Total Recall: Local Knowledge Graph for Claude Code Conversation History
What Total Recall Does
Total Recall solves the problem of re-explaining decisions across Claude Code sessions by making conversation history searchable. Claude Code stores conversations as JSONL files in ~/.claude/projects/, with each line containing a message object (role, content, timestamps, ID, parentUuid). These parent references form a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) because conversations branch with tool calls and interruptions.
Technical Implementation
The system ingests JSONL transcripts into a SQLite database with:
- Full-text search
- Vector embeddings using local Ollama (no cloud) with nomic-embed-text
- Semantic cross-linking
- DAG-aware retrieval that walks parent chains backward from search hits
- Project-based session tagging
When you ask a question like "What was that restaurant with the great chile rellenos?", Claude queries the database and returns actual conversation excerpts with surrounding context, not summaries.
Additional Features
- A "where were we" script shows the last 20 messages from the most recent session
- ChatGPT importer that authenticates via Playwright and calls the backend API to pull full conversation trees with timestamps, model metadata, DALL-E images, and code interpreter outputs
- Auto-ingests every 15 minutes
- Everything is local - one file you can copy to another machine
Current Deployment
The creator's deployment handles:
- 28K chunks
- 63K semantic links
- 255 MB storage
- 49 sessions across 6 projects
Open Source Availability
The repository at https://github.com/aguywithcode/total-recall contains:
- Full pipeline (ingest, embed, link, retrieve, browse)
- ChatGPT scraper
- Setup instructions
- CLAUDE.md integration guide
- Background documentation with the full build story
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
👀 See Also
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SmallClaw V1.0.3 Adds Webhooks, n8n Automation, and MCP Server Support
SmallClaw V1.0.3 introduces webhook endpoints for external service triggers, local automation workflows with n8n, and MCP server connections for tool integration. The update maintains the tool's focus on running with small local LLMs.
Fable 5 in Claude Code: Day One Cost Analysis — $210 API-equivalent, $0 Paid
A developer switched to claude-fable-5 in Claude Code and measured token usage across 742 replies. API-equivalent cost: $210.15. Actual paid: $0 during the plan window until June 22.
ClearSpec: A Spec Generator to Reduce Hallucination in Claude Code
ClearSpec is a tool that generates structured specifications from plain English descriptions, connecting to GitHub repos to reference real file paths and dependencies, then uses those specs as prompts for Claude Code to provide better context.