Use Silo apps with your AI tools.
Search your PDFs, notes and spreadsheets from Claude Code or Codex using Silo Vault on your Mac. The free plugin supplies source passages and a skill that instructs your assistant to cite them.
Requires the paid Silo Vault app. $19.99 one-time · no subscription · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon.
Your AI tool may send the results it receives to its cloud provider.
Cited answers from your own files.
free · MIT · on your MacSilo Vault indexes the folders you choose into vaults and searches them on your Mac. The plugin gives your assistant access to that search. Its skill instructs the assistant to read supporting passages before answering and cite the file and available location, such as a page or spreadsheet cell range. If nothing relevant comes back, it should say so. Check the cited passages against the answer.
The plugin is free and MIT-licensed. It holds a manifest, an entry that starts Silo Vault's own server, and a skill that tells the assistant how to search and cite. Silo Vault supplies the server and your index, so the plugin needs the app.
Two commands in your terminal.
claude code · codexBefore you start, you need:
- →Silo Vault 1.13.1 or later from the Mac App Store, installed at
/Applications/Silo Vault.app. - →A folder added to Silo Vault, with indexing finished.
- →Silo Vault opened once on this Mac, so it can confirm your App Store purchase. The server answers only after that check.
claude plugin marketplace add silo-systems/plugins
claude plugin install silo-vault@silo-systemsInside a session, /plugin marketplace add silo-systems/plugins and then /plugin install silo-vault@silo-systems do the same.
codex plugin marketplace add silo-systems/plugins
codex plugin add silo-vault@silo-systemsIn interactive Codex, expect an approval prompt for Silo Vault calls unless your settings already allow them. For unattended codex exec, follow the manual server setup in the plugin guide. That setup approves every Silo Vault call, including Timeline search and generated summaries.
Ask about your documents.
three prompts- 01“List my vaults and the documents in each.”
- 02“Find the budget figures in my vaults. Read the supporting passages and cite the file and page or spreadsheet cells.”
- 03“Find the decision we made about the project schedule. Explain what was decided and cite the passages.”
If your documents hold nothing relevant, the assistant should say so.
What your AI tool receives.
stdio · no open portThe plugin starts Silo Vault's own executable, /Applications/Silo Vault.app/Contents/MacOS/SiloVault, with --mcp and talks to it over stdio. No network port is opened, and nothing is sent to Silo Systems. The server answers your AI tool's requests with:
- →Vault and document names.
- →Search and graph results, and the passages it reads.
- →A summary, FAQ, timeline or brief of a vault that Silo Vault writes when the tool asks for one.
- →Matching Timeline moments, only while the Timeline is on in Silo Vault.
Your AI tool handles these under its own terms, which can include sending them to its cloud provider. For everything else Silo Vault does with your data, read Silo Vault's privacy policy.
Approvals
Claude Code asks before each Silo Vault call until you allow it. Allowing these six is reasonable: list_vaults, list_sources, search_vault, search_graph, get_backlinks and read_chunk. Leave search_ambient (Timeline search) and run_transform (generated summaries) asking each time.
If it doesn't connect.
reconnect · remove- →Open Silo Vault once, then reconnect (in Claude Code,
/mcp). The server refuses until the app has verified its App Store purchase on this Mac. - →Silo Vault must be at
/Applications/Silo Vault.app. - →Check that the plugin is enabled.
- →If you set up Silo Vault in Claude Code through Connect AI before, you can keep that entry. Claude Code starts one copy either way.
claude plugin uninstall silo-vault@silo-systemscodex plugin remove silo-vault@silo-systems