The three questions everyone asks first
- Privacy
Does any of my data leave my machine?
No. The daemon listens on 127.0.0.1 only. The single outbound call ever made is the one-time license-validation call when you activate Pro.
- Pricing
Is Pro a subscription?
No. One-time. $49.69, lifetime, never a subscription. Pay once, own it for life.
- Future-proofing
Will Anthropic just ship this natively?
Maybe. The moat is recall context, threads, MCP, redaction, cross-AI support, and the dead-man clause. Anthropic is a cloud company. They cannot ship "even if we disappear".
Everything else
Tagged by topic so you can scan to the answer you need.
- Privacy
Can I use this if I am offline?
Yes. Works on a plane, behind firewalls, on air-gapped machines. The browser talks to http://127.0.0.1 — your own laptop.
- Privacy
What happens if I delete a JSONL from ~/.claude/projects/?
The SQLite copy persists. Recall only adds and updates — it never deletes session rows because the source file disappeared. Your indexed memory outlives the source files.
- Privacy
How big does the database get?
About 800 MB for 1,100+ sessions and 150,000 messages in our reference environment. Storage is cheap; this is rarely a problem. Compression is on the roadmap if it ever becomes one.
- Compatibility
Cursor, Cline, Windsurf?
Today, no — those tools do not write to ~/.claude/projects/. Future: adapters for each (v0.8+).
- Compatibility
Multiple machines on one index?
Not yet. Each machine has its own ~/.recall/db.sqlite. Team sync is on the roadmap — opt-in, end-to-end encrypted, still local-first.
- Licensing
What is the license model?
Free tier: index, list, show, search, basic browsing. Pro tier ($49.69 one-time, lifetime): full web UI, context re-injection, MCP, advanced search. License validates once, then offline forever. Dead-man clause: if our servers disappear, existing keys stay valid.
- Licensing
Refunds?
A 30-day satisfaction guarantee from license activation. Email and we refund. The clock starts when you run recall activate, not when you click Buy.
FAQ
Top three above. The rest:
#How big does the database get?
~800MB for 1,100 sessions and 150,000 messages in our reference setup. Storage is cheap.
#Multiple machines, same index?
Not yet. Each machine has its own ~/.recall/db.sqlite. Team sync is on the roadmap (opt-in, e2e encrypted, still local-first).
#What if I delete a session JSONL?
Recall keeps its SQLite copy. We add and update; we never delete on source-disappearance. Indexed memory outlives the source files.
#Cursor / Cline / Windsurf?
Today: no, those tools don't write to ~/.claude/projects/. Adapters are on the v0.8 roadmap.
#What's the license model?
Free for the basics. Pro is one-time, $49.69, lifetime updates, dead-man clause. License JWT validates once at activation, then offline forever.
#Why are my session titles showing the first sentence instead of my tab name?
The tab-name pipeline broke between the editor extension and the daemon. Run recall doctor and read the Pipeline health section, it tells you which layer is at fault. Most common cause: the daemon updated to require authentication, the Marketplace extension hasn't auto-updated yet. Reinstall the extension, run "Developer: Restart Extension Host", and the Auth rejections counter stops climbing the moment the new bundle takes over.