Inspiration
AI agents are only as useful as the context they can access, but useful context is scattered across screenshots, recordings, dictation, notes, clipboard history, and files. Sending all of that to a cloud service also creates a privacy problem.
What it does
Trove is a local-first context workspace for people and AI agents. It collects mixed-media context into durable global Buckets, with nested directories for granular organization. The same local structure is available through a native macOS menu-bar app, a command-line interface, and a local MCP server.
Users can capture and organize dictation, scratchpads, annotated screenshots, vision results, narrated screen recordings, clipboard items, notes, and files. Filed bucket content can be read and extended by connected agents, while the private Unsorted area is deliberately hidden from agent access.
Trove can also transform a rough narrated screen recording into a portable, editable package of acts, representative frames, click targets, narration, and annotations—without modifying the original recording.
How it works
Trove is a native Swift/SwiftUI application backed by a shared local SQLite and blob store. The macOS app, trove CLI, and stdio MCP server all use the same storage layer. Bucket exports are portable JSON/Markdown bundles, so captured knowledge is durable and not locked into a hosted account.
The MCP interface closes the human-agent loop: an agent can retrieve filed artifacts, add generated files or findings to the originating bucket, and request a decision from the user. Trove surfaces that request in the app and returns the response to the agent.
Privacy by design
Trove has no account, server, or sync requirement. It starts in a private Unsorted area, exposes only explicitly filed Buckets to agents, and keeps metadata and payloads on the user's Mac.
Built with Codex
Codex accelerated implementation and repository-level iteration across the Swift app, CLI, local MCP server, tests, documentation, packaging, and release workflow. Trove itself connects to Codex through its local MCP server so agents can work with user-approved context instead of receiving an unrestricted view of local data.
Run it
Trove requires macOS 14 or newer. Build and launch it with:
./scripts/build-app.sh
open .build/Trove.app
The repository README includes CLI examples, MCP setup, architecture documentation, and a five-minute demo flow.