For anyone whose agents work on tasks longer than one session. A self-hosted MCP server and a web board, free and MIT-licensed. Made for Claude Code; Codex, Cursor and any other MCP client connect the same way.

Install on macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/azimov777/casefile/main/install.sh | sh

Install on Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/azimov777/casefile/main/install.ps1 | iex

All you need is Docker. The board opens at http://localhost:8080, and the installer prints the one command that connects your agent. Casefile updates itself to each new release: it checks once an hour and whenever Docker starts.

Or let your agent do it. Paste this into Claude Code, Codex or Cursor:

Install Casefile for me by following https://raw.githubusercontent.com/azimov777/casefile/main/docs/agent-install.md

Why

A session ends or the context fills up, and the next agent starts from scratch: re-reading the code, re-trying what already failed, re-asking what you already answered.

Casefile gives every task a case file — an append-only log the agent writes as it works.

• Hand-offs that survive a fresh context. The next agent reads the latest summary, the open questions and an index of the case, then carries on. No re-discovery.
• Built for agents, over MCP. Agents create and split tasks, record decisions and dead ends, ask you questions, and close with a verdict on every check.
• You stay in the loop. A live board and task pages show what every agent is doing. Answer questions, leave remarks and hand each agent its own access — right from the browser.
• Guardrails, not bureaucracy. No closing without a summary and a passed verdict per check; no starting a blocked task. Nothing else — no sprints, no estimates, no automation.
• Yours, on your machine. Runs locally in Docker and listens on localhost only. Nothing leaves your computer — unless you turn on sign-in and put it on your own server for your team (Network mode).

How it's different

• Not a notes file. A CLAUDE.md or handoff.md gets overwritten: the attempt that failed two days ago disappears, and two sessions edit the same file. A case file is append-only — a correction is a new entry that points at the old one. Keep CLAUDE.md for per-repo rules; Casefile is per task.
• Not a memory server. Memory MCPs recall facts by similarity. Casefile recalls nothing clever: it is a work log per task, read in a fixed order — card, latest summary, open questions, index, then only the entries you need.
• Not an issue tracker with MCP bolted on. An issue is a description and a thread anyone can edit. Case entries are typed and never edited, and the tracker refuses writes that would break the record.
• Not an orchestrator. It never starts agents, runs timers or moves tasks by itself. Handing out work and noticing a dead session stay with you and your agent harness.

Connect your agent

The installer prints a ready-made command with your token and its actual MCP address filled in — by default:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user casefile http://localhost:8100/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Install the skill too. Connecting gives the agent the tools; the Casefile skill teaches it how to use them. The installer installs it by itself into Claude Code, Codex, Hermes and other agents it finds on the machine, and prints one line per harness. An installation made before v0.8.0 has no skill, and the hourly self-update does not add one: it updates only the service. Run the install line again, or install just the skill without touching the service:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/azimov777/casefile/main/install.sh | CASEFILE_SKILL_ONLY=1 sh

How to check whether an agent has the skill, and the commands for each harness, are in step 4 of the agent guide.

Any other MCP client works the same way: streamable HTTP at the MCP address the installer printed (http://localhost:8100/mcp by default) with that header. Clients that take an mcpServers JSON (Cursor, VS Code and others) use this — fill in your token and, if your installer printed a different address, that address instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "casefile": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:8100/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Over stdio, as an alternative. Streamable HTTP above is the main way in. A client that can only launch a command and talk to it over stdin/stdout gets the same server that way: it starts a short-lived container of your installation, attached to the installation's database — same tools, same token, same case. The token goes in the client's environment, not on the command line:

claude mcp add --scope user casefile-stdio --env TRACKER_MCP_TOKEN=<token> -- \
  docker compose -f ~/casefile/docker-compose.prod.yml run --rm --no-deps -T \
  -e TRACKER_MCP_TOKEN mcp python -m app.mcp --stdio

The installation has to be up: the stdio process brings no database of its own. Each client session is a process of its own, so HTTP stays the lighter choice wherever the client supports it. An installation image older than the stdio mode answers unrecognized arguments: --stdio — update it first.

