The default answer is No.
To run the uninstaller:
The uninstaller handles all of the following in order:
| Step | What is removed |
|---|---|
| 1 — Daemons | Background capture service is stopped and its LaunchAgent plist is removed. |
| 2 — App | /Applications/ThreadRecall.app and any helper copies. |
| 3 — MCP config | ThreadRecall entries are removed from Claude Desktop, Codex, and Claude Code configs. Your other MCP servers are untouched. |
| 4 — Runtime files | main.py, mcp_server.py, requirements.txt, and the Python package are removed from ~/Library/Application Support/ThreadRecall/. |
| 4b — Logs | ~/Library/Logs/ThreadRecall/ is removed. |
| Optional | You are asked: "Also delete your captured memory and backups? This cannot be undone. [y/N]" — default is No. Only if you type y will memory.db, backups/, and cache files be deleted. |
What the uninstaller does not touch:
| Item | Reason |
|---|---|
| Obsidian vault notes | These are your notes in your vault folder. ThreadRecall does not own them. |
| Ollama | You may use Ollama for other things. If you installed it only for ThreadRecall, see below. |
| Python 3 | System Python is not modified. |
Optional: remove Ollama (only if you installed it exclusively for ThreadRecall):
After uninstalling, restart Claude Desktop and Codex to complete removal of the MCP integration.