How do I install LoreDocs?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does LoreDocs need an API key?

The publisher lists these environment variables: LOREDOCS_PRO.

What transport does LoreDocs use?

LoreDocs runs locally over stdio.

When was LoreDocs last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-09. Local-first knowledge vaults for project docs and specs. Tagged, versioned, full-text searchable.

LoreDocs MCP server

LoreDocs v0.1.31

Your AI project's knowledge base. Organized, searchable, version-tracked.

LoreDocs gives Claude persistent access to your project documentation -- specs, guides, architecture decisions, reference docs -- so it never loses context between sessions. Works with Claude Code, Cowork, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, and Hermes Agent.

Install directly from Claude Code's plugin marketplace, or via PyPI: uvx loredocs

Quick Start

Prerequisites: uv (fast Python package manager).

# Install uv: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/
# Clone and install
cd /path/to/loredocs
uv sync

For detailed installation instructions, see INSTALL.md.

Using the Claude Agent SDK directly? git clone the public repo and point the SDK's local-directory plugin loader at it -- the repo root is a self-contained plugin directory (.claude-plugin/plugin.json + .mcp.json). No separate SDK-installable bundle exists or is needed.

Using LoreDocs

Claude Code (Terminal)

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/loredocs

Or inside an existing session:

/plugin add /path/to/loredocs

Once loaded, Claude has access to all 48 LoreDocs MCP tools automatically. Ask Claude to "create a vault for this project" or "find the architecture doc" and it uses the tools on its own.

Cowork (Desktop App)

Click + next to the prompt box
Select Plugins > Add plugin
Browse to the loredocs source folder

Shared Database Access: Cowork runs in a sandboxed VM. To access docs saved from Claude Code, ask Claude:

"Mount my ~/.loredocs folder"

Hermes Agent

For Hermes Agent users, add LoreDocs as an MCP server under mcp_servers: in ~/.hermes/config.yaml (see INSTALL.md for the full entry), then restart Hermes.

All 48 LoreDocs MCP tools are then available in your Hermes sessions.

Hermes Disclosures

When using LoreDocs with Hermes Agent:

Installation: First run downloads the loredocs version you pin from PyPI via uvx. There is no automatic self-update.
Data Storage: All vault data is stored locally at ~/.loredocs/ in SQLite format. No data is sent to cloud services or external servers.
Pro License Validation: Pro tier activation uses offline Ed25519 cryptography to validate your license key. No network request is made during validation.
Telemetry: LoreDocs does not collect or transmit telemetry or usage data.
Network calls: Pro semantic search downloads the BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 embedding model from Hugging Face once, on first use. The optional Notion import calls the Notion API with a token you provide. LoreDocs makes no other network calls.

How It Works

LoreDocs organizes knowledge into vaults -- named containers for related documents. Each vault can hold specs, guides, decisions, checklists, or any text you want Claude to remember.

~/.loredocs/loredocs.db          <-- SQLite database (metadata, search index)
~/.loredocs/vaults/<vault-id>/   <-- Document files on disk

Key concepts:

Vaults group related docs by project or topic
Documents are text files with metadata (tags, categories, priority, notes)
Version history tracks every change to every document
Full-text search via SQLite FTS5 finds anything instantly
Injection loads vault content into Claude's context on demand

Your Data is Always Available

LoreDocs works through MCP tools when they are available and falls back to bundled scripts automatically when they are not. Your vault documents are safe regardless of MCP status -- the same add, search, and retrieve operations work either way. You do not need to configure anything; the plugin skill handles the switch silently.

Verify Installation

After installing, verify LoreDocs is working by asking Claude:

"Run vault_list and show me the results."

If you see a list of vaults (or an empty list if this is your first time), LoreDocs is connected. If you get an error about missing tools, re-run uv sync and reload the plugin.

Recommended CLAUDE.md Setup

For the best experience, add the following snippet to your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (global) or your project's CLAUDE.md. This tells Claude how to use LoreDocs consistently across sessions.

## LoreDocs (persistent project knowledge)

At session start:
1. Call `vault_list` to see available knowledge vaults.
2. Call `vault_inject_summary` for any vaults relevant to the current project.
3. Use this context to understand project architecture, decisions, and reference docs.

During the session:
- If you create significant documentation, add it to LoreDocs with `vault_add_doc`.
- Tag documents for easy cross-vault discovery with `vault_tag_doc`.

At session end:
- If new docs were created or updated, ensure they are stored in LoreDocs for future sessions.