A second agent, without the terminal. The board carries the same snippets. Connect an agent shows this installation's MCP address and ready-made snippets for Claude Code, Codex and any client that takes an mcpServers JSON — no secret on the screen, a placeholder where the token goes. Access lists your tokens — every token of the installation, if you are an administrator: who it speaks for, what it opens, who issued it and when it was last used. From there you register an agent, issue its own token, copy the snippet with the secret already in it — shown once — and revoke it when that agent is done. Give each agent a token of its own and its case entries are signed with its name instead of one shared agent. On a shared installation every person does this for their own agents, without the administrator, and sees and revokes only the tokens they issued or that speak for them.

Tell it what to do

Connecting the agent is only the wiring. Once it is done, tell the agent these, word for word.

Have work to hand over? Say:

File tasks in Casefile for my work: a project for it if there is none yet, and tasks with all their sections and checks, each small enough for one agent to finish in one go, each naming its environment in context — where the work lives and how to check it is done. Don't start the work itself; if I haven't described it yet, ask me.

Then, in a new agent session, say:

Carry out the tasks for this work from the Casefile tracker. Hand them to agents, one task per agent, to save your own context, and give them cheaper models where those cope.

The two phrases go to different agent sessions: the second agent starts with a clean context and knows only what is in the task cases. The board carries the same phrases, with copy buttons, on its /start page.

Tools

Every MCP tool a task or main token opens, grouped by area (app/mcp/tools/):

Tasks

• get_task — returns everything about one task in a single call: card, parent and children, links, computed features, latest summary, open questions, unresolved remarks, case index and transition targets
• search_tasks — searches tasks by a query-language string, by separate conditions, or by both
• create_task — creates a task in backlog, optionally as a child of a parent task
• update_task — changes the given fields of a task; fields left out stay as they are
• transition — moves a task to another status along the fixed transition table
• close_task — closes a task: files entries, verdicts and the final summary and moves it to done, in one transaction
• move_task — moves a task, or each task of a list with an outcome per key, to another project with a reason; its previous key keeps leading to it (main token only)

Case

• read_entries — returns entry bodies of one task's case, with payload, in number order
• add_summary — files a summary: the handover note of a case, in four parts
• add_entry — files an entry without payload: a decision, attempt, finding, artifact, remark or note
• ask — files a question to registry participants
• answer — answers a question of the same task
• resolve — resolves a remark on a task: its outcome and where the work went
• add_verdict — files the outcome of one review check
• read_project_entries — returns entry bodies of one project's case, with payload, in number order
• add_project_entry — files a decision, finding, artifact or note in a project's case

Links

• link — links two tasks and files link_added in both cases
• unlink — removes a link and files link_removed in both cases

Projects & participants

• get_project — returns one project by its key: key, title, description, current attribute values and the index of its case
• list_projects — lists the installation's projects: key, title and archive time; archived ones only when asked
• list_participants — lists the participant registry: the possible addressees of a question
• create_project — creates a project (main token only)
• update_project — changes a project's title and description, recording each change in its case (main token only)
• archive_project — archives a project with a reason, freezing it and its tasks against changes (main token only)
• restore_project — restores an archived project with a reason (main token only)
• set_attribute — sets the value of a project attribute, creating it or changing it with a reason; the history stays in the project's case
• remove_attribute — removes a project attribute with a reason, filing its last value in the project's case
• register_participant — registers a human or a permanent agent (main token only)
• update_participant — changes a participant's description (main token only)

Journal

• wait_journal — returns journal entries after a sequence number, waiting for new ones

Everyday

Ports and other settings live in ~/casefile/.env — see .env.example.

