Quick Start: Claude Desktop + MCP

November 26, 2025 · View on GitHub

SerialMemory integrates with Claude Desktop via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This allows Claude to store and retrieve memories across conversations.

Prerequisites

Claude Desktop installed
Docker Desktop running
.NET 8.0 SDK (or pre-built executable)

Step 1: Start SerialMemory

# Clone and start the stack
git clone https://github.com/serialmemory/serialmemory.git
cd serialmemory
docker compose up -d

# Run bootstrap to create demo tenant
./scripts/bootstrap-dev.ps1  # Windows
./scripts/bootstrap-dev.sh   # Linux/Mac

Step 2: Configure Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

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

Add the SerialMemory MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serialmemory": {
      "command": "dotnet",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "D:\\path\\to\\SerialMemoryServer\\SerialMemory.Mcp"],
      "env": {
        "POSTGRES_HOST": "localhost",
        "POSTGRES_PORT": "5432",
        "POSTGRES_USER": "postgres",
        "POSTGRES_PASSWORD": "postgres",
        "POSTGRES_DB": "contextdb",
        "OLLAMA_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:11434",
        "SERIALMEMORY_MODE": "self-hosted"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or use a pre-built executable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serialmemory": {
      "command": "D:\\path\\to\\SerialMemory.Mcp.exe",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "POSTGRES_HOST": "localhost",
        "POSTGRES_PORT": "5432",
        "POSTGRES_USER": "postgres",
        "POSTGRES_PASSWORD": "postgres",
        "POSTGRES_DB": "contextdb",
        "OLLAMA_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:11434"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 3: Restart Claude Desktop

Close and reopen Claude Desktop to load the new MCP server.

Step 4: Test the Integration

Try these prompts in Claude:

Store a memory:

Remember that I prefer TypeScript over JavaScript for new projects.

Search memories:

What do you remember about my programming preferences?

Set user persona:

I'm a backend developer focused on distributed systems.

Available MCP Tools

Tool	Description
`memory_search`	Search memories semantically
`memory_ingest`	Store new memories
`memory_update`	Update existing memory
`memory_delete`	Soft-delete memory
`memory_about_user`	Get user persona
`set_user_persona`	Set persona attributes
`memory_multi_hop_search`	Graph traversal search
`get_graph_statistics`	Knowledge graph stats

Troubleshooting

MCP server not connecting:

Check Docker containers are running: docker ps
Verify PostgreSQL is accessible: docker exec serialmemory-postgres pg_isready
Check Ollama has the model: docker exec serialmemory-ollama ollama list

Embeddings not working:

Pull the embedding model: docker exec serialmemory-ollama ollama pull nomic-embed-text

Permission errors:

Ensure the MCP executable path is correct
Check file permissions on Windows