
Introducing Pieces
This documentation is designed to provide a high-level overview of Pieces' features and functionalities, with a quick-start and troubleshooting guides for macOS, Windows, and Linux to help you get started with Pieces as quickly as possible.
Let’s answer a few basic questions:
What is Pieces?
At its core, Pieces is an all-in-one productivity tool that helps developers work smarter, not harder, by anchoring engineers to their workflow with the power of the Long-Term Memory Engine, Pieces Drive, and the Pieces Copilot.
There are [3] core pillars of Pieces functionality:
Long-Term Memory Engine (LTM-2.7): A powerful, AI-powered live context framework that understands what you’re working on across your entire development workflow. The LTM-2.7 helps by outsourcing the burden of memory and retrieval from the developer to AI to maximize space for creativity driven by human intent.
Pieces Drive: The ability to save, search, reference, reuse, and share small developer resources like code snippets, screenshots, links, and text notes.
Pieces Copilot: An intelligent assistant that helps with generating code, answering questions, and adding code comments while utilizing a LLM of your choice—featuring an adjustable context window ranging from conversation-only to entire project repositories.
Who is Pieces For?
Everyone.
Pieces is an Artificial Memory tool that remembers your real-world activity and productivity context with Large Language Models (LLMs). It surfaces useful information, answers questions other AI tools can't, keeps you focused, and gives you an edge on the competition.
Pieces is an excellent productivity option for users of all levels and across various fields, including front-end developers, data scientists, DevOps engineers, and students.
Pieces adapts to YOUR workflow, whether you're coding, researching, writing, or collaborating.
### Never Lose Your Research Trail
Every article, paper, video, and reference is automatically captured and connected. No more lost tabs or forgotten bookmarks.
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**Academic Research**
- "Find all papers I read about machine learning last month"
- "What were the key findings from that Nature article?"
- "Show me my notes on quantum computing lectures"
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**Market Analysis**
- "Pull up competitor analysis from Q2"
- "What trends did I research for the product launch?"
- "Find that industry report with revenue projections"
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<Callout type="tip">
**Real scenario:** A PhD student researching climate models can instantly recall papers from 6 months ago, complete with their highlights, notes, and the context of related research—all searchable by topic, not just title.
</Callout>
### Your Team's Collective Memory
Automatically capture who you worked with, what was discussed, and what needs to happen next. Never lose track of decisions or action items.
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**Team Sync**
- "Who did I discuss the budget with last week?"
- "What did Sarah say about the timeline?"
- "Show me all meetings about Project Alpha"
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**Client Management**
- "What requirements did the client mention?"
- "Find our last conversation about pricing"
- "Which stakeholder approved this change?"
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<Callout type="info">
**Real scenario:** A project manager can ask "What did we decide about the API design in Tuesday's meeting?" and get the exact discussion, participants, and follow-up tasks—even months later.
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### Everything Stays Connected
Your work maintains its context—whether it's code, designs, documents, or creative projects. Every piece knows where it came from and why it exists.
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**Software Development**
- "Show me the auth implementation from last sprint"
- "What was the fix for that memory leak?"
- "Find the component I built for the dashboard"
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**Content Creation**
- "Pull up the brand guidelines document"
- "What copy did we use for the last campaign?"
- "Find the design mockups from March"
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<Callout type="success">
**Real scenario:** A designer can search "gradient styles from product launch" and instantly find not just the CSS/design files, but also the discussion about why those colors were chosen and who approved them.
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### Reports That Write Themselves
Generate accurate summaries from your actual work history. No more trying to remember what you did last week—Pieces already knows.
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**Status Updates**
- Weekly team reports with actual progress
- Sprint reviews with completed tasks
- Monthly summaries for stakeholders
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**Documentation**
- Auto-generate project timelines
- Create knowledge base articles
- Build onboarding materials from work history
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<Callout type="warning">
**Real scenario:** A consultant can generate a complete monthly client report showing all work done, decisions made, and progress achieved—with links to supporting materials and conversations.
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Let Pieces do the heavy lifting and preserve your engineering creativity and ingenuity for where you need it most.
How do I Use Pieces?
PiecesOS serves as the foundational layer of the entire Pieces Suite, much like Docker does for containerized applications—it powers the Pieces Desktop App along with all our browser and IDE extensions and plugins.
By installing PiecesOS, you enable the full functionality of the desktop app and our extensions, just like how Docker manages various containers.
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<Card title="macOS" image="/assets/icons/platform_logos/macos_logo.png" href="https://docs.pieces.app/products/meet-pieces/macos-installation-guide">
Intel & Apple Silicon
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<Card title="Windows" image="/assets/icons/platform_logos/windows_logo.png" href="https://docs.pieces.app/products/meet-pieces/windows-installation-guide">
Windows 10 & 11
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<Card title="Linux" image="/assets/icons/platform_logos/ubuntu_logo.png" href="https://docs.pieces.app/products/meet-pieces/linux-installation-guide">
Ubuntu 22+
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<Callout type="info">
PiecesOS runs in the background and powers all Pieces applications. It's lightweight and resource-efficient.
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<Card title="Desktop App" href="/desktop" image="/assets/icons/pieces_os_light_logo.png">
**Your central hub** — Manage memories, chat with Copilot, and access all Pieces features
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**Deep integration** — [VS Code](https://docs.pieces.app/products/extensions-plugins/visual-studio-code), [JetBrains](https://docs.pieces.app/products/extensions-plugins/jetbrains), [Sublime Text](https://docs.pieces.app/products/extensions-plugins/sublime), [Visual Studio](https://docs.pieces.app/products/extensions-plugins/visual-studio), and more
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<Card title="Browser Extension" href="https://docs.pieces.app/products/web-extension" image="/assets/icons/google_chrome.png">
**Capture from the web** — Save content, research, and context from any website
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<Card title="Pieces CLI" href="https://docs.pieces.app/products/cli" image="/assets/icons/apple_terminal.png">
**Command-line power** — Access Pieces from your terminal
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<Card title="Productivity Tools" image="/assets/icons/raycast.png">
**Enhanced workflow** — [Raycast](https://docs.pieces.app/products/raycast), [Obsidian](https://docs.pieces.app/products/obsidian), and more productivity integrations
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1. Open the Desktop App
2. Turn on Long‑Term Memory in the PiecesOS toolbar
3. Work as usual—Pieces captures context automatically
<Callout type="info">
Pro tip: See how to toggle Long‑Term Memory in the Quick Menu [here](https://docs.pieces.app/products/core-dependencies/pieces-os/quick-menu#ltm-25-engine).
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**Captured automatically:**
- Saved content (copies, files, snippets)
- Browser tabs and links
- Documents and code
- Conversations and decisions
Private by Design, Local by Default
Read more about privacy here.