@recordist/gateway
[Listed on mcpservers.org] [Glama score]
MCP server + A2A agent for Recordist (https://recordist.app), the app that
writes notes from your calls on-device, with no bot in the call. It lets Claude
Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and other agents read and act on the meetings you
recorded, where they are kept.
Get the free Recordist app for Mac, Windows and Linux:
https://recordist.app/download?from=npm
- Reads (list, get, transcript, search, action items) work whether or not the
Recordist app is running: the gateway talks to the app's local API when it is
up and falls back to opening
recordist.db read-only when it is not.
- Actions (start and stop recording, add a marker, regenerate notes) need the
app. When it is not running they fail with
Recordist app is not running.
- Recording asks first.
start_recording starts at once only when
Allow agents to start recordings is on in Recordist's Settings, then
Integrations (off by default). Otherwise Recordist shows its own record card on
screen, as it does for the Chrome extension and Stream Deck, and nothing
records until the person answers it. Recordist 1.0.4 and earlier show that card
only while the Chrome extension switch is on in Settings, then Detection; with
both off, the agent is told the recording did not start and the person can
start it in Recordist. stop_recording and regenerate_notes
are marked destructive, so assistants that honour MCP's hints ask each time.
- Where your meetings go. The gateway itself talks only to the Recordist app on
127.0.0.1 and listens on loopback by default. What it returns goes to the AI
assistant you connect, which may send it to its own cloud model.
regenerate_notes has the app write notes with the provider set in Recordist's
Settings → AI notes, which may also be a cloud service.
Install
Requires Node 20+. better-sqlite3 ships prebuilt binaries for common platforms.
Connect an assistant
Claude Desktop: the extension
The Recordist extension installs in Claude Desktop in one step and needs no
configuration. Double-click recordist-<version>.mcpb (build it as in
Claude Desktop Extension), or in Claude Desktop
open Settings → Extensions → Advanced settings → Install Extension… and choose
the file. Claude shows what the extension can do before you install it.
Claude Desktop: by hand
claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/,
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\):
Claude Code
or, for the HTTP transport while npx -y @recordist/gateway --http is running (it needs
the app's API token, see Authentication):
Claude Code plugin
This repository is also a Claude Code plugin marketplace. The plugin in
plugins/recordist starts this gateway, pinned to a
published version, and adds a skill for answering from the record:
On Claude Code before 2.1.275, add the marketplace first:
/plugin marketplace add recordist-app/gateway, then
/plugin install recordist@recordist.
Cursor
.cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global):
Any Streamable HTTP client
Send Authorization: Bearer <api_token> with every request.
Authentication
The HTTP transport (--http) and the A2A agent (--a2a) answer only requests
that carry Authorization: Bearer <api_token>, where the token is the contents
of <data>/api_token (or RECORDIST_API_TOKEN), the same token the gateway
uses for the app's local API. A missing or wrong token gets 401 with
WWW-Authenticate: Bearer and nothing else. The one exception is the A2A Agent
Card, which stays public so clients can discover the scheme; it lists skills
only, never meetings. Neither mode starts when no token is available, and
neither does --all, stdio included: open Recordist once so it writes
api_token, or run with no flags for stdio alone. The stdio transport needs no
token, since only the assistant that launched it can talk to it. --doctor says
whether --http and --a2a will require the token or refuse to start.
What the assistant gets
Tools
Resources: recordist://meeting/{id} (JSON) and
recordist://meeting/{id}/transcript (Markdown). The resource list shows the
50 most recent meetings.
Prompts: summarize_meeting, draft_followup_email, weekly_review.
A2A agent
Agent Card at http://127.0.0.1:47323/.well-known/agent.json (public, no
token; authentication.schemes is ["bearer"]); skills mirror the tools above.
JSON-RPC 2.0 at / with tasks/send, tasks/get, tasks/cancel and
tasks/sendSubscribe (SSE); every JSON-RPC request needs
Authorization: Bearer <api_token>.
Natural-language tasks are routed to a skill with a small keyword router; every
completed task returns a text part and a data part with the structured
result. To skip the router, send a data part {"skill": "...", "args": {...}}.
CLI
Always run it with npx by its scoped name, @recordist/gateway. A global
install (npm i -g @recordist/gateway) puts the same command on your path as
recordist-gateway.
--host binds --http and --a2a to another address and exists for
containers. Do not expose it on a network interface: the token would cross the
network in plain HTTP.
Logs go to stderr; stdout is reserved for the stdio MCP transport.
Environment variables
How backend selection works
On each call the gateway probes GET /v1/health (800 ms timeout, result cached
for 5 s). If the app answers, the call goes to the API. Otherwise reads open
<data>/recordist.db read-only (the app's WAL is never written to)
and actions return Recordist app is not running. The database is opened with
better-sqlite3 when its native binary matches the Node that runs the gateway,
and with node:sqlite (Node 22.13 and later) when it does not. If neither can
open it, the error says why for each. FTS5 (segments_fts) is used
for search when present, with a LIKE fallback otherwise.
Security notes
- The gateway binds
127.0.0.1 by default. --host exists for containers; do
not expose it on a network interface. The Streamable HTTP transport enables
DNS-rebinding protection and only accepts its own Host (127.0.0.1 or
localhost by default). The A2A agent accepts only its own Host, no browser
Origin unless allow-listed, and JSON-RPC POSTs only as application/json.