For Cowork users: Cowork does not run hooks automatically. Add instructions to call vault_list and vault_inject_summary at session start in your project CLAUDE.md.

Canonical Project Knowledge

In multi-agent environments, different tools and agents often create improvised mirrors of shared skill or configuration content -- playbooks, style guides, shared reference docs. Those mirrors drift. One agent updates the source; the other keeps reading the stale copy. Two agents in the same project end up operating from divergent knowledge with no visible signal that anything is wrong.

LoreDocs prevents this by making the vault the single canonical source that every agent reads. Instead of each agent loading a local file copy, every agent calls vault_inject_by_tag at session start and gets the same vault-managed version.

Recommended pattern

Store shared content (playbooks, team guidelines, shared specs) as vault documents rather than as local files that agents copy or mirror.

Agents load the content at session start:

vault_inject_by_tag: team-playbook

All agents -- regardless of surface (Claude Code, Cowork, CLI, or any future AI tool) -- call the same vault and receive the same current version. Updating the content requires editing the vault document once; all agents pick up the change on their next session start.

Local files (.claude/skills/, .agents/, or any surface-specific config) become pointers or bootstrap stubs only -- not the authoritative content. The vault is the source of truth.

Example: sharing a playbook across an agent team

# Session start for any agent on the team:
# 1. Inject the shared playbook by tag
vault_inject_by_tag("team-playbook")

# 2. Inject any project-specific reference docs
vault_inject_by_tag("project-architecture")

# Working context is now current -- no local file copies needed.

To store the shared content in the vault (one time, or on each update):

# Store (or update) the shared playbook:
vault_update_doc(vault="team-knowledge", doc_id="playbook-id", content=open("PLAYBOOK.md").read())

# Or add it fresh (path= reads directly from disk -- no need to load into context):
vault_add_doc(vault="team-knowledge", name="Team Playbook", path="/absolute/path/to/PLAYBOOK.md", tags=["team-playbook"])

Any agent that calls vault_inject_by_tag("team-playbook") reads the same document. No copies, no mirrors, no drift.

Plans: Free vs Pro

LoreDocs is local-first and free to use. Pro ($9/mo) removes the storage limits and unlocks semantic (meaning-based) retrieval. Everything runs on your machine on either plan -- Pro does not add any cloud component.

	Free	Pro ($9/mo)
Vaults	3	Unlimited
Documents per vault	50	Unlimited
Storage	500 MB	Unlimited
Version history per document	5 versions	Unlimited
Full-text search (FTS5)	Yes	Yes
Core MCP tools (create, search, version, tag, inject, import/export)	Yes	Yes
Local-first, no cloud, no telemetry	Yes	Yes
Semantic search (`vault_search semantic=true`, `vault_rebuild_index`)	--	Yes
Embedding-based document relationships (`vault_find_related`)	Keyword co-occurrence only	Keyword + embedding auto-links
Cross-product session linking (`vault_link_session` + 2 more)	--	Yes (also requires LoreConvo Pro)

Upgrade to Pro -- $9/month

After checkout, your license key is emailed automatically to the address you used at checkout, usually within a few minutes. Questions: [email protected].

Free tier limits are enforced before writes; Pro removes them. Check your current tier and usage anytime with vault_tier_status. Activate a Pro license with vault_set_tier.

The Pro semantic features use a local embedding model (BGE-small-en-v1.5) and the LanceDB index -- still no data leaves your machine.

Features

Vault organization: Group docs by project with linked project metadata
Document versioning: Full history with rollback to any prior version
Tagging and categorization: Tag docs for cross-vault discovery
Priority levels: Mark docs as critical, high, normal, or low priority
Full-text search: Fast keyword search across all vaults and documents
Context injection: Load specific docs, tags, or vault summaries into Claude's context
Bulk operations: Import directories, bulk-tag, export manifests
Document linking: Connect related docs across vaults
Embedding-based document relationships (Pro): vault_find_related returns both keyword co-occurrence and embedding-based auto-links for Pro users. Uses BGE-small-en-v1.5, cosine >= 0.75, same-vault scoped. Embedding links are archived if you downgrade from Pro to Free.
Cross-product session linking (Pro): Automatically links vault documents to the most relevant LoreConvo sessions, and vice versa. Three tools: vault_link_session, vault_get_session_links, vault_get_linked_sessions. Requires both LoreDocs Pro and LoreConvo Pro.
Tier management: Free/Pro tiers with configurable limits
Local-first: SQLite database, no cloud dependency, zero API costs

