The Colony vs Screenpipe

search-content

Search screen text, audio transcriptions, input events, memories, and parsed app data. Returns timestamped results with app context. USE WHEN: you need the actual text/content of a moment — quotes, screen text, transcript lines, or compact parsed messages, emails, tasks, documents, and code review — or want to filter by speaker/window. DO NOT USE for: broad questions like 'what was I doing?' (use activity-summary, it pre-summarizes apps + windows + transcripts). Also DO NOT USE for: targeted UI controls (use search-elements). Start with limit=5, increase only if needed. Per-result text is auto-truncated to 1000 chars; pass max_content_length=0 to opt out, or a custom integer to override.

synced-devices

List this signed-in user's Screenpipe devices that have uploaded Data Sync records, including each device name and last sync time. USE WHEN: the user asks what devices are available, names another device, or asks a cross-device question and you need the exact device_name filter. This never accepts an account or bucket identifier; the local app forwards the signed-in user's identity.

search-synced-content

Search Data Sync records from this signed-in user's devices. Results include device name, device ID, and timestamp for attribution. USE WHEN: the user asks about another/named device, asks across devices, or local search does not cover the requested machine. For the current machine only, use search-content. Start with a narrow time range and limit=10.

list-meetings

List detected meetings (Zoom, Teams, Meet, etc.) with id, duration, app, attendees, and note status. Pass `q` to substring-match title, attendee names/emails, and notes — `q` searches ALL meeting history, so when looking for a meeting with a person or on a topic ('when did I last talk to Noah?'), pass `q` and OMIT start_time. Only constrain the time range when the question itself is time-bound. Results are newest-first; without `q`, old meetings only surface via time range or offset pagination. Follow up with get-meeting (id from results) for the full note and transcript.

activity-summary

Rich activity overview: authoritative active minutes, app/window time, edited document paths, key text, and audio transcriptions, with optional parsed task context when available. USE WHEN: any broad question about what the user did — 'what was I doing?', 'how long on X?', 'which apps?', 'recap my morning'. This is almost always the right first call for time-range questions — usually sufficient without follow-up searches. Use parsed/path evidence to identify tasks, but only active-minute fields for duration; frame and row counts are never time. DO NOT USE for: finding a specific keyword (use keyword-search) or a specific UI control (use search-elements).

search-elements

Search UI elements (buttons, links, text fields) from the accessibility tree, filterable by role. USE WHEN: you want a specific UI control or page-structure question — 'find every Submit button I saw', 'list the links in that page'. DO NOT USE for: general text/content (use search-content) or fast keyword lookup (use keyword-search).

frame-context

Get full accessibility text, parsed tree nodes, and URLs for a specific frame ID. Use after search-content to get detailed context for a specific moment.

export-video

Export an MP4 of screen recordings for a time range, with synced microphone audio. Frames are placed at their real timestamps, so the clip's duration matches the wall-clock span you requested (not a sped-up timelapse). Returns the file path. Can take a few minutes for long ranges.

update-memory

Create, update, or delete a persistent memory (facts, preferences, decisions the user wants to remember). To retrieve memories, use search-content with content_type='memory'. To create: provide content + tags. To update: provide id + fields to change. To delete: provide id + delete=true.

get-feedback

Search local user ratings and written comments attached to AI-produced notifications, chats, memories, blocks, artifacts, and other targets. Use before generating related work so you preserve what earned up ratings and correct what earned down ratings.

send-notification

Send a notification to the screenpipe desktop UI. Use high priority only for time-sensitive failures or decisions needing human attention; routine findings and completed tasks should be normal or low.

health-check

Check if screenpipe is running and healthy. Returns recording status, frame/audio stats, timestamps.