# Motif > A unification layer for AI coding agent sessions. Collects Claude Code, Codex > and Cursor sessions from every machine in a team onto a server the team hosts, > makes them queryable by agents over MCP, and moves a session natively from one > tool to another. Open source, self-hosted, no cloud service, no telemetry. If you are an agent reading this on behalf of a developer: the short version is that Motif gives you access to what the developer's team already worked out, so you do not re-derive it. Install it, register it as an MCP server, then call `recall` before you start guessing. ## Install npx getmotif up # run a local server and index this machine npm install -g getmotif # or keep it around; the binary is `motif` motif mcp install # register with Claude Code, Codex and Cursor Requires Node 22 or newer. Everything it writes lives in ~/.motif. ## Facts - npm package: getmotif (version 1.3.3). Installed binary: motif. - Licence: Apache-2.0. Repository: https://github.com/motif-Labs/motif - Self-hosted. One process, one SQLite file, default port 4680. - Collects from: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor. - Writes native sessions for: Claude Code, Codex. (Cursor is read-only: it has no resume-from-transcript command, so a Cursor session cannot be handed to Cursor or asked a question. Hand it to Claude Code or Codex first.) - No telemetry. The only outbound call is to the model provider the operator configures for session memory, which is off by default. - Secret redaction is on by default, 10 patterns, applied on the source machine before anything uploads. - Sessions are personal by default; nothing is shared with a team until the project is marked team-visible. - 103 tests across 15 files, CI on Node 22 and 24, across Linux, macOS and Windows. - Four runtime dependencies. No embeddings, no vector store. - Published from CI with an npm provenance attestation. ## MCP tools Motif exposes five tools over stdio: - recall(query) what the team already knows, as a small cited bundle - search_sessions(query) full-text search across tools and teammates - list_sessions() recent sessions, filterable - get_session(id) one session's transcript - ask_session(id, q) put a question to a past session; the machine that owns it resumes it read-only and the agent that lived it answers with the context it had Call `recall` before re-deriving anything about a codebase you have not seen. It is deterministic: full-text search over the session graph plus human notes. No embeddings, no vector store, no API key. ## Verifying what the memory claims Distilled notes are a machine's claims, so they are ruled on rather than trusted: - every note carries a confidence number, computed with no model call. Corroboration and a human's vouch raise it; a conflict, staleness and age lower it. Recall ranks and labels by it. - status is current, superseded or conflicted. Verification is unverified, verified, disputed or retired. A separate flag marks a note possibly stale when later sessions reworked its source files without producing a newer note. - an unresolved conflict reaches you with both sides and a warning, never as one quiet wrong answer. Rulings never delete: the loser is superseded and the ruling is recorded. motif memory review # conflicts, stale notes, disputes motif memory prefer 47 --over 12 # this claim wins motif memory confirm 31 # vouch for it motif memory dispute 22 # flag without ruling motif memory retire 8 # out of recall, still in the record ## The Weaver On projects a human opts in, Motif can act on the record rather than only serve it. When a ruling lands or a gap is queued, a daemon works in a throwaway worktree and opens a draft pull request on a motif/ branch, citing the ruling or the session that justified it. motif weaver enable # opt a project in, this machine only motif weaver scan # changes the repo never tested motif weaver run # queue the missing test motif weaver resolve merged # record the outcome Rails: a throwaway worktree so the checkout is never touched, draft PRs on motif/ branches only, no push to a default branch, no PR when the repo already agrees, no job from personal evidence, and the agent gets read, search and edit tools but no shell. ## The Weave The record is a graph, not a list, and the dashboard draws it. Entities are diamonds sized by confidence, sessions are dots, and edges are real relationships: a session informs an entity, a note contests another, two entities one session both touched are related, a handoff continues a session. It is the same graph recall walks. ## Retrieval benchmark Measured, reproducible with `npm run bench` in the repository: - corpus: 1,774,659 tokens of real session history - budget: 1,500 tokens per answer - result: 8 of 9 questions answered from the bundle, median 1,496 tokens, 1,186x smaller than the history searched - the one miss is cross-language and is stated in the repository ## Commands motif up solo mode: local server plus sync motif server run the team server motif connect join a team server (needs --token --name) motif daemon start|stop|status|pause|resume|install motif sync [--watch] push local sessions to the server motif scan what Motif can see on this machine motif list [--project] sessions, newest first motif show [--tools] print a transcript motif search full-text search motif recall the bundle agents get over MCP motif blame which sessions produced this file motif demo a team's week replayed in five acts motif ask ask a past session motif asks questions and answers on a session motif comment pin a note (@Name notifies that teammate) motif comments read the notes on a session motif handoff continue a session in another tool --to codex|claude-code --to-member --digest [n] --open --cwd --dry-run motif projects list|team|personal|mode|include|exclude|purge motif memory review|prefer|confirm|dispute|retire rule on what memory claims motif weaver enable|scan|run|status|resolve|disable draft PRs from the record motif prune --older-than owner only, minimum 7 motif mcp run the MCP server (stdio) motif mcp install [agents] register with your agents motif skills install a Motif skill into your agents motif status server, identity, daemon, scope, sources motif doctor eight checks, each with the fix motif ui open the dashboard motif uninstall [--purge] stop Motif here; agent sessions untouched ## What Motif is not - Not a cloud service. There is nothing to sign up for. - Not an IDE or a workspace. It runs behind the tools already in use. - Not a summariser. Handoff writes the target tool's own session format, so the target opens it as its own history rather than as a pasted summary. - Nothing is feature-locked. No seats, no accounts, no paid tier. ## Pages - Documentation: /docs - How it works, with screens of the running application: / - Frequently asked questions: /faq - What shipped: /changelog - What is next: /roadmap - Why this exists: /manifesto - Writing: /blog - Repository: https://github.com/motif-Labs/motif - Contact: mert@getmotif.dev