thread-mind

ThreadMind MCP

Branches for your AI's memory: a git-friendly tree of thread summaries.

ThreadMind is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI coding sessions a memory: a tree of threads, each holding a short summary of what was decided about one topic, stored as Markdown in your repository. Start a fresh session and the active thread's context — its decisions and those of its ancestors — replaces a history that had grown to tens of thousands of tokens.

Documentation | npm | GitHub

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Why ThreadMind?

With AI coding assistants, conversations grow long: every request carries the whole history, until the client compacts it or you start over — and starting over loses what was decided. ThreadMind keeps what matters:

• Summaries in sections — Decisions, Constraints, State, Open questions, Next steps
• Inheritance through the tree — a thread's context is its summary plus its ancestors' decisions and constraints; sibling branches stay out
• Branching exploration — try approaches in separate threads, merge the winner's conclusions into the parent, keep the reason an approach was abandoned
• Git-aware — a thread created on a feature branch becomes active whenever that branch is checked out, and summaries warn when the code they describe has changed
• Team collaboration — thread files are committed with the code and reviewed in pull requests

Where the savings come from

ThreadMind can't shrink a conversation in progress: your client decides what it sends. The savings come when you start over:

Before /clear:   the conversation carries ~48,000 tokens of history
After /clear:    the session starts with the thread's context, ~1,100 tokens

main
├── auth
│   └── auth-ui ← active     context = main + auth (decisions, constraints) + auth-ui
└── dashboard                 dashboard stays out

With the Claude Code plugin, the context reloads automatically after /clear and after compaction, and stats_show measures both sizes on your own sessions.

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Quick Start

Claude Code plugin (recommended)

/plugin marketplace add mahmoud-nb/thread-mind-mcp
/plugin install thread-mind@thread-mind

The plugin installs the server and adds hooks that:

• load the active thread's context at startup, after /clear and after compaction (nothing happens in repositories without a ThreadMind project)
• remind Claude to save the summary as the conversation grows, and once more when the context window is nearly full
• recover the summary after a compaction that happened before it was saved, and tell you when /clear dropped unsaved work
• follow git branch changes, giving Claude the new active thread's context
• record the files Claude edits with the next summary, so it gets flagged when they change
• answer tm:tree and tm:stats instantly, without using tokens
• measure how large conversations grow, read from their transcripts, for stats_show

It also brings commands (/thread-mind:context, /thread-mind:tree, /thread-mind:create, /thread-mind:switch, /thread-mind:summary, /thread-mind:merge, /thread-mind:stats) and options in /config. A status line (thread-mind-mcp status-line) keeps the active thread and its unsaved work in view. See the plugin guide.

If you configured ThreadMind manually before, remove that configuration so Claude Code doesn't run two servers.

Installation

No installation required — run directly with npx:

npx thread-mind-mcp

Or install globally:

npm install -g thread-mind-mcp

Configure with Claude Code (without the plugin)

Run from your project root. To share the server with your team, add it at project scope: Claude Code writes .mcp.json at the project root, which you commit.

# macOS / Linux
claude mcp add --scope project thread-mind -- npx -y thread-mind-mcp

# Windows: npx is a .cmd script, wrap it in cmd /c
claude mcp add --scope project thread-mind -- cmd /c npx -y thread-mind-mcp

The resulting .mcp.json (you can also write it by hand):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thread-mind": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "thread-mind-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

On Windows, use "command": "cmd" and "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "thread-mind-mcp"]. Each teammate approves the server the first time Claude Code starts it in the repository.

For yourself only, drop --scope project (default local scope: you, in this project) or use --scope user (you, in every project). Both are stored in ~/.claude.json, which Claude Code manages.

Scope	Stored in	Applies to
local (default)	~/.claude.json, under the current project	You, in this project
project	.mcp.json at the project root	Everyone who clones the repository
user	~/.claude.json	You, in every project

Claude Code doesn't read MCP servers from ~/.claude/settings.json or .claude/settings.json. Check the configuration with claude mcp list, or /mcp inside a session.

