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Roo Code

Persistent long-term memory for Roo Code via Hindsight. A one-command installer registers Hindsight's MCP server and injects custom rules that teach Roo to recall context before tasks and retain learnings after.

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Quick Start

Hindsight Cloud (recommended)

Sign up free — get an API key instantly, no infrastructure to run.

# Install the CLI
pip install hindsight-roo-code

# Install the integration into your project (defaults to Hindsight Cloud)
hindsight-roo-code install

# Restart Roo Code — memory is active

Self-hosting alternative:

# Start Hindsight locally first
pip install hindsight-all
export HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_API_KEY=your-openai-key
hindsight-api

# Then install with the local URL
hindsight-roo-code install --api-url http://localhost:8888

How It Works

Roo Code has two primary extensibility mechanisms: MCP servers for tools and custom rules for system-prompt injection. This integration uses both.

New task starts
└─ Rules file instructs Roo to call recall
└─ Relevant memories injected into context automatically

Agent working…
└─ Agent calls retain for significant decisions/discoveries

Task ends
└─ Rules file instructs Roo to call retain with a summary
└─ Summary stored for future sessions

The installer writes:

  • .roo/mcp.json — registers Hindsight's /mcp endpoint as an MCP server, with recall and retain auto-approved
  • .roo/rules/hindsight-memory.md — instructions injected into every Roo system prompt

Installation Options

Project-local install (default)

Writes to .roo/ in the current directory — memory is scoped to this project:

hindsight-roo-code install
hindsight-roo-code install --api-url https://api.hindsight.vectorize.io # default (Hindsight Cloud)
hindsight-roo-code install --api-url http://localhost:8888 # self-hosted
hindsight-roo-code install --project-dir /path/to/project

Global install

Writes to ~/.roo/ — applies to all projects:

hindsight-roo-code install --global

Configuration

The MCP entry written to .roo/mcp.json:

{
"mcpServers": {
"hindsight": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "http://localhost:8888/mcp",
"timeout": 30,
"alwaysAllow": ["recall", "retain"]
}
}
}

To update the API URL after installation, re-run the installer or edit .roo/mcp.json directly.

MCP Tools

Hindsight exposes two tools via its /mcp endpoint:

ToolDescription
recallSearch memory for context relevant to a query
retainStore content in memory immediately

The rules file instructs Roo to call these automatically at task start and end. Agents can also call them explicitly mid-task.

Verifying Setup

  1. Start Hindsight and run the installer
  2. Open Roo Code in your project
  3. Check Settings → MCP Servershindsight should show as connected
  4. Start a task — you should see recall invoked in the tool call log

Prerequisites

A running Hindsight instance:

Hindsight Cloud (recommended): Sign up — no self-hosting required.

Self-hosted:

pip install hindsight-all
export HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_API_KEY=your-api-key
hindsight-api # starts on http://localhost:8888