Pieces is a background app that remembers everything you see and copy, then gives that memory to you and your AI tools. Most "alternatives" only overlap with part of that, so the useful question is which part you need.
People usually leave Pieces for one of four reasons: the $18.99 monthly price with no free plan, not wanting an app that records the screen, needing more detail on coding-agent work than screen capture gives, or wanting memory that lives inside the repo. Each tool below answers one of those.
| Tool | What it remembers | Runs on | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| L2Cache | Agent sessions, terminal, git, clipboard, screenshots/PDFs | macOS | Free download; Pro $19.99 once |
| screenpipe | Screen, audio and app activity, 24/7 | macOS, Windows, Linux | Free download; enterprise tier |
| SpecStory | Agent chats, saved as Markdown in your repo | Editor extensions + CLI | Free |
| Mem0 OpenMemory | Preferences and patterns your agents learn | MCP server / plugin | Free tier; custom plans |
| Claude Code History Viewer | Past sessions from 30+ coding agents | macOS, Windows, Linux | Free, MIT |
| Pieces (for reference) | Focused app + clipboard every ~2s; audio opt-in | macOS, Windows, Linux | $18.99/user/month |
Best for: Mac developers whose work runs through coding agents and the terminal.
L2Cache is our app, so weigh this entry accordingly. Instead of watching the screen, it reads the session files Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Grok Build and Antigravity already write, plus shell history, git, clipboard, and screenshots and PDFs in folders you choose (with on-device text recognition). One search box covers all of it, and a Today view shows each project's last prompt, open loops and failing runs.
A built-in MCP server (12 tools) lets your agents look up past error fixes, decisions and session summaries. You can resume supported sessions in their CLI, and it warns before you resume an agent whose prompt cache has gone cold. Available details and live-continuity features vary by agent.
Trade-offs: Mac only. It doesn't remember email, chat or meetings unless you copy or screenshot them. Price: free download with unlimited clipboard history; Pro is $19.99 one-time (launch price, regular $29) after a 15-day trial. Full L2Cache vs Pieces comparison →
Best for: people who like Pieces' "remember everything I saw" model and want it source-available.
screenpipe records screen, audio and app activity around the clock. It reads on-screen text through accessibility data where it can, falls back to OCR, and transcribes audio. Everything goes into a local SQLite database you can scroll, search and summarise, and agents reach it through a local API and MCP server. You can exclude apps, windows and URLs, and it redacts sensitive fields on the device.
Trade-offs: continuous screen and audio capture uses more disk and battery, and needs the same broad permissions as Pieces. Agent conversations are remembered as what was on screen, not as transcripts. Price: free download, with an enterprise tier for managed fleets.
Best for: teams who want the "why" behind code changes committed next to the code.
SpecStory saves your coding-agent conversations, including tool calls and reasoning, as Markdown. Its CLI wraps terminal agents and writes each session to .specstory/history/ in the current project, so history is versioned with git and readable by the next agent. Editor extensions do the same inside the IDE, and cloud sync is optional.
Trade-offs: it remembers agent chats only, not your terminal, clipboard or screen, and you have to run agents through it for sessions to be captured. Price: extensions, CLI and cloud are free.
Best for: getting Cursor, Claude Code or Windsurf to remember your preferences between sessions.
OpenMemory is Mem0's MCP memory layer for coding agents. Rather than recording your activity, it stores what agents learn about how you work, such as preferences, patterns and setup, tagged by type and project, and serves the relevant memories back. You can browse, tag, version and restrict memories, and see an access log of when each one was added or served.
Trade-offs: it isn't a history of what you did, so you can't search last Tuesday's terminal session. Price: free tier (usage-based limits on adds and retrievals); custom plans add graph memory, SSO and on-prem deployment.
Best for: browsing and backing up past sessions across many agents at no cost.
An open-source desktop app (Tauri) that reads local history from Claude Code and around 30 other agents, including Codex CLI, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Cline and Aider. It searches across providers, shows token and cost analytics, and has a one-click full backup so sessions survive Claude Code's automatic cleanup. It also runs as a headless web server.
Trade-offs: a viewer only: no MCP memory for agents, no terminal, clipboard or git. Price: free, MIT licence.
These combine well. SpecStory or OpenMemory alongside L2Cache or screenpipe covers both "what did I do" and "what should the agent know".
For developers whose work runs through coding agents and the terminal on a Mac, L2Cache is the closest alternative: it searches agent sessions, shell history, git, clipboard and screenshots, has an MCP server, and is a one-time $19.99 purchase. If you specifically want screen-and-audio capture like Pieces, look at screenpipe.
Yes. Claude Code History Viewer is free and MIT licensed, SpecStory's extensions, CLI and cloud are free, screenpipe is a free download, and Mem0 has a free tier. L2Cache is a free download with unlimited clipboard history and a 15-day Pro trial.
screenpipe. It records screen, audio and app activity, reading text through accessibility data with OCR as a fallback, and keeps it in a local database it serves to agents over MCP.
L2Cache, screenpipe and Mem0 OpenMemory all serve memory to Claude Code over MCP. SpecStory saves agent sessions as Markdown in your project instead, and Claude Code History Viewer is a viewer only.
Free download with unlimited clipboard history. Pro is a one-time $19.99 launch price (regular $29), with no subscription.
Download L2Cache for Mac