Contextify Review 2026: A Permanent Searchable History for Claude Code & Codex

Claude Code deletes your session history after 30 days. Switching between Claude Code and Codex throws away the context you built. Contextify is the permanent, searchable bridge that fixes both — a local-first macOS app that watches your AI coding sessions and never lets them disappear.

What is Contextify?

Contextify is a local-first macOS application that monitors your Claude Code and Codex sessions in real time, building a permanent searchable timeline of every AI coding conversation. It solves two pain points: (1) Claude Code’s native history auto-deletes after 30 days, and (2) switching between Claude Code and Codex wastes context. Every session lands in a unified database with full-text search and on-device Apple Intelligence summaries (macOS 26 Tahoe).

Key features

• Real-time session monitoring — an ambient monitor watches sessions unfold, auto-summarizing each message so you can skim what happened while away.
• Full-text search across all sessions — find a specific command, fix, or solution from weeks ago in seconds, something neither tool offers natively.
• Cross-tool context bridging — pull Claude Code transcripts into your Codex session and vice versa, with no manual copy-paste.
• Apple Intelligence summaries — on macOS 26, LLM summaries run locally with no API keys and never leave your machine; Lite Mode on Sequoia gives timeline + search without summaries.
• Native CLI, skill, and MCP access — every past session becomes live context via CLI, Claude Code skill, and MCP; 100% programmatic access to history.
• Three deployment modes — local-first (no account), Cloud Free (sync 2 Macs, 60-day cloud history), and self-hosted (FSL license, unlimited devices/history).
• Privacy-first — works fully on-device; cloud sync is opt-in with tenant-isolated storage.

Who should use it?

Contextify is for developers actively using Claude Code and/or Codex who value session history and context continuity — especially anyone who has lost a hard-won solution to the 30-day deletion cliff, or who juggles both agents and wants context to carry over.

The main limit is platform: the full experience needs macOS (Apple Intelligence requires Tahoe). Linux support exists but is secondary, and there’s no Windows build. The audience is narrow by design.

How it compares

Claude Code’s native history auto-deletes and can’t search across sessions. Cursor’s history is locked in the IDE. Aider logs to a markdown file with no search or summaries. Contextify’s differentiator is the cross-tool bridge plus on-device summaries — and the FSL self-hosting option makes it viable for teams that want their AI coding logs on their own infrastructure.

Pros and cons

Pros: solves a real, urgent problem; unique cross-tool bridging; local-first privacy by default; on-device Apple Intelligence summaries; FSL self-hosting with unlimited history; CLI/skill/MCP access; three flexible deployment modes.

Cons: full experience macOS-only; Linux secondary; narrow audience; Cloud Free limited to 60 days / 2 Macs; desktop app is closed-source; no Windows; new product, sustainability unproven.

Pricing

Remarkably generous: Local, Cloud Free, and Self-Hosted tiers are all free (including unlimited local history and Apple Intelligence summaries). Only Cloud Pro at $12/month is paid, and it’s specifically for commercial use.

FAQ

Does Contextify replace Claude Code’s history? No — it archives and extends it. Claude Code still runs; Contextify captures every session into a permanent, searchable database.

Can it bridge Claude Code and Codex? Yes — that’s the headline feature. Pull a Claude Code transcript into a Codex session and vice versa without copy-paste.

Is my data private? The local mode needs no account and runs fully on-device; cloud sync is opt-in and tenant-isolated. Explore more ai-code tools for the broader ecosystem.