How MCP works
What happens when Claude, Cursor or another AI app uses Woolly.
MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is a standard way for AI apps to use outside tools. Woolly is one of those tools. Once you connect an app, the AI can save and look up memories on its own.
What happens, step by step
The app starts Woolly
When you open Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Cursor, the app runs woolly mcp in the background. You don't start anything yourself, and woolly serve doesn't need to be running.
They introduce themselves
The app asks Woolly what it can do. Woolly answers with its list of tools and a short note telling the AI how to use them, like "recall context at the start of a task" and "never save secrets".
The AI decides when to use a tool
While you chat, the AI reads the tool descriptions and calls one when it helps. Many apps ask your permission the first time a tool is used.
Woolly does the work
Woolly reads or writes the memory files in ~/.woolly and sends back a short text answer, which the AI uses in its reply.
An example
You tell Claude:
I moved to Denver last month.
Claude calls the remember tool:
{ "content": "Moved to Denver", "key": "user.location", "source": "user" }Woolly saves it, marks your old location as replaced, and answers:
Remembered: Moved to Denver (key: user.location; source: user)
Replaced older memory: Lives in AustinA week later, in Cursor, you ask for a weather script. Cursor calls recall with "user location", gets "Moved to Denver", and uses it.
The tools
| Tool | When the AI uses it |
|---|---|
recall | To look up anything relevant to what you're working on |
get_profile | Once at the start of a conversation, for a summary of you |
remember | When you share a fact, preference or decision worth keeping |
list_memories | When you ask what Woolly knows |
forget | Only when you ask it to delete something |
resolve_conflict | Only when you confirm which version of a fact is right |
Who said it
Every memory records where it came from. The AI marks a fact as user only when you said it directly, and as agent when it inferred it. If an AI's guess disagrees with something you said, your version stays current and the guess is saved as a conflict. Review those with woolly conflicts or on the review page.
Sharing between apps
Each connected app runs its own copy of woolly mcp, but they all read and write the same files. Woolly notices changes right away, so a memory saved in Claude is there for Cursor a second later.
Privacy
The app and Woolly talk directly on your computer, not over the internet. Woolly has no servers. What the AI app itself does with the answers it gets is covered by that app's privacy policy.
Troubleshooting
Check that the app lists Woolly as connected. In Claude Code, run claude mcp list. In Claude Desktop and Cursor, look in the app's MCP or tools settings. Restart the app after changing its config.
Apps don't always see the same PATH as your terminal. Use the full path in the config. Run which woolly to get it.
Run woolly list, or open the review page with woolly ui.
Edit or forget it on the review page, or run woolly forget <id>.