Let Claude search and read the files on your Mac

Why Claude needs a search index

Out of the box, Claude can't see your files. A plain filesystem MCP server lets it list folders and open files one by one, which works for a single project but not for "find last month's contract with Acme": Claude would have to guess where the file is, and it can't look inside PDFs or Word documents to find the one that mentions late fees.

Memtrove keeps an up-to-date index of your Mac instead. Claude asks Memtrove, gets a short ranked list, and reads from there.

• Search by name, content or meaning. File names, the words inside your documents, and what they're about — "the contract about late payment fees" finds it even if those exact words never appear.
• Read in steps, not whole files. Claude reads a document's outline first, then only the sections it needs. Long PDFs don't fill up the conversation.
• Your formats. PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), Markdown, plain text, source code, emails (.eml) and your Safari, Chrome and Edge bookmarks.
• Read-only. Memtrove never changes, moves or deletes your files.

What Claude can do through Memtrove

Tool	What Claude uses it for
search	Find files and bookmarks by name, content or meaning, with filters for time ("last month"), kind (PDF, spreadsheet) and folder
read	Read a document's outline, one section, or the full text page by page
similar	Find other files on the same topic ("what else is related to this contract?")
timeline	List files created or changed in a period ("what did I work on last week?")
status	Check indexing progress
tag	Suggest tags for files; they're stored in Memtrove, never written to the files

Connect in a minute

1. Download Memtrove and let it build the first index (free for 14 days).
2. Claude Desktop: quit Claude Desktop, open Memtrove › Settings › Connect Claude and click Connect. Memtrove shows the config file it will change and backs it up first. Open Claude Desktop again.
3. Claude Code: run this once in Terminal. It works in every project:

claude mcp add -s user memtrove -- /Applications/Memtrove.app/Contents/MacOS/Memtrove --mcp

Then just ask:

• "Find last month's contract with Acme and summarize the payment terms."
• "Which of my notes mention the Q3 budget? Quote the relevant parts."
• "What did I change last week?"
• "Which web pages did I bookmark about pricing pages?"

You decide what Claude sees

Whatever Claude reads — search results and the sections it opens — is sent to Anthropic for processing under Claude's terms. Memtrove keeps that to what each answer needs, and lets you fence off folders:

• Structure only: Claude sees folder and file names and section headings, but no text.
• Nothing: the folder never appears in Claude's results.

Places like ~/.ssh are always protected. If you don't connect Claude, nothing leaves your Mac — Memtrove works fully offline as a search app on its own.