- The gateway itself talks only to the Recordist app on
127.0.0.1. What it
returns goes to the AI assistant you connect, which may send it to its own
cloud model, so connect only an assistant you trust with your meetings.
--http and --a2a require Authorization: Bearer <api_token> on every
request (the A2A Agent Card excepted), compared in constant time, so other
user accounts on the machine cannot read meetings through them. Programs
running under your own account can read api_token, so the token does not
separate them from you.
- The API token is read from
<data>/api_token, which the app writes with
mode 0600. --doctor warns if the file is group/world readable. Never commit
or share it; anyone with the token can control recording on that machine.
- The SQLite database is opened read-only; the gateway never modifies it.
- No telemetry. The gateway makes no network calls other than to the Recordist
app's local API.
Privacy
The gateway and the extension talk to the Recordist app on the same machine, on
127.0.0.1, and to nothing else. They send nothing to Recordist and have no
telemetry. What a tool
returns goes to the assistant that called it, which may send it to its own
cloud model under its provider's terms.
Recordist's privacy policy: https://recordist.app/privacy
Claude Desktop Extension
mcpb/manifest.json describes the extension in the
MCP Bundle format. Build it with:
The script compiles the gateway, installs the production dependencies at their
locked versions, leaves out better-sqlite3 so the bundle carries no native
code, then validates and packs it with the official @anthropic-ai/mcpb CLI.
Claude Desktop runs the extension with the Node it ships, so reads with
Recordist closed use node:sqlite.
Changes in 0.1.10
- On Windows the gateway finds your meetings without
RECORDIST_DATA_DIR: it reads %LOCALAPPDATA%\app.recordist.desktop, where the Windows app keeps them (0.1.9 and earlier looked in %APPDATA%).
Changes in 0.1.9
- The README says what Recordist is today: on Mac, Windows and Linux, notes written on-device.
Changes in 0.1.8
- The Claude Desktop Extension:
mcpb/manifest.json, mcpb/icon.png and
scripts/build-mcpb.sh, which builds recordist-<version>.mcpb.
- A Claude Code plugin in
plugins/recordist, listed by the marketplace in
.claude-plugin/marketplace.json.
- Reads with the app closed fall back to
node:sqlite when better-sqlite3
cannot load, for example under a Node it was not built for. When neither can
open recordist.db, the error names the reason for each instead of saying
the file was not found.
- A 0.1.7 setup works as it is: the transports, the token checks and the tool
names are unchanged.
start_recording no longer just fails while Allow agents to start
recordings is off (the default): it asks Recordist to show its own record
card, and says that nothing records until the person answers it. "Record this
call" now works with the safe default.
stop_recording and regenerate_notes carry destructiveHint, so hosts ask
before ending a recording or replacing the notes.
stop_recording waits 30 seconds for the app (it answers once the last of
the transcript is written) and, if no answer comes, asks the app again: a
recording that has ended is reported as stopped, not as an error.
- Plain error words, and the README points to the download page instead of the
early-access waiting list, which has closed.
Changes in 0.1.7
- Security: dependency updates for advisories in @modelcontextprotocol/sdk and
transitive packages. The SDK floor is now 1.31.0, the first version with the
fix for GHSA-6qxp-vccf-f47h. Tools, transports and token checks are
unchanged, so a 0.1.6 setup works as it is.
Changes in 0.1.6
- The README and the package and plugin descriptions now say where meeting text
goes. The gateway itself talks only to the Recordist app on
127.0.0.1 and
listens on loopback by default. What it returns goes to the AI assistant you
connect, which may send it to its own cloud model. Earlier versions said that
nothing leaves your machine. That is true of the gateway alone, and a cloud
assistant sends what it reads to its provider.
- The README says the gateway binds
127.0.0.1 by default and that --host
is for containers, where it used to say the gateway only ever binds
127.0.0.1.
- The Recordist app is described as available for Macs with Apple silicon,
which is the only build published.
start_recording names the setting as the app shows it: Allow agents to
start recordings, in Settings → Integrations.
- Every command in the README and in
--help uses the scoped name,
npx -y @recordist/gateway.
- Source comments point to the public
local API reference.
- Tools, transports and token checks are unchanged, so a 0.1.5 setup works as
it is.
Changes in 0.1.5
--http and --a2a now require Authorization: Bearer <api_token> on every
request; a missing or wrong token gets 401. The A2A Agent Card stays public
and now lists authentication.schemes: ["bearer"]. If you used either mode,
add the header to your client (see Authentication). The
stdio transport is unchanged.
--http and --a2a refuse to start when no token is available
(<data>/api_token missing and RECORDIST_API_TOKEN unset). So does
--all, and it exits before stdio starts, so an assistant that launches the
gateway with --all gets nothing. Without a token, launch it with no flags
(stdio only).
- Library:
createMcpHttpServer and createA2AServer now take a required
token option (the app's api_token) and throw when it is missing or blank.
Pass loadConfig().apiToken, as in Library use.
--doctor reports whether --http and --a2a will require the token or
refuse to start, and where the token comes from.
- The MCP HTTP transport answers
400 to an unparsable request path instead of
ending the process (the A2A agent already did since 0.1.3).
Development
Library use
The HTTP and A2A servers require a bearer token and throw without one:
About
The gateway is the small, open bridge between your AI assistant and the copy of
Recordist running on your own machine. It contains no
app code and no keys; it can only reach the local API on the machine it runs on.
Issues and questions: [email protected]. Security reports: [email protected]
(see SECURITY.md). Made by Recordist, a small independent studio in Ontario, Canada.