> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.telys.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.telys.ai/mcp/tool-list-collections.md).

# telys\_list\_collections

`telys_list_collections` **lists the Telys memory collections** in the active store. It is one of the five tools on the Telys MCP server (`telys mcp`), called by name over JSON-RPC 2.0 (protocol version `2025-06-18`) on stdio.

The server scans the store (`$TELYS_MEMORY_PATH`, default `~/.telys/memory`) and returns the names of the collections **saved** to disk. Collections built but never persisted do not appear — over MCP only [`telys_add`](/mcp/tool-add.md) writes to disk. [`telys_create_collection`](/mcp/tool-create-collection.md) builds a collection but does not persist it, so a new collection is not listed until a `telys_add` writes to it and saves.

## Input schema

`telys_list_collections` takes **no parameters**.

| Field    | Type | Required | Description                 |
| -------- | ---- | -------- | --------------------------- |
| *(none)* | —    | —        | This tool has no arguments. |

## Output schema

| Field         | Type            | Description                                                                               |
| ------------- | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `collections` | array of string | Sorted names of the saved collections in the active store. Empty when the store has none. |

## Example call

{% code title="request.json" %}

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "telys_list_collections",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}
```

{% endcode %}

The wrapped result:

{% code title="response.json" %}

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": {
    "content": [
      { "type": "text", "text": "{\"collections\": [\"chat\", \"notes\"]}" }
    ],
    "isError": false
  }
}
```

{% endcode %}

Decoding the `text` field:

{% code title="payload.json" %}

```json
{ "collections": ["chat", "notes"] }
```

{% endcode %}

{% hint style="info" %}
An empty store returns `{ "collections": [] }`, not an error. If you expected collections and see none, confirm the client is pointed at the right store via `TELYS_MEMORY_PATH`. See [MCP configuration & scoping](/mcp/configuration-and-scoping.md).
{% endhint %}

## In practice

```
List my Telys memory collections.
```

## Errors

Failures return the same envelope with `isError: true` and a single text block of the form `<Type>: <message>`. See [MCP configuration & scoping](/mcp/configuration-and-scoping.md) and [Exceptions & error codes](/reference/exceptions-and-errors.md).

## See also

* [Tool: telys\_stats](/mcp/tool-stats.md) — inspect one collection's row count and index state.
* [Tool: telys\_create\_collection](/mcp/tool-create-collection.md) — create a collection (persisted once a `telys_add` writes to it).
* [List & fetch by ID](/working-with-data/list-and-fetch-by-id.md) — the SDK's `collections()` and `ids()`.
* [MCP configuration & scoping](/mcp/configuration-and-scoping.md) — where the store lives and how scope is chosen.


---

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