Windows + Volta: if Claude Code can't resolve Volta's npx shim, delegate to volta run:

claude mcp add --scope project thread-mind -- cmd /c volta run npx -y thread-mind-mcp

Configure with other MCP clients

ThreadMind uses the stdio transport, compatible with any MCP client. The command is always npx -y thread-mind-mcp; what changes is where each client declares it, and whether it reads the usage instructions the server sends:

Client	Server configuration	Usage instructions
Cursor	.cursor/mcp.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json	AGENTS.md
VS Code (GitHub Copilot)	.vscode/mcp.json (servers key) or .mcp.json	Sent by the server
GitHub Copilot CLI	.mcp.json or copilot mcp add thread-mind -- npx -y thread-mind-mcp	AGENTS.md
Codex	codex mcp add thread-mind -- npx -y thread-mind-mcp (~/.codex/config.toml)	Sent by the server
Gemini CLI	.gemini/settings.json or ~/.gemini/settings.json	Sent by the server
Windsurf (Devin Desktop)	mcp_config.json	AGENTS.md
Claude Desktop (chat)	claude_desktop_config.json, with THREADMIND_ROOT set to the project	Claude Project instructions, if needed

Claude Code, VS Code and Copilot CLI share the .mcp.json file at the repository root. See Other AI Clients for each client's configuration.

Workspace location

ThreadMind stores its data in .threadmind/ at the root of your workspace, found in this order:

1. The THREADMIND_ROOT environment variable, if set
2. The workspace roots advertised by the MCP client (a root that already contains .threadmind/ wins). Claude Code advertises the directory you started it in, plus those added with --add-dir: start it from the project root
3. The directory the server was started from

A client that starts servers outside your project without advertising roots (for example a desktop chat app with no project folder) needs THREADMIND_ROOT:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thread-mind": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "thread-mind-mcp"],
      "env": { "THREADMIND_ROOT": "/path/to/your/project" }
    }
  }
}

Teach your AI client to use ThreadMind

The server sends its usage instructions when the client connects (MCP server instructions): Claude Code, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Codex and Gemini CLI need no setup file. For agents that don't read them, such as Cursor, Copilot CLI or Windsurf, run threadmind_init to generate an AGENTS.md file.

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How It Works

Core Concepts

Concept	Description
Project	A workspace containing a thread tree. Has a title, system context, and mode (solo/team).
Thread	A node in the tree representing a discussion topic. Stores a markdown summary, and may be linked to a git branch, done or abandoned.
Summary	What was decided in a thread, in sections: Decisions, Constraints, State, Open questions, Next steps.
Context	The active thread's summary plus its ancestors' decisions and constraints — what the AI loads.
Session	Each client session has its own active thread; new sessions start from the checked-out git branch.

Storage

ThreadMind stores everything in a .threadmind/ directory at your project root:

.threadmind/
  config.json              # Local state: where sessions start, author ID, session measurements
  .gitignore               # Excludes config.json from git
  projects/
    my-app.json            # Project configuration
  threads/
    my-app/
      main.md              # Root thread (markdown + YAML frontmatter)
      auth-system.md       # Child thread
      auth-api.md          # Grandchild thread

Thread files use YAML frontmatter. Each one records its parent: the tree is rebuilt from the files, with no index to keep in sync or to conflict in git.

---
id: auth-system
title: Authentication System
parentId: main
author: mahmoud-a3f9
createdAt: 2026-04-15T10:00:00.000Z
updatedAt: 2026-04-15T12:30:00.000Z
branch: feature/auth
commit: 3f2a9c1e5b7d4a8f0c6e2b1d9a7f5c3e1b0d8a6f
paths: ["src/auth"]
---

## Decisions
- JWT with refresh tokens, stored in httpOnly cookies
- Passport.js over custom middleware, for maintainability

## State
- Login and refresh done, logout pending

status, branch, commit, paths and mergedInto only appear when set.

Context Assembly

When you request context, ThreadMind walks up from the active thread to the root. It keeps the whole summary of the active thread, and only the Decisions and Constraints of its ancestors:

## System Context
You are building a Next.js e-commerce application...

---

## Thread: My App

## Decisions
- Next.js 15, PostgreSQL, Stripe

---

## Thread: Authentication System

## Decisions
- JWT with refresh tokens, bcrypt, Passport.js

---

## Thread: Auth API Endpoints (active)

_⚠ 2 commits changed src/api since this summary was written: check it is still accurate._

## Decisions
- POST /auth/login, POST /auth/register, POST /auth/refresh

## Next steps
- Rate limiting on /auth/login

---
_ThreadMind context: ~160 tokens | depth: 3 threads_

• Only the direct ancestor chain is included — sibling branches are excluded
• Summaries written before code changes are flagged, using the commit and paths recorded with them
• maxTokens leaves out the farthest ancestors first when the context would be too large

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Available Tools

Each tool declares a title and MCP annotations (read-only, destructive, idempotent), which clients can use to decide when to ask for confirmation.