MCP Tools

LoreDocs provides 48 MCP tools by default (49 with the notion extra installed; 50 with LOREDOCS_ENABLE_CAP_TOOLS=1 and the notion extra) organized by function:

Vault Management (8 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_create`	Create a new vault with name and description
`vault_list`	List all vaults with doc counts and sizes
`vault_info`	Get detailed vault information
`vault_archive`	Archive a vault (preserves data, hides from listing)
`vault_delete`	Permanently delete a vault and all its documents
`vault_link_project`	Link a vault to a project directory
`vault_open_workspace`	Open or create the vault scoped to a directory path
`loredocs_onboard`	Set up workspace with starter vaults on first install

Document Operations (10 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_add_doc`	Add a new document to a vault (inline content or from file path)
`vault_update_doc`	Update document content (creates version history)
`vault_remove_doc`	Remove a document from a vault
`vault_get_doc`	Retrieve a document with full content
`vault_list_docs`	List documents in a vault with filtering and sorting
`vault_copy_doc`	Copy a document to another vault
`vault_move_doc`	Move a document to another vault
`vault_doc_history`	View version history of a document
`vault_doc_restore`	Restore a document to a previous version

Search and Discovery (5 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_search`	Full-text search across all vaults
`vault_search_by_tag`	Find documents by tag across all vaults
`vault_find_related`	Discover documents related to a given doc (Pro only)
`vault_suggest`	Proactive suggestions for relevant docs to load
`vault_rebuild_index`	Rebuild the LanceDB semantic search index (Pro only; run once after installing Pro deps)

Organization (5 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_tag_doc`	Add tags to a document
`vault_bulk_tag`	Tag multiple documents at once
`vault_categorize`	Set document category (spec, guide, decision, etc.)
`vault_set_priority`	Set document priority level
`vault_add_note`	Add a note or annotation to a document

Context Injection (9 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_inject`	Load ranked vault documents into context, packed within a token budget
`vault_inject_by_tag`	Load all documents matching a tag, packed within a token budget
`vault_inject_summary`	Load a vault summary with doc titles and descriptions
`vault_prime`	Pre-load all vault documents by priority order (equivalent to `vault_inject` with no query)
`vault_get_injection_cap`	Get the configured token cap for a vault's injection tools
`vault_set_injection_cap`	Set a vault's injection token cap (requires `LOREDOCS_ENABLE_CAP_TOOLS=1`)
`vault_get_session_token`	Generate a per-session cache key for injection tools
`vault_estimate_tokens`	Estimate the token count an injection call would use before running it
`vault_get_server_capabilities`	Report which injection/token-budget features this server build supports

Import/Export (5 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_import_dir`	Import a directory of files into a vault
`vault_import_notion`	Import Notion pages and databases into a vault (one-time, no live sync)
`vault_import_notion_setup`	Report Notion import readiness and how to enable it (read-only)
`vault_export`	Export a document to a file on disk
`vault_export_manifest`	Export vault metadata as a JSON manifest

Document Links (2 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_link_doc`	Create a link between two documents
`vault_unlink_doc`	Remove a link between documents

Administration (4 tools)

Tool	What it does
`vault_tier_status`	Check current tier limits and usage
`vault_set_tier`	Set the active tier (free or pro)
`get_license_tier`	Check current tier and license key status
`vault_verify`	Check document version-history integrity, optionally repair

Cross-product Session Links (3 tools, Pro)

Tool	What it does
`vault_link_session`	Create a manual link from a LoreConvo session to a LoreDocs document
`vault_get_session_links`	Return LoreConvo sessions linked to a LoreDocs document
`vault_get_linked_sessions`	Return LoreDocs documents linked to a given LoreConvo session

Portable Project Workspace

LoreDocs and LoreConvo together form a portable project workspace for all of Claude -- session memory AND structured knowledge, entirely on your machine.

LoreConvo remembers what you discussed, decided, and left open (episodic + semantic memory)
LoreDocs stores the reference docs, specs, and guides Claude needs (durable knowledge)

Where cloud AI workspaces tie you to one ecosystem, LoreConvo + LoreDocs works across Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, Hermes Agent, and Cowork. Both store data locally in SQLite. Neither sends anything to an external server.

