Native macOS App · Local-first · Open Source

Your conversations contain
more than you remember.

retrace imports your ChatGPT, Claude, WhatsApp, and Messenger conversations into a local database, runs AI analysis on-device, and connects to Claude Desktop via MCP so you can reflect, search, and write back to Obsidian. No cloud. No API costs.

Download for macOS

View on GitHub Free · Open source · macOS 12+

Your thinking is scattered
across platforms that don't talk.

You work through a career decision in ChatGPT. You vent to a friend on WhatsApp. You map out a health goal with Claude. Each contains real insight. None of them connect.

Existing journaling apps start from a blank page. You have to remember to journal, then type it all again. retrace starts from what you actually said.

Auto-sync via Chrome

ChatGPT

Claude

File import

Messenger

retrace

How it works

Five steps from scattered conversations to structured reflection.

Sync with Chrome

Install the browser extension. It auto-syncs new ChatGPT and Claude conversations in the background, rate-limited, completely silent.

Import the rest

Export WhatsApp (.txt) or Messenger (JSON) archives and drag them into retrace. Format is detected automatically. No configuration.

Local AI processes everything

Conversations are segmented, topics extracted, sentiment scored, and embedded using all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (384D). Runs on your machine. No data leaves.

Reflect with Claude Desktop

retrace exposes 13 MCP tools to Claude Desktop. Search by keyword or meaning. Pull up a person's full history. Uses your existing Claude Pro subscription.

Write back to Obsidian

Insights write to your vault as callout blocks with source evidence. Always preview before any changes are written.

Everything retrace can do.

Built for people who use AI tools daily and want to understand their own thinking.

Sync

Set and forget with Chrome

The browser extension runs in the background and syncs new conversations from ChatGPT and Claude as you use them. No manual exports.

Semantic and keyword hybrid

Find conversations by meaning, not just keywords. Powered by sqlite-vec with 384-dimensional embeddings. Searches across all platforms in a single query.

Reflection

13 MCP tools for Claude Desktop

Search conversations, pull topic trends, view relationship timelines, analyze sentiment over time, and trigger Obsidian write-back. All from inside Claude Desktop.

Life Dimensions

Track 7 areas of your life

Career, Relationships, Health, Personal Growth, Creativity, Finances, Purpose. retrace maps conversations to dimensions so you can see where your attention actually goes.

Obsidian

Enrich notes with real evidence

retrace enriches Obsidian notes with conversation evidence using callout blocks. Cross-reference what your notes claim with what you actually said. Preview before writing.

Privacy

Local AI, zero cloud

All embedding and analysis runs locally. No account required. No telemetry. One SQLite file. The Chrome extension only reads from your logged-in browser session.

Model Context Protocol

retrace turns Claude Desktop
into your personal analyst.

13 MCP tools expose your local conversation database directly to Claude Desktop. No API calls. No extra costs. If you have Claude Pro, you already have everything you need.

search_conversations keyword search across all platforms

semantic_search vector similarity search

get_topic_timeline topic frequency over time

get_person_timeline all conversations with a specific person

get_reflection_history past reflections by life dimension

get_messages_in_range messages within a time window

list_conversations browse with metadata

get_conversation full conversation with metadata

get_stats database overview and breakdown

get_topics topics ranked by frequency

search_segments semantic search within segments

write_reflection save reflection to Obsidian

get_conversation_stats per-platform message counts

You What idea have I kept coming back to?

Claude uses

get_topic_timeline(days=90) semantic_search("keep returning excited can't stop thinking")

Claude One thread runs through 23 conversations across three months: building something of your own. It shows up in a ChatGPT session in January, three WhatsApp voice-note transcripts in February, and six Claude conversations in March. Each time the tone is the same: energized, specific, a little scared. That's worth paying attention to.

Built on principles, not promises.

Your data never leaves your machine.

retrace runs entirely on your Mac. No cloud sync. No accounts. No telemetry. The Chrome extension reads conversations from your browser and writes them to a local SQLite database. That is the full data path.

~/Library/Application Support/retrace/data.db One file. Your file.

Native macOS, not Electron.

retrace is built with Tauri v2. It uses a fraction of the memory Electron apps consume, starts faster, and integrates properly with macOS. Standard .dmg install. Nothing unusual in your system.

Tauri v2 · Rust · SQLite · sqlite-vec

Open source, forever.

MIT licensed. No vendor lock-in. Read the code, audit the Chrome extension, fork it, extend it. Your reflection infrastructure should not be a SaaS black box.

MIT licensed · No VC funding · No growth targets

Open Source

Built for people who own their tools.

retrace is free and MIT licensed. Download the macOS app, install the Chrome extension, and you are running in under five minutes. No account. No subscription. No API key.

Download for macOS Free · Open source · macOS 12+

View on GitHub Read the Docs

Chrome extension available on the GitHub releases page

13 MCP tools

$0 API costs

MIT Licensed

4 Platforms