Project Management

Tool	Description
project_create	Create a new project with a root "main" thread
project_list	List all projects (shows the session's project)
project_switch	Switch the session to a different project (a single project is selected automatically)

project_create

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
title	string	Yes	Project title (used to generate ID)
systemContext	string	No	System prompt or global instructions
mode	"solo" | "team"	No	Project mode (default: "solo")

Thread Management

Tool	Description
thread_create	Create a child thread; on a feature branch, link it to the branch
thread_switch	Switch this session to a different thread and return its assembled context
thread_list	Display the thread tree, with statuses and linked branches
thread_status	Mark a thread done or abandoned (the reason is kept in its decisions), or reopen it
thread_merge	Fold a finished thread into its parent: replaces the parent's summary, marks the thread done
thread_delete	Delete a thread and all its descendants
thread_rebase	Move a thread to a different parent (like git rebase)

thread_create

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
title	string	Yes	Thread title (used to generate ID)
parentId	string	No	Parent thread ID (defaults to active thread)

thread_status

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
status	"active" | "done" | "abandoned"	Yes	New status
threadId	string	No	Target thread (defaults to active thread)
reason	string	No	Why, added to the thread's Decisions section

thread_merge

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
parentSummary	string	Yes	The parent's new summary, including the thread's conclusions
threadId	string	No	Thread to merge (defaults to active thread)

thread_delete

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
threadId	string	Yes	Thread ID to delete (cascades to descendants)

thread_rebase

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
threadId	string	Yes	Thread ID to move
newParentId	string	Yes	New parent thread ID

Summary & Context

Tool	Description
summary_update	Update the summary of a thread, or one of its sections
context_get	Get the assembled context with token estimation

summary_update

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
content	string	Yes	New summary, or the text to add to section (markdown)
threadId	string	No	Target thread (defaults to active thread)
section	string	No	decisions, constraints, state, open-questions or next-steps: only update that section
replaceSection	boolean	No	Replace the section instead of adding to it
paths	string[]	No	Files or directories the thread is about, to flag the summary when they change

context_get

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
maxTokens	number	No	Token budget; the farthest ancestors are left out first (thread_switch accepts it too)

Setup

Tool	Description
threadmind_init	Generate instruction files for agents that don't read MCP server instructions (AGENTS.md, etc.)

threadmind_init

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
clients	string[]	No	Files to generate: "agents", "claude", "cursor", "generic" (default: agents and generic)

Writes the same instructions the server sends to MCP clients:

Target	File	Read by
agents	AGENTS.md	Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and other agents
claude	CLAUDE.md	Claude Code — not needed, it receives the server instructions
cursor	.cursor/rules/threadmind.mdc	Cursor, as an always-applied project rule, instead of AGENTS.md (Cursor reads both)
generic	.threadmind/instructions.md	Paste into any client's custom instructions

Earlier versions wrote CLAUDE.md and .cursorrules. threadmind_init moves the ThreadMind section out of .cursorrules when it generates the Cursor rule, and reports any section left in either file.

Statistics

Tool	Description
stats_show	Show summary sizes and, with the Claude Code plugin, measured conversation sizes

With the plugin, each session records the size its conversation reached (read from the Claude Code transcript) and the context loaded when the next one started. stats_show reports both:

Measured sessions (Claude Code plugin):
  Conversation size when sessions ended: ~48,200 tokens on average, ~96,000 at most (12 sessions)
  ThreadMind context loaded at session start: ~1,150 tokens on average (14 sessions)

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Available Resources

Resource	URI	Description
Current Context	threadmind://context	Assembled context for the active thread
Thread Tree	threadmind://tree	ASCII visualization of the thread tree
Thread Summary	threadmind://thread/{threadId}	Summary of one thread, without its ancestors

Every thread of the active project is listed as a resource: in Claude Code, type @ to mention one and bring a sibling thread's summary into the conversation.

