Footprint MCP

What it does

Footprint is a local-first MCP server and app that gives AI coding tools a persistent memory layer. It records your Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI sessions as structured transcripts, derives context threads and handoff summaries across sessions, and lets you encrypt and export specific conversations as tamper-evident evidence.

All data stays on your machine. There's no cloud backend, no seats, and no usage pricing — just a local SQLite database with XChaCha20-Poly1305 encrypted evidence storage.

Key features

• Session dashboard UI — Interactive browser interface at a localhost URL for reviewing sessions, context threads, trends, and decisions (ui://footprint/session-dashboard.html)
• Encrypted evidence capture — Preserve specific AI conversations as cryptographically verifiable records with capture-footprint
• Cross-session context memory — Footprint clusters related sessions into context threads and suggests the right context before a new run begins, with user-correctable linking
• Handoff summaries — Derived narratives, decisions, and retry-aware handoff bundles keep you oriented across work sessions
• Searchable history — Full-text and issue-key search across all recorded sessions

Installation

Claude Desktop

Run setup first:

npx @pcircle/footprint setup

This configures Claude Desktop automatically. Manual JSON for claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "footprint": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@pcircle/footprint"],
      "env": {
        "FOOTPRINT_DATA_DIR": "/path/to/footprint-data",
        "FOOTPRINT_PASSPHRASE": "your-secure-passphrase"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code Copilot

Add to your VS Code settings.json:

"github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
  "footprint": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["@pcircle/footprint"],
    "env": {
      "FOOTPRINT_DATA_DIR": "/path/to/footprint-data",
      "FOOTPRINT_PASSPHRASE": "your-passphrase"
    }
  }
}

CLI Recording

Record live sessions directly:

footprint run claude -- <args>
footprint run codex -- <args>
footprint run gemini -- <args>

Supported hosts

Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI (all confirmed in README with specific setup instructions).