zen-open-source/pastelocal/recall

PasteLocal /recall — Grok Skill (Recall v2)

Search the entire clipboard history using natural language instead of manually running --list and guessing indices. Powered by user-configured local embeddings (e.g. Ollama) + VisionPaste OCR text for screenshots.

When to use

• User says "find the docker error from yesterday", "where was that screenshot of the login screen", "recall the code snippet I copied earlier", "search my clipboard for the stack trace".
• The classic --list + --index flow is too many round trips for agents.
• Works only after the user has enabled [recall] in their local config.toml and captured some items while it was on.

Prerequisites (tell the user if missing)

• [recall] section in ~/.config/pastelocal/config.toml with enabled = true and a working command.
• Example quick start for the user (copy-paste):

``toml [recall] enabled = true timeout_seconds = 30 command = "python3 -u ~/.config/pastelocal/embed_ollama.py" ``

• The example script (and a pure-Python alternative) live in the PasteLocal repo under docs/examples/.

Steps (execute in order)

1. Run the search:

`` pastelocal-remote --search "the docker compose error with the volume mount" --limit 5 `` (limit is optional, default 5, max 20)

1. Present the results to the user (or the agent decides):

• Show the ranked list with scores, timestamps, short preview text (OCR for images!), and the stable ID.
• Ask the user (or autonomously pick) which one is correct.

1. Fetch the chosen entry (best UX):

`` pastelocal-remote --id <the-id-from-search> ` This writes the file (and .analysis.txt` sidecar if it was an image with VisionPaste).

1. Read + clean up (exactly like /paste):

• Read the printed path with your Read tool.
• If a .analysis.txt exists next to it, read that first and present the rich OCR/description to the model.
• rm the file(s).

1. On any non-zero exit from pastelocal-remote, report the exact stderr and stop.

Example dialogue the skill enables

User: "I had a weird nginx config error last night, can you grab the screenshot?" Agent: runs --search "nginx config error", shows top result with preview of the error text from OCR, user confirms, agent does --id 174...-png, reads it, and solves the problem.

Tips for great UX

• Always prefer --id after search (stable, doesn't depend on list ordering).
• VisionPaste + Recall is magical for screenshots: the OCR + description text is what gets embedded, so "the red error dialog" works great.
• If no results: remind the user to enable recall + run a few reads so items get indexed.
• Concealed/sensitive items (password manager popups) are never embedded or returned — privacy by design.
• The feature is 100% local and private; the embedding command is fully under user control.

This is the Grok-native equivalent of the Claude recall command. It turns linear history into a true semantic memory for agents.