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February 7, 2026

Claude Code MCP Integration: Backup Your AI with Natural Language

SaveState now integrates directly with Claude Code via MCP. Ask your agent to backup, restore, or list snapshots — no terminal switching required.

We've heard it from Claude Code users for weeks: "I love SaveState, but I don't want to leave my coding session to run backup commands."

Fair point. You're deep in a refactor, Claude is holding context about your architecture, and the last thing you want to do is context-switch to a terminal window.

Today, we're shipping MCP integration for SaveState. Now you can backup and restore your agent state using natural language — without ever leaving Claude Code.

What's MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is Anthropic's standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools. It's how Claude Code integrates with everything from databases to file systems to... now, SaveState.

Once configured, Claude Code gains four new capabilities:

Tool What It Does
savestate_snapshot Create an encrypted backup of your current state
savestate_restore Restore from any previous snapshot
savestate_list Show available backups with timestamps and labels
savestate_status Check configuration and detected adapter

Setup in 60 Seconds

Add SaveState to your Claude Code configuration:

~/.claude/settings.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "savestate": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@savestate/cli", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or if you have SaveState installed globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "savestate": {
      "command": "savestate",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Make sure you've run savestate init in your project directory first. Then restart Claude Code. Done.

Natural Language Backups

Here's what this looks like in practice:

You: Create a backup before I refactor the auth module

Claude: [calls savestate_snapshot with label "pre-auth-refactor"]
        ✓ Snapshot created!
        
        ID: ss_abc123...
        Type: incremental
        Files: 12
        Size: 47.3 KB

You: Actually, that refactor didn't work. Roll it back.

Claude: [calls savestate_restore with snapshotId "ss_abc123"]
        ✓ Restored from snapshot ss_abc123
        
        Identity: restored
        Memory entries: 8
        Conversations: 3

You: What backups do I have from this week?

Claude: [calls savestate_list]
        Found 3 snapshots:
        
        • ss_abc123 "pre-auth-refactor" - Today 2:30 PM
        • ss_def456 "daily" - Yesterday 9:00 AM
        • ss_ghi789 "initial" - Monday 10:15 AM

No terminal switching. No command memorization. Just ask.

What Gets Captured

The Claude Code adapter captures everything that makes your agent yours:

  • CLAUDE.md files — Root and subdirectory instructions
  • ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — Global instructions
  • .claude/settings.json — Project settings
  • .claude/settings.local.json — Local overrides
  • .claude/todos.md — Todo lists
  • .claude/memory/ — Memory files
  • Project metadata — package.json, pyproject.toml, etc.
  • File manifest — Project structure snapshot

Everything is AES-256-GCM encrypted before it hits disk. Your passphrase stays on your machine.

Security Notes

A few things to know:

  • Passphrase required — Every snapshot/restore requires your encryption passphrase. Claude Code will ask for it when calling the tools.
  • Local by default — Snapshots stay on your machine unless you configure cloud storage (Pro/Team).
  • No plaintext — We never store passphrases. Snapshots are unreadable without them.

Set the SAVESTATE_PASSPHRASE environment variable if you want Claude to handle backups without prompting:

export SAVESTATE_PASSPHRASE="your-secure-passphrase"

CLI Equivalents

Every MCP tool maps to a CLI command:

MCP Tool CLI Command
savestate_snapshot savestate snapshot
savestate_restore savestate restore <id>
savestate_list savestate list
savestate_status savestate config

Use whichever feels natural for the moment.

Get Started

Full documentation is at docs/mcp-integration.md in the repo.

Quick start:

# Install SaveState
npm install -g @savestate/cli

# Initialize in your project
cd your-project
savestate init

# Add MCP config to ~/.claude/settings.json (see above)

# Restart Claude Code and ask for a backup

Your AI assistant is building knowledge about you every session. Now it can protect that knowledge too.

Questions? Find us on GitHub or at hello@savestate.dev.