Claude is the obvious comparison if you live in Claude. Claude memory and CLAUDE.md are good at what they do — and silent about everything else. Corivo is a different shape: a local agent that holds context across tools and acts on commands. Here's where each one earns its place.
TL;DR
- Claude (web/desktop) has had memory turned on for all users — free and paid — since March 2026. Free users get memory synthesis; paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise) can also search past conversations.
- Claude Code has its own memory model: CLAUDE.md files (persistent project instructions) and auto memory (notes Claude writes from your corrections), plus tool use that lets it read PRs, fetch issues, and run commands.
- Corivo runs as a Mac app and is its own AI agent. It watches your screen, holds a local context layer across your connected tools (Notion, Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, GitHub, Linear, Google Docs, Sentry, Intercom, Mem, Feishu, and more), and runs
corivo-agentto execute commands — without making any single AI the center of your workflow.
Corivo and Claude don't compete head-to-head. They live next to each other.
What Claude memory covers
Claude can remember things across chats — preferences you've stated, facts you've told it, things you'd like it to keep doing. Examples that work well:
- Stable preferences ("I write in plain English, no marketing speak").
- Identity-level facts ("I'm an engineer at a small startup").
- Recurring asks ("I usually want a TL;DR at the top of every doc").
Free-tier users get memory synthesis from past chats; paid tiers can also explicitly search past conversations and reference them.
What Claude Code memory covers
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding-focused product. Its memory is project-aware:
- CLAUDE.md files are persistent project (or personal, or organization) instructions that load into context at the start of every session.
- Auto memory lets Claude write its own notes based on your corrections and preferences.
- Beyond memory, Claude Code can use shell tools —
gh pr view, file reads, command runs, MCP servers — so it can fetch a lot more than just "what's in CLAUDE.md."
What neither one covers
- Your Linear ticket (unless you've already pasted it into Claude or wired up an MCP server in that one session).
- Your Notion design doc (same).
- The Slack thread where ops weighed in.
- What's currently on your screen, in another window.
- Anything that lives in another AI tool — Claude memory is not visible to ChatGPT or Cursor.
What Corivo covers
Corivo is a Mac app whose defining surface is an agent, not a chat:
- Native screen context. Reads your active screen via macOS accessibility APIs, with no screenshots or pixel capture. Frames live locally in SQLite, recalled via hybrid search.
- First-party integrations, live now. Notion, Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, GitHub, Linear, Google Docs, Sentry, Intercom, Mem, Feishu, and more — connected via one-click OAuth.
corivo-agentis a local sidecar that executes commands across that context. Drafts replies, preps you for what's next on your calendar, summarizes a recent thread, chains multi-step actions across your tools.- Quick Ask is a hotkey-triggered, always-on-top overlay window — your way into the agent from anywhere on your Mac.
- Local-first storage. Context lives on your Mac. Never used to train models.
- AI-neutral. Keep using Claude for what Claude is best at. Corivo runs underneath.
Side by side
| Claude memory | Claude Code memory | Corivo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core surface | Cloud chat product | Coding agent (terminal/IDE) | Local agent that executes commands |
| Where context lives | Anthropic's servers | Local CLAUDE.md + Anthropic's servers | Local-first, on your Mac |
| Scope | Inside Claude chats | Inside the project repo + Claude sessions | Cross-tool, cross-AI, plus screen |
| Reads your active screen | No | No | Yes — macOS accessibility APIs, no screenshots |
| Built-in integrations | None | MCP servers per project | Notion, Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, GitHub, Linear, Google Docs, Sentry, Intercom, Mem, Feishu, and more — one-click OAuth |
| Floating / overlay query | No | No (terminal-bound) | Quick Ask (hotkey, always-on-top) |
| Acts on commands | Inside Claude | Inside the repo / shell | Anywhere on your Mac, via the local agent |
| Used to train models | Per Anthropic's policy | Per Anthropic's policy | Never |
A useful pattern: layer them
If you're already a Claude user, the cleanest setup is to use both:
- Let Claude memory hold your durable preferences and identity.
- Let Claude Code's CLAUDE.md hold per-project conventions and instructions that should always load with that repo.
- Let Corivo carry the moving picture: today's project status, the screen you're on right now, recent decisions across Notion / Slack / Gmail / Calendar / GitHub / Linear / Google Docs / Sentry / Intercom / Mem / Feishu — and act on commands across all of them.
When you ask Claude (or Claude Code) to do something, it draws on its own memory; when you ask Corivo, the local agent draws on its cross-tool context and executes.
Try it
Corivo is available for macOS today. Download Corivo for Mac and run it alongside Claude.