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](https://mahmoud-nb.github.io/thread-mind-mcp/) | [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/thread-mind-mcp) | [GitHub](https://github.com/mahmoud-nb/thread-mind-mcp)

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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.

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:

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

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.

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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"]

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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...

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Thread: My App

Decisions

• Next.js 15, PostgreSQL, Stripe

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Thread: Authentication System

Decisions

• JWT with refresh tokens, bcrypt, Passport.js

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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

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_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

project_create

| mode | "solo" \| "team" | No | Project mode (default: `"solo"