Mneme

Save 80-90% memory-related token costs. Persistent long-term memory for AI agents via MCP — on-demand recall instead of always-inject.
Works with any MCP-compatible agent: Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue, and more.

English · 中文

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The Problem: Memory Costs Tokens

AI agents are stateless. The common fix is injecting a context file on every prompt — but that means you pay token costs on every single message, even when the agent already knows the answer.

How much does this waste?

Approach	Token cost per message	100 messages/day
Pre-injection (always inject)	~2,000-5,000 tokens	200K-500K tokens/day
mneme (on-demand)	0 tokens (most messages)	~20K-50K tokens/day

Most prompts don't need historical memory. mneme lets the agent decide when to look things up — saving 80-90% of memory-related token costs.

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What's New in v2.0

Memory Transfer Learning

Inspired by research on cross-context memory reuse (arxiv 2604.14004), memories now have 3 abstraction tiers:

Level	Recall Weight	Description	Example
meta_knowledge	1.3x	Patterns, heuristics, reusable principles	"When X happens, do Y"
semi_abstract	1.0x	Semi-abstract with some context (default)	"Project X uses approach Y because Z"
concrete_trace	0.7x	Specific operation logs	"On 04-16, ran migration script"

Key insight: Concrete traces have low cross-context reuse value and can cause negative transfer. The system automatically weights meta-knowledge higher during recall, so distilled patterns surface above raw event logs.

sqlite-vec Hybrid Search (FTS5 + KNN + RRF)

When configured with an embedding API, mneme now runs dual-path retrieval:

1. FTS5 path: Keyword/lexical matching (fast, exact)
2. Vector path: Semantic matching via sqlite-vec KNN (synonyms, paraphrases)
3. RRF fusion: Reciprocal Rank Fusion merges both result sets fairly using only rank positions (no scale normalization needed)

Falls back gracefully to FTS5-only when sqlite-vec or embedding API is not configured.

Performance: ~150ms total (FTS5 <10ms + one embedding API call ~120ms). sqlite-vec KNN is sub-millisecond locally.

Compression Pipeline

Old conversation segments can be automatically compressed into summary memories:

• Uses a fast LLM (e.g., Claude Haiku) for summarization
• Tracks compressed_from source rowids for traceability
• Anti-cascade protection: compressed memories cannot be re-compressed (prevents hallucination amplification)
• Triggers: CLI command, hooks, or manual invocation

Note: In practice, we find that ingesting compact summaries from Claude Code's built-in /compact feature (via the SessionStart hook) is simpler and more effective than running a separate compression pipeline. Both approaches are supported.

Compact Summary Ingestion

mneme can ingest summaries from Claude Code's /compact feature:

# Triggered by SessionStart hook when source=compact
TOKENMEM_COMPACT_SUMMARY="..." TOKENMEM_COMPACT_SESSION="session-id" \
  node index.mjs --store-compact-summary

This captures session knowledge automatically when Claude Code compacts context, creating a durable long-term memory from what would otherwise be lost.

Breaking Changes

• buildMemoryContext() is now async (returns Promise<string>)
• storeMemoryAsync() now writes to the sqlite-vec virtual table when available
• New memory_level parameter in MCP store_memory tool
• DB path configurable via TOKENMEM_DB_PATH environment variable

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What's New in v2.1 (Memory Hygiene)

Three mechanisms borrowed from memory-decay literature, adapted to the memory health layer only — no prompt injection, no mood state machines, no persona modeling. The goal is "make memory ranking realistic over time", not "give the AI feelings".

Power-Law Decay

Every memory now has a decay_score that updates periodically based on age, importance, and reuse:

w(t)  = (1 + t / τ)^(-b_eff)        τ = 24h,  b_base = 0.7
b_eff = b_base / (1 + importance / 10)
decay = min(1.0, w × (1 + min(10, access_count) × 0.3))

• High-importance + frequently-recalled records stay near 1.0 (reuse boost saves them)
• Low-importance + untouched records decay to ~0.2 over a few weeks — but never disappear. They still get queried, just rank lower.

Run via runDecayCycle() from a maintenance daemon's interval, alongside expireMemories() / promoteMemories(). CLI: there is no separate script — call from your own daemon or setInterval.

Recall scoring (both FTS and hybrid paths) now multiplies by decay_score, so naturally-fresh records bubble up without manual TTL tuning. Records that haven't been through a cycle default to 1.0 (backward-compatible).

Surfaced Random Recall ("I Just Remembered")

When recall_memory returns fewer records than requested, there's a 25% chance of pulling 1-3 records from the cold pool:

• importance >= 8 (genuinely valuable, not noise)
• Last accessed > 30 days ago (truly cold)
• decay_score >= 0.3 (not utterly buried)

Surfaced records carry recall_source: 'surfaced_random' so callers can distinguish them from query matches. buildMemoryContext() marks them with [surfaced] in the output.

This counters the "long tail of high-value memories that decay below the top of normal ranking" problem — useful patterns from months ago can resurface unprompted, modeling the "I just remembered" feeling.

Supersede Paper Trail

When store_memory is called with a supersedes array (rowid strings of old records), the new record now:

1. Inherits the old records' prior_versions[] (chained absorption — full history preserved across multiple supersede generations: v1 → v2 → v3 keeps the v1 content too)
2. Pushes the old records' content / summary / created_at into its own prior_versions[]
3. Updates old records' superseded_