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Available Prompts

Prompt	Description
tm-help	Show all available ThreadMind commands
tm-context	Load the active thread's context into the conversation
tm-tree	Show the thread tree
tm-stats	Show statistics
tm-create	Create a new thread (via thread_create)
tm-switch	Switch to a thread (via thread_switch)
tm-rebase	Move a thread to a different parent (via thread_rebase)
tm-summary	Save the given summary, or have the AI write one (via summary_update)
tm-init	Generate instruction files (via threadmind_init)
start-thread	Same as tm-context, kept for compatibility
summarize-thread	Same as tm-summary without content, kept for compatibility

tm-context, tm-tree and tm-stats embed their result directly, without a tool call. The other prompts ask the AI to call the matching tool, so your client's confirmation settings still apply to changes. Thread ID arguments support autocompletion.

In Claude Code, these appear as slash commands: /mcp__thread-mind__tm-help, /mcp__thread-mind__tm-create, etc.

Quick Shortcuts

The server instructions teach the AI short text commands you can type directly in chat:

Command	Action
tm:help	Show all available commands
tm:context	Load assembled context
tm:tree	Show thread tree
tm:create <title>	Create a new thread
tm:switch <id>	Switch to a thread
tm:summary	Write and save the summary
tm:summary <content>	Save specific summary content
tm:merge	Fold the thread into its parent
tm:done [reason]	Mark the thread done
tm:abandon <reason>	Mark the thread abandoned
tm:stats	Show statistics
tm:delete <id>	Delete a thread
tm:rebase <id> <newParentId>	Move a thread to a different parent
tm:init	Generate instruction files
tm:project <title>	Create a new project
tm:projects	List all projects

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Usage Examples

1. Start a new project

You: Create a new ThreadMind project called "E-Commerce App" with system context
     "Building a Next.js e-commerce platform with Stripe payments"

AI: [calls project_create] → Project "e-commerce-app" created. Main thread active.

Claude Code needs no further setup. To let other agents (Codex, Cursor, Copilot…) use the project too, ask for threadmind_init, which generates an AGENTS.md file.

2. Work and summarize

You: [discuss the architecture with AI...]
You: tm:summary

AI: [writes the summary in sections, then calls summary_update]
     ## Decisions
     - Next.js 15 App Router, PostgreSQL with Prisma, Stripe Checkout
     ## Next steps
     - Authentication

You: We'll use Stripe webhooks for order confirmation, record it.

AI: [calls summary_update with section "decisions"] → Section "decisions" updated.

3. Branch into a sub-topic, on its git branch

$ git switch -c feature/payments

You: tm:create Payment Integration

AI: [calls thread_create] → Thread "payment-integration" created under "main".
     Linked to git branch "feature/payments".

     main
     └── payment-integration [branch: feature/payments] ← active

4. Start fresh when the conversation grows

You: tm:summary
You: /clear

(the plugin loads the context of payment-integration: main's decisions
 and constraints, then the whole payment-integration summary)

Without the plugin, ask for tm:context in the new session.

5. Finish the thread

You: tm:merge

AI: [writes main's new summary with the payment decisions, calls thread_merge]
     → Thread "payment-integration" merged into "main", which is now the active thread.

     main ← active
     └── payment-integration [done] [branch: feature/payments]

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Team Mode

Team mode enables collaborative thread trees shared via git.

How it works

1. Create a project in team mode:

   project_create with title "Shared Project" and mode "team"
   

2. Each team member gets an author ID on their first write, derived from git config user.name and a short hash of git config user.email (stable across clones; override it with the THREADMIND_AUTHOR environment variable)

3. Thread files (.threadmind/threads/) are tracked by git. Each one records its parent, so two people creating threads never conflict, even under the same parent

4. The local config (.threadmind/config.json) is gitignored — each member has their own session state and measurements

5. A teammate who checks out your feature branch starts on the thread linked to it

Rules

Action	Own threads	Teammates' threads
Read summary	Yes	Yes
Update summary, change status	Yes	No
Merge into parent	If you own the parent too	No
Delete	Yes, unless a descendant is a teammate's	No
Create child thread	Yes	Yes
Switch to	Yes	Yes

Ownership prevents accidental edits; it is not access control.

