ContextForge MCP — Persistent Memory for Claude, Cursor & Copilot

Give Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot persistent memory across sessions via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Stop re-explaining your project every time.

ContextForge MCP is an open-source MCP server that connects your AI coding assistants to long-term, searchable memory. Decisions, architecture notes, debugging context, and project knowledge stay available across every session — across every tool that supports MCP.

• 🧠 Persistent memory — your AI remembers everything across sessions, days, and weeks
• 🔍 Semantic search — find knowledge by meaning, not keywords
• 🔗 One memory, every tool — Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Claude Desktop, Windsurf
• 🐙 Git integration — sync commits and PRs automatically
• ✅ Task tracking — issues, assignments, and project status
• 👥 Team collaboration — share projects and memory with your team
• 🆓 Free tier — get started without a credit card

Quick Start

1. Install

npm install -g contextforge-mcp

2. Get your API key

1. Go to [contextforge.dev](https://contextforge.dev)
2. Sign up (free tier available)
3. Settings → API Keys → Generate API Key
4. Copy your key (starts with cf_)

3. Connect to your AI tool

#### Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextforge": {
      "command": "contextforge-mcp",
      "env": {
        "CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

#### Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add contextforge \
  -e CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY=your-api-key-here \
  -- contextforge-mcp

Restart Claude Code and run /mcp to verify it's connected.

#### Cursor

Add to your Cursor MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextforge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["contextforge-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

#### GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Add to your Copilot MCP config:

{
  "servers": {
    "contextforge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["contextforge-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CONTEXTFORGE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Initialize your project (required)

Set up your project so your AI editor knows to use ContextForge memory:

npx contextforge-mcp init

By default, init auto-detects which editor your project uses and writes:

• CLAUDE.md for Claude Code (signals: existing CLAUDE.md or .claude/ directory)
• .cursorrules for Cursor (signals: existing .cursorrules or .cursor/ directory)

If no editor is detected, both files are generated.

Without this step, your AI will silently ignore ContextForge for memory queries — even though the MCP is connected — because the built-in auto-memory wins by default.

#### Override with --editor

Re-running init is idempotent — files that already contain our marker are left untouched.

Available Tools

ContextForge provides tools for Knowledge Management, GitHub Integration, Issue Tracking, and Collaboration.

Knowledge Management

Spaces & Projects

GitHub Integration

Issue Tracking

Collaboration

Snapshots & Export

Utility

Natural Language Examples

You don't need to memorize commands — just talk naturally to your AI:

# Knowledge
"Save this: we use PostgreSQL for the main database"
"What database do we use?"
"List my spaces"

# GitHub
"Connect my repo github.com/myuser/myproject"
"What commits did I make today?"
"Show PRs merged this week"

# Issues
"Create an issue: Update the login page design"
"What's pending?"
"What should I work on next?"
"Mark the login issue as done"

Environment Variables

How it works

ContextForge MCP is a thin client that translates Model Context Protocol tool calls into authenticated HTTP requests against the ContextForge API. Your knowledge is stored, indexed (semantic embeddings), and retrieved on the server side — the MCP client itself is stateless.

This means:

• No infra to manage — no local databases, no embeddings to run, no vector stores to maintain
• Works everywhere your AI works — same memory across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.
• Team collaboration — shared projects sync in real time

Dashboard

Manage your memory visually at [contextforge.dev](https://contextforge.dev):

• View and organize your knowledge
• Search and filter memories
• Manage API keys and billing
• Track issues and collaborate
• Export and backup data

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/alfredoizdev/contextforge-mcp.git
cd contextforge-mcp
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Watch mode
npm run dev

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at [github.com/alfredoizdev/contextforge-mcp](https://github.com/alfredoizdev/contextforge-mcp).

Support

• 📖 Documentation
• 🐛 Report Issues
• 💬 Questions: [email protected]

License

MIT © Alfredo Izquierdo