Setup

Setup reference

The short version is on the get started page. This page covers every option.

Install

The install script downloads a native binary to ~/.local/bin/context-vault. No Node.js needed.

shell

curl -fsSL https://context-vault.com/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

powershell

irm https://context-vault.com/install.ps1 | iex

npx context-vault setup (Node.js 22 or later) installs the older Node build (3.20) from npm, not the native 4.0 engine; use it only if you can't run the install script. Either way, your client config launches the server as context-vault mcp, so the command must be on your PATH.

Connect a client

With no flags, setup writes the entry to every client it finds on your machine. Pick a client to write one config, or to see the manual steps.

shell

context-vault setup

Write the config for Claude Code only:

shell

context-vault setup --client claude-code

This adds the entry below to ~/.claude.json.

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context-vault": {
      "command": "context-vault",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Code, then run /mcp to confirm context-vault is connected.

Other clients: Claude Desktop (claude-desktop), Cline (cline) and Roo Code (roo-code) work with --client. Without the flag, setup checks each client's config folder; Claude Code always matches because its file lives in your home folder.

Setup merges into the existing file. Your other MCP servers stay as they are. Restart the client afterwards.

Setup flags

`--client <id>`	One of claude-desktop, claude-code, cursor, windsurf, cline, roo-code, or all (default)
`--dry-run`	Show what would be written without writing it
`--print`	Print the JSON entry and the target paths, write nothing

shell

context-vault setup --client cursor --dry-run

Verify

shell

context-vault doctor   # paths and engine health
context-vault status   # entry counts

Then, in your client, ask: Which MCP tools do you have? You should see get_context and save_context in the list.

Paths and config

`Vault folder`	~/.vault (plain markdown files you own). Change it with CONTEXT_VAULT_VAULT_DIR or vaultDir in ~/.context-mcp/config.json
`Data folder`	~/.context-mcp/
`Database`	~/.context-mcp/vault.db
`Vault registry`	~/.context-mcp/vaults.json

Setup does not install the agent rules file. Add it so your agent knows when to search and save.

Remove Context Vault

There is no uninstall command in 4.0.0. To remove it, delete the context-vault entry from each client's MCP config (paths above), then delete the binary:

shell

rm ~/.local/bin/context-vault

On Windows, delete the %LOCALAPPDATA%\context-vault\bin folder and remove it from your user PATH (Settings, then search for "environment variables").

Your entries stay in ~/.vault until you delete that folder yourself.

Troubleshooting

Setup says "No clients detected". It looks for each client's config folder. Open the client once so the folder exists, or pass --client <id>.
The client shows no context-vault tools. Restart it fully, then check that which context-vault prints a path.
Stale search results. Run context-vault reindex.

Still stuck? Open an issue on GitHub.