Retain
A unified knowledge base for all your AI coding conversations
Details
- External ID
- 46710756
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- Retain
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- Jan. 21, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 45
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.7779973649538867
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
Description
Hey HN! I built Retain as the evolution of claude-reflect (github.com/BayramAnnakov/claude-reflect).The original problem: I use Claude Code/Codex daily for coding, plus claude.ai and ChatGPT occasionally. Every conversation contains decisions, corrections, and patterns I forget existed weeks later. I kept re-explaining the same preferences.claude-reflect was a CLI tool that extracted learnings from Claude Code sessions. Retain takes this further with a native macOS app that:- Aggregates conversations from Claude Code, claude.ai, ChatGPT, and Codex CLI - Instant full-text search across thousands of conversations (SQLite + FTS5)It's local-first - all data stays in a local SQLite database. No servers, no telemetry. Web sync uses your browser cookies to fetch conversations directly.
Enrichment
- Theme
- Claude integrations and coding agents
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Vertical SaaS
- Audience
- Developer
- AI stance
- AI feature
- Project type
- Commercial product
- Normalized one-liner
- knowledge base for ai coding conversations
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Yes It is a knowledge base application that ingests AI chat export logs/sessions, parses decisions and patterns via LLM, and provides a searchable UI.
Discussion
16 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Claude Code, Anthropic's search feature
Concerns raised: Local-first claim unclear when data pulled from LLM servers, FTS5 semantic search accuracy issues, Limited platform support (Windows, Linux, macOS gaps)
Feature requests: Java/cross-platform version, Native macOS app, Windows support, Linux support
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 373 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #92 of 374 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 76 days after the earliest competitor.
- Second Brain for AI · ph · 2026-05-31 · 284 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- Pull Claude Code transcripts into your Codex session, and vice versa · hn · 2026-07-03 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- chat-recall · ph · 2026-09-11 · 95 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- Stop Claude Code from forgetting everything · hn · 2025-12-29 · 202 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- AI Memory Starter Kit · ph · 2026-09-21 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Claude Toolbox · ph · 2026-09-11 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Persistent Memory for Claude Code (MCP) · hn · 2026-01-10 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Simple plugin to get Claude Code to listen to you · hn · 2026-03-13 · 18 upvotes · similarity 0.49
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
Nobody's really built a vertical saas tool for Insurance yet.