Upgrading from 0.4: the tree used to live in .threadmind/trees/. ThreadMind now moves it into the thread files on first use and deletes trees/<project>.json — commit that change, and upgrade the whole team together. .threadmind/stats/ is no longer used and can be deleted.

Workflow

# Pull teammates' threads
git pull

# View the full tree (includes everyone's threads)
# → Use thread_list

# Branch from a teammate's thread
# → Use thread_create with parentId set to their thread

# Push your new threads
git add .threadmind/
git commit -m "Add payment-integration thread"
git push

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Development & Publishing

Development setup, tests, releases and publishing to the MCP Registry are described in SETUP.md.

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Architecture

src/
  index.ts              # Entry point — stdio server, `hook <event>` or `status-line` for Claude Code
  server.ts             # McpServer factory (tools + resources + prompts + instructions)
  services.ts           # Services over one .threadmind directory, shared by server and hooks
  types/
    index.ts            # All TypeScript interfaces
  core/
    frontmatter.ts      # YAML frontmatter parser/serializer (zero deps)
    ids.ts              # ID validation, slugification, title normalization
    lock.ts             # Cross-process lock file
    clock.ts            # Strictly increasing timestamps
    storage.ts          # File I/O with atomic writes; tree derived from thread files
    workspace.ts        # Workspace root resolution (env, client roots, cwd)
    session.ts          # Active thread per session, per git branch
    git.ts              # Current branch, commits since a summary
    summary.ts          # Summary sections: inheritance, section updates
    project.ts          # Project lifecycle management
    thread.ts           # Thread CRUD, status, merge, tree rendering
    context.ts          # Context assembly, outdated summary notes, token budget
    instructions.ts     # Server instructions and instruction files
    stats.ts            # Session measurements and statistics report
  hooks/
    index.ts            # SessionStart / SessionEnd command hooks of the Claude Code plugin
    guard.ts            # Session hooks: reminders, compaction, branch changes, edited files
    session-context.ts  # Context injected by hooks, sized to Claude Code's limit
    transcript.ts       # Conversation sizes read from Claude Code transcripts
    settings.ts         # Hook options, from the server's environment
    session-cache.ts    # State shared between the hooks and the status line
    status-line.ts      # Claude Code status line
  tools/
    index.ts            # 14 MCP tools with Zod schemas and annotations
    hook.ts             # threadmind_hook, called by the plugin's hooks
  resources/
    index.ts            # 2 MCP resources + the thread resource template
  prompts/
    index.ts            # 11 MCP prompts
plugin/                 # Claude Code plugin (manifest, .mcp.json, hooks, commands)
.claude-plugin/         # Marketplace listing the plugin
server.json             # MCP Registry metadata

Design Decisions

• File-based storage over SQLite — git-friendly, human-readable, zero native dependencies
• Thread files as the single source of truth — each file records its parent; no tree index to drift or to conflict in git
• YAML frontmatter — thread metadata and content in a single .md file, readable by both humans and tools
• No external YAML parser — minimal hand-rolled parser for the simple flat frontmatter format
• Atomic writes — write to a temp file, flush it, then rename it over the target, so a crash never leaves a partial file
• Serialized updates — read-modify-write operations run one at a time, across sessions and hooks too, through a lock file
• Slugified IDs — thread IDs derived from titles ("Auth System" → "auth-system"), collision-safe with auto-suffix, restricted to a-z, 0-9 and - (which also rules out path traversal)
• One active thread per session — sessions don't move each other; new sessions start from the checked-out git branch
• Selective inheritance — ancestors pass on their decisions and constraints, not their state or next steps
• MCP Prompts — slash commands; read-only ones embed their result instead of asking for a tool call
• Server instructions — the server tells clients how to use it, so no instruction file is needed; threadmind_init writes the same text to AGENTS.md and other files for agents that don't read them
• Workspace resolution — THREADMIND_ROOT, then the client's roots, then the working directory
• Measured, not estimated, savings — conversation sizes come from the Claude Code transcripts; context sizes are estimates (~3.5 characters per token)

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Requirements

• Node.js >= 18.0.0
• Git (optional: team mode author detection, thread–branch links, outdated summary warnings)

License

MIT