PasteLocal /recall — Grok Skill (Recall v2)

SkillSearch

Use natural language to search the user's local clipboard history (Recall v2). Finds the most relevant past screenshot or text even when you don't remember the exact time.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the PasteLocal /recall — Grok Skill (Recall v2) skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by zen-open-source/pastelocal in skill/grok/recall/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

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):
    [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)

  2. 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.
  3. 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).

  4. 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).
  5. 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.

Signals

GitHub stars
87
Forks
8
Last commit
May 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
recall-zen-open-source
Source
github.com/zen-open-source/pastelocal