Requirements

Python 3.10+
macOS or Linux
uv package manager
mcp and pydantic (auto-installed by uv sync)

Supported Storage Substrates

LoreDocs stores document content as plain files on disk. The durability guarantee depends on the filesystem substrate:

Vault root location	Support	Guarantee
Local disk (APFS, ext4, NTFS on a local volume)	Supported	Guarantee holds: a substrate that misreports writes can lose the most recent save, but can never destroy or corrupt a version already on disk.
Cloud-sync folder (Dropbox, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive)	Best-effort	Newest save may be lost or resurrected by the sync client.
Network mount (SMB, NFS, sshfs)	Best-effort	Advisory locks may be no-ops, so concurrent clients can lose an update.
Container bind mount / WSL cross-OS path	Best-effort	Same guarantees as the underlying filesystem.

A one-time warning is emitted when a vault root is detected under a known cloud-sync directory. Suppress it with LOREDOCS_SUPPRESS_SUBSTRATE_WARNING=1.

The metadata.json file in each document directory is strictly derived from the SQLite database -- the database is the source of truth. Do not edit metadata.json directly; changes will be overwritten on the next document update.

Version History Integrity

LoreDocs v0.1.21+ includes version-storage integrity features:

Atomic writes: Every mutation uses temp + rename, never writing into a destination path. A crash or disk-full leaves existing data untouched.
Intent journal: Crash recovery via hash-guarded, idempotent replay.
Five-source allocator: Version numbers are monotonically increasing across content files, sidecars, DB counter, reset marker, and highwater.
Divergence detection: History loss, jump, rollback, and holes are detected and reported. Writes refuse on divergence; reads proceed with a divergence field flagging the issue.
Per-version sidecars: history/v{N}.meta.json records save time, author, session ID, change note, and operation type for each version.
Retention rotation: Free tier retains 5 versions per document; Pro retains 100. Oldest versions are rotated automatically (never renumbered).
vault_verify: A diagnostic tool that reports integrity issues and can perform additive-only repairs. Run vault_verify --pre-upgrade before upgrading LoreDocs to check for legacy vault anomalies.

Data and Privacy

LoreDocs is local-first. All data lives in ~/.loredocs/ on your machine.

Data collected: Document names, content, tags, categories, and vault names you provide when storing documents. No telemetry, usage analytics, or identifiers are collected automatically.
Storage: SQLite database at ~/.loredocs/loredocs.db; document files in ~/.loredocs/vaults/. No cloud storage. Override the root directory with the LOREDOCS_ROOT environment variable.
Third-party sharing: None. Data never leaves your machine.
Retention: Data is retained until you delete it via vault_remove_doc, vault_delete, or remove the database files manually. No automatic expiry.
Contact: [email protected]

Full privacy policy: https://labyrinthanalyticsconsulting.com/privacy

Troubleshooting

MCP tools not showing up in Claude Code? Make sure you ran uv sync first. The virtual environment must exist with dependencies installed.

"No module named 'mcp'" error? The .mcp.json points to the virtual environment's Python. If you moved the folder, re-run uv sync.

Cowork can't see docs saved in Code? Ask Claude to "mount my ~/.loredocs folder" so Cowork can access the shared database.

Fallback Script (Direct DB Access)

If the MCP server is unreachable (e.g., in scheduled tasks or automation scripts), scripts/query_loredocs.py provides the same core operations directly against the SQLite database.

# List all vaults
python scripts/query_loredocs.py --list

# Show vault details and document manifest
python scripts/query_loredocs.py --info "My Project Docs"

# Search documents across all vaults
python scripts/query_loredocs.py --search "architecture"

# Add a document to a vault
python scripts/query_loredocs.py --add-doc \
    --vault "My Project Docs" \
    --name "Architecture Overview" \
    --file docs/architecture.md \
    --tags '["architecture", "design"]'

# Add a document from stdin (type content, then Ctrl-D)
python scripts/query_loredocs.py --add-doc \
    --vault "My Project Docs" \
    --name "Quick Note" \
    --stdin <<'EOF'
# Quick Note
EOF

The script auto-discovers the database at ~/.loredocs/loredocs.db (or pass --db-path explicitly). It writes the same schema as the MCP tools, including FTS indexing and on-disk file storage.

What's New

v0.1.31 (2026-10-16)

Security

Updated the MCP library (mcp[cli]) from 1.28.1 to 1.30.0 to fix CVE-2026-59951. The startup compatibility check now expects 1.30.0.

Improved

Semantic search loads its embedding model once per process and shares it, which cuts memory use and repeat load time.

See the full changelog for the complete release history.

License

Business Source License 1.1 (BSL 1.1) - Labyrinth Analytics Consulting

Free for personal/non-commercial use (up to 3 vaults). Commercial use requires a paid license. Converts to Apache 2.0 on 2030-03-31. See LICENSE for details.

mcp-name: io.github.labyrinth-analytics/loredocs