mikefromnz.com

What It Is

mikefromnz.com is the personal website of Michael Rewiri-Thorsen, a New Zealand-based AI Engineer and AWS Community Builder. The main content captured here is not a traditional SaaS product, but a technical article about the open-source developer tool kiro-recall. The author describes kiro-recall as “the MCP Server of You.” Its goal is to automatically load project background, architecture decisions, and long-term personal knowledge from a user’s local Markdown knowledge base into the model at the start of every Kiro IDE session.

Core Capabilities and Technical Approach

Its key design choice is to use Kiro hooks instead of less reliable steering files. A Session Start hook listens for promptSubmit and, before the user’s first prompt actually reaches the model, reads the vault via MCP and injects relevant context. Subsequent prompts in the same session exit via a guard. v0.1.0 includes four hooks: session-start context injection, /recall writing to 00-inbox, Vault Scaffold directory creation, and /promote turning inbox notes into Zettelkasten permanent notes. The vault is essentially a local folder with plain Markdown files. It does not require Obsidian and does not lock users into a proprietary format.

Integrations, API, and Ecosystem

The approach relies on @bitbonsai/mcpvault to access the vault. The article says mcpvault provides 14 tools, including write_note, search_notes, read_multiple_notes, and move_note, enough to support reading, writing, and moving notes. kiro-recall is tightly tied to Kiro IDE’s Power, Agent Skills, .kiro.hook JSON, promptSubmit, and userTriggered events. It can also complement Obsidian’s graph view, backlinks, and plugin ecosystem, but Obsidian is only an optional browsing tool.

Pricing and Documentation

The article is tagged opensource, and there is no mention of fees, subscriptions, or payment, so it can be understood as a free open-source tool. The article itself is well documented, covering the motivation, directory structure, four-stage relevance detection, hook JSON structure, and dependency choices. However, the captured content does not include a full README, installation commands, compatibility matrix, or support SLA, so its service/support score should not be too high.

Pros, Cons, and Best-Fit Users

The advantages are that it is local-first, Markdown-based and portable, and automatic injection helps avoid forgetting to load context. It may also reduce token usage caused by repeatedly explaining the same background. The drawbacks are its strong dependency on Kiro IDE and the MCP ecosystem, which makes its applicability narrow. Its effectiveness also depends on whether the user maintains high-quality notes over the long term. It is best suited to heavy Kiro IDE users, developers who use AI coding assistants, and those who already have an Obsidian/Zettelkasten workflow.

Access from China

The article does not provide information about network access from China, mirrors, payment, or deployment, so china_access can only be marked as unknown. If access to Kiro, related package sources, or GitHub is restricted, users in mainland China may need a proxy. Alternative approaches include using an Obsidian vault together with Claude Code, other MCP local knowledge-base servers, or the built-in context mechanisms of an IDE.