@recordist/gateway

MCP server + A2A agent for Recordist, the meeting notetaker that runs on your own computer with no bot in the call and no upload. It lets Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and other agents read and act on the meetings recorded on your machine.

Recordist itself is opening in small waves: ask for a place at https://recordist.app/early-access (Mac today; Windows and Linux in early access).

• 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/stop recording, add marker, regenerate notes) need the app. When it is not running they fail with Recordist app is not running.
• Everything is loopback-only. Nothing leaves your machine.

Install

npx -y @recordist/gateway --doctor     # check data dir, DB, token, app

Requires Node 20+. better-sqlite3 ships prebuilt binaries for common platforms.

Connect an assistant

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "recordist": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@recordist/gateway"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add recordist -- npx -y @recordist/gateway

or, for the HTTP transport while recordist-gateway --http is running:

claude mcp add --transport http recordist http://127.0.0.1:47322/mcp

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "recordist": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@recordist/gateway"]
    }
  }
}

Any Streamable HTTP client

recordist-gateway --http          # http://127.0.0.1:47322/mcp

What the assistant gets

Tools

Tool	Purpose
list_meetings	Recent meetings; optional q, from/to, limit/offset
get_meeting	One meeting with notes, action items and markers
get_transcript	Transcript as json | md | srt | vtt | txt
search_meetings	Full-text search across transcripts and notes (FTS5)
get_action_items	Action items, filter by meeting_id / open_only
regenerate_notes	Re-run AI notes (summary, action_items, decisions, …) — needs the app
start_recording	Start recording — needs the app + "allow remote start" setting
stop_recording	Stop the current recording — needs the app
add_marker	Bookmark the current moment — needs the app

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

recordist-gateway --a2a           # http://127.0.0.1:47323/

Agent Card at http://127.0.0.1:47323/.well-known/agent.json; skills mirror the tools above. JSON-RPC 2.0 at / with tasks/send, tasks/get, tasks/cancel and tasks/sendSubscribe (SSE).

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": {...}}.

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:47323/ \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "tasks/send",
    "params": {
      "id": "task-1",
      "message": { "role": "user", "parts": [
        { "type": "text", "text": "What are my open action items from this week?" }
      ]}
    }
  }' | jq .result.artifacts[0].parts

# explicit skill call
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:47323/ -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tasks/send",
  "params":{"message":{"role":"user","parts":[
    {"type":"data","data":{"skill":"get_transcript","args":{"meeting_id":"01J…","format":"srt"}}}
  ]}}}'

# streaming
curl -N http://127.0.0.1:47323/ -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tasks/sendSubscribe",
  "params":{"message":{"role":"user","parts":[{"type":"text","text":"list my meetings from today"}]}}}'

CLI

recordist-gateway                 MCP over stdio (default)
recordist-gateway --http          MCP over Streamable HTTP on 127.0.0.1:47322/mcp
recordist-gateway --a2a           A2A agent on 127.0.0.1:47323
recordist-gateway --all           stdio + --http + --a2a
recordist-gateway --doctor        diagnostics: data dir, DB, token, app reachability
recordist-gateway --version
  --http-port <n>  --a2a-port <n>  --host <addr>

Logs go to stderr; stdout is reserved for the stdio MCP transport.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Purpose
RECORDIST_DATA_DIR	macOS ~/Library/Application Support/app.recordist.desktop Windows %APPDATA%\app.recordist.desktop Linux ~/.local/share/app.recordist.desktop	Where recordist.db and api_token live
RECORDIST_API_URL	http://127.0.0.1:47321	Local API base URL
RECORDIST_API_TOKEN	contents of <data>/api_token	Bearer token for the local API

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 with readonly: true (the app's WAL is never written to) and actions return Recordist app is not running. FTS5 (segments_fts) is used for search when present, with a LIKE fallback otherwise.

Security notes

• The gateway only ever binds 127.0.0.1 (--host exists for containers; do not expose it on a network interface). The Streamable HTTP transport enables DNS-rebinding protection and only accepts Host: 127.0.0.1 / localhost.
• 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 your machine.
• The SQLite database is opened read-only; the gateway never modifies it.
• No telemetry, no outbound network calls.

Development

npm install
npm run build      # tsc → dist/
npm test           # vitest
node dist/cli.js --doctor

Library use

import { createRecordistData, createMcpServer } from "@recordist/gateway";

const data = createRecordistData();          // API with SQLite fallback
const server = createMcpServer(data);        // McpServer — attach any transport

About

The gateway is the small, open bridge between your AI assistant and the copy of Recordist running on your own computer. It contains no app code and no keys; it can only reach the local API on the machine it runs on. Issues and questions: support@recordist.app. Security reports: security@recordist.app (see SECURITY.md). Made by Recordist, a small independent studio in Ontario, Canada.