Updates

A new version of Casefile is a release: a git tag vX.Y.Z with its images on ghcr.io under the version and under the stable channel. Every installation follows stable by default. It checks when Docker starts and then once an hour, at a slightly random minute, so a release reaches it within about an hour and ten minutes, with nothing to restart. Commits to main without a tag never reach an installation. The update recreates the Casefile containers and keeps your data in its volumes. An agent in the middle of an MCP call when that happens gets a dropped connection and has to retry.

The first release on this channel was 0.2.0. An installation from before it (on latest) moves to stable by itself the next time Docker starts, and from then on checks every hour. A release can also bring a new updater: the update to that release is still done by the old one, which is then replaced by itself, so what a new updater adds (such as the rollback below, new in 0.3.0) covers updates from the next release on. If you set CASEFILE_VERSION=latest in .env yourself, remove the line to follow releases.

CASEFILE_UPDATE_INTERVAL sets how often to check (hours, or 30m; 0 means only when Docker starts). If a release fails to start, the installation goes back to the version it ran before and does not try that release again; the next release is installed as usual. docker compose logs updater tells what happened.

A release that changes the database schema costs one more step. Before installing it, the updater takes a snapshot of the database (pg_dump -Fc, the same format as backup and restore). The snapshot stays inside the updater container, at /tmp/casefile-before-update.dump, and takes about as much space as a manual backup. If that release then fails to start after changing the schema, the database goes back to the snapshot before the previous version starts again. So the schema and the data are exactly as they were before the update, and a manual docker compose up -d works as usual. The price: anything written between the snapshot and the rollback is lost. That window is the failed start, up to a few minutes. While the new version is being brought up, the old one keeps answering for a few seconds. The snapshot is deleted once the update succeeds or the database is restored. If the snapshot cannot be taken, that release is not installed this time. If it cannot be restored, the previous version runs on the new schema, the snapshot is kept, and the log says how to copy it out.

Network mode

Out of the box Casefile listens on localhost only, and you type nothing: the installation creates an administrator account for you (owner@localhost) and the board signs into it by itself. To reach it from other machines, turn on sign-in: then everyone signs in with their own email and password, and every entry is signed by the person who made it. It is one team per installation — everyone signed in sees every task. The only role is the administrator flag, and all it opens is managing people.

1. Add to ~/casefile/.env:

   bash

   CASEFILE_LOGIN=password            # everyone signs in with email and password
   CASEFILE_BIND=0.0.0.0              # publish the board and MCP beyond localhost
   TRACKER_MCP_PUBLIC_URL=http://<server>:8100/mcp   # what agents on other machines use
   

2. Run docker compose up -d in ~/casefile.

3. Give yourself a password. The administrator account the installation made has none; this prints a generated one, once:

   bash

   docker compose run --rm api python -m app.cli account-password --email owner@localhost
   

   Add --set-password to type your own instead (12 characters at least, asked twice, no echo). Your email can be changed too: account-update --email owner@localhost --new-email you@example.com.

4. Add your teammates — on the board, or on the server:

   bash

   docker compose run --rm api python -m app.cli account-create --email alice@example.com --name alice
   

   It prints Alice's password once; hand it to her. --admin makes her an administrator too. account-list shows everyone, account-update --disable locks a person out and revokes every token they hold or issued to their agents (their past entries stay signed with their name), and account-password resets a forgotten password. Casefile sends no mail: there is no address confirmation and no reset link.

The board at http://<server>:8080 now opens with a sign-in screen. Agents keep connecting to MCP with their tokens — sign-in is for people in the browser. Issue each agent its own token on the Access screen; Connect an agent shows the address from TRACKER_MCP_PUBLIC_URL. Each agent's machine also needs the skill: its install commands are in step 4 of the agent guide — they run on the agent's machine and do not need the service installer.

Coming from the owner password. An installation locked with TRACKER_PASSWORD_HASH before accounts existed keeps working after the update: sign-in turns on by itself, and the old password becomes the password of the administrator account owner@localhost — sign in with that email and the same password. The hash in .env is no lock any more; it is only carried over once, and a password you set later is never overwritten by it.

