tomevault-io vstash MCP Server
Enable AI assistants (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Copilot) to search and answer questions from your local document memory via MCP.
Setup
1. Install vstash
pip install vstash
2. Add to Claude Desktop config
Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"vstash": {
"command": "vstash-mcp"
}
}
}
pyenv users: Use full path to binary:
"command": "/path/to/.pyenv/versions/3.x.x/bin/vstash-mcp"
3. Restart Claude Desktop
The vstash tools appear in Claude's tool list.
Available Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
vstash_add(path) |
Ingest file, directory, or URL into memory |
vstash_ask(query, top_k) |
Semantic search + LLM answer with sources |
vstash_search(query, top_k) |
Hybrid search with context expansion and relevance signal |
vstash_list() |
List all ingested documents |
vstash_stats() |
Database statistics (docs, chunks, size) |
vstash_forget(source) |
Remove document from memory |
vstash_collections() |
List all collections |
vstash_export(...) |
Export chunks as JSONL for training data curation |
vstash_job(job_id) |
Check status of background directory ingestion |
Search Response Fields
vstash_search returns:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
chunks |
Array of results with ±1 adjacent chunks expanded |
relevance |
Confidence tier: "high", "medium", "low", "none" |
hint |
Human-readable relevance explanation |
best_distance |
Cosine distance of best vector match (lower = more relevant) |
Relevance tiers:
| Distance | Tier | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ 0.95 | high | Results are relevant |
| 0.95–0.98 | medium | Results may be tangential |
| > 0.98 | low | Results may not be relevant |
Works from first search — no warm-up period needed.
API Key Configuration
MCP servers don't inherit shell environment variables. Configure inference in ~/.vstash/vstash.toml:
[cerebras]
api_key = "your-key-here"
Or use fully local Ollama (no API key):
[inference]
backend = "ollama"
[ollama]
host = "http://localhost:11434"
model = "llama3.2"
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Tools don't appear | Run which vstash-mcp to verify PATH |
| "No module named vstash" | MCP server uses different Python — use full path in config |
ask fails but search works |
Check inference backend configured in vstash.toml |
Reference
See references/mcp-reference.md for tool-specific options and advanced configuration.
Source: jr2804/prompts — distributed by TomeVault.