Skitchy/rekindle

**For Claude Code users who lose time re-explaining project context every session.**
*Your AI forgets everything between sessions. Rekindle fixes that.*
---
Rekindle is an MCP continuity engine that solves **session orientation**, not just storage. Orient at session start, capture at session end, survive mid-session compaction. All local, all SQLite, zero API keys.
**v0.3.3** — version-consistent MCP metadata and package documentation, on top of v0.3.2's one-command session-start delivery installer. Release notes
Quick Start
Requires Node.js 20 or newer.
This creates .rekindle/ in your project with a SQLite database, identity template, continuity policy, project registry, captures directory, and transcript directory. Then add the MCP server config for your client:
Claude Code
Add to ~/.claude.json:
Enable PreCompact protection (captures context before mid-session compaction):
Enable session-start orientation delivery — the budgeted orientation packet arrives automatically at startup, resume, /clear, and /compact, so the model re-orients at every context boundary without being asked:
Both hooks are opt-in; plain init never installs either. npx rekindle init --with-hooks --with-delivery does everything in one line.
Session-start delivery resolves the hook's real working directory through
.rekindle/projects.json. Exact roots match by default; nested directories
inherit only when an entry sets "include_descendants": true. An unmapped or
ambiguous workspace is reported as UNKNOWN PROJECT and never receives a
checkpoint or context record from another project. REKINDLE_PROJECT remains
an explicit override, and receipts record which resolution rule won.
.rekindle/policy.json controls transcript handling, the startup byte budget,
and mandatory versus optional packet sections. Mandatory sections are atomic:
if they do not fit, Rekindle emits a bounded failure manifest instead of a
partial anchor. Optional sections are omitted whole and recorded in the
receipt. Set "transcript_mode": "excluded" to prevent SessionStart from
reading transcript files or paths and to mark transcript coverage N/A in the
orientation score. Set "background_writes_allowed": false to make the
automatic PreCompact hook exit without creating a capture; manual capture
remains a separate, explicit action.
Claude Desktop
Add to claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\):
Cursor
Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:
Then fill in .rekindle/identity.md and paste the boot instructions into your project's CLAUDE.md.
> Session 1 stores. Session 2 remembers. Session 10 anticipates.
---
The Problem (43 Sessions of Data)
Over 43 sessions, we measured what an AI assistant failed to load at session start:
| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Sessions analyzed | 43 |
| Clean boots (all context loaded) | 33% |
| High-signal failures (5+ gaps) | 26% |
| Total retrieval failures | 173 |
Existing memory tools (Mem0, Letta, Zep) optimize for retrieval accuracy: can the AI find what it stored? That's necessary but not sufficient. None of them address whether the AI loaded the *right* context for *this* session, or whether it can detect what it missed.
Rekindle solves session orientation: loading identity, recent context, memory health, and missing-context warnings before the assistant starts work.
See docs/gap-analysis.md for the full research dataset.
---
What It Does
Boot: orient at session start
boot_report runs an orientation pipeline before any work begins:
Survive the Long Middle: PreCompact capture (v0.3)
Mid-session compaction destroys reasoning chains, failed approaches, relational texture, and tone. The PreCompact hook fires automatically before compaction and saves what would otherwise be lost:
Three read modes control token cost:
- **summary** — one paragraph, cheap
- **structured** — decisions/loops/warnings, moderate
- **raw** — full transcript excerpt, expensive (only when needed)