Plain HTTP is a hole. Without TLS the passwords, the session cookies, the keys and the agents' tokens cross the network in clear text for anyone on the path to read. Casefile does not do TLS itself. Anywhere beyond a network you trust, keep CASEFILE_BIND=127.0.0.1 and put a reverse proxy with TLS in front of both ports — for example Caddy, which gets the certificates and sends X-Forwarded-Proto by itself:

casefile.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8080
}
mcp.casefile.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8100
}

with TRACKER_MCP_PUBLIC_URL=https://mcp.casefile.example.com/mcp. A proxy that sends X-Forwarded-Proto: https gets the session cookie marked Secure.

Name your proxy. Sign-in tells guessers apart by address (see Guessing below). Behind a proxy every request arrives from the proxy, so the board must be told which address is the proxy; only then does it take the browser's address from the proxy's X-Forwarded-For. From anyone else that header is ignored — anybody can write it. Add to ~/casefile/.env:

CASEFILE_TRUSTED_PROXIES=172.18.0.1   # the address the board sees the proxy come from

and run docker compose up -d. That address is not the proxy's own: it is whatever Docker shows the board. With the proxy on the same machine and CASEFILE_BIND=127.0.0.1, it is the gateway of the installation's network, on Linux and Docker Desktop alike:

docker network inspect casefile_default -f '{{range .IPAM.Config}}{{.Gateway}}{{end}}'

To check, run docker compose logs ui: each request line starts with the address it came from — with the proxy named, the browser's; without, the proxy's. Several proxies or a network go comma-separated (172.18.0.1,10.0.0.0/8). The network gets its address when it is created, so after docker compose down check the gateway again. Keep CASEFILE_BIND=127.0.0.1 behind a proxy: Docker Desktop shows every connection to a port published to the network as 192.168.65.1, so naming that address would let anyone claim any address. Without this line nothing breaks, but everyone behind the proxy shares one address — and one guesser holds everybody at "try again later" again.

What else to know:

• No sign-in, no network. With CASEFILE_BIND beyond localhost and sign-in off, the board refuses to start instead of handing the administrator key to the whole network; docker compose logs ui says why.
• Sessions. A sign-in lasts 7 days (TRACKER_SESSION_HOURS). A session is a token with a deadline, kept in the database: restarting the installation does not end it. Sign out revokes it at once, a changed or reset password ends the person's other sessions, and disabling an account revokes all its tokens, the ones the person issued to their agents included: enabling it again brings none of them back.
• Guessing. Wrong passwords are counted per address and per email, within a minute. After 5 from one address, sign-in answers "try again later" to that address — the right password included — until the minute has passed; after 5 for one email, from wherever they come, that email waits the same way. Other people sign in as usual. On top of that the whole installation takes at most 100 wrong passwords a minute, to keep guessing from burning the processor; guessing spread over many addresses and many emails that reaches it keeps everyone at "try again later" for as long as it goes on (an IPv6 client counts as its whole /64). Open sessions and the agents, which use tokens, are not affected. A client is the address that opened the connection, or the one your named proxy reports (above). Docker Desktop hides the address of every connection from the network behind one of its own, so there the board tells clients apart only behind a proxy on the same machine.

Under the hood

Python 3.14 · FastAPI · PostgreSQL · MCP over streamable HTTP · React 19 · Vite · Tailwind. The backend sits at the repository root, the web UI in ui/. The web UI speaks English and Russian; the design docs, the developer guide and the agent-facing texts are in Russian for now.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome — start with CONTRIBUTING.md. Commits need a sign-off (git commit -s): it certifies you have the right to submit the code, and CI checks it.

License

MIT

Hiring? I built Casefile and would be glad to hear about roles at Anthropic or OpenAI — reach me through GitHub.