Claude Desktop MCP setup¶

Add persistent memory to Claude Desktop in 30 seconds.

Install¶

pip3.11 install "extremis[mcp]"

Configure¶

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "extremis": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/extremis-mcp",
      "env": {
        "EXTREMIS_HOME": "~/.extremis"
      }
    }
  }
}

Full path required

Claude Desktop doesn't inherit your shell PATH. Use the full path to extremis-mcp:

which extremis-mcp
# → /opt/homebrew/bin/extremis-mcp

Restart Claude Desktop¶

Quit (⌘Q) and reopen. The 10 memory tools appear in the tool picker.

Test it¶

Paste this into Claude:

Use memory_remember_now to store that my name is [your name] in the semantic layer. Then use memory_recall with query "what is my name?" to verify it was stored.

Claude Code¶

claude mcp add extremis /opt/homebrew/bin/extremis-mcp \
  --env EXTREMIS_HOME=~/.extremis

SSE / HTTP mode¶

Run extremis as an HTTP server instead of stdio — useful for non-Claude integrations:

extremis-mcp --transport sse --port 8765

Prompt¶

The server instructs Claude to:

Call memory_recall at the start of every conversation
Call memory_remember after learning something durable
Call memory_report_outcome when the user rates a response
Call memory_consolidate every ~20 conversations

You don't need to instruct Claude manually — these are in the server instructions.

Tools reference¶

See Tools reference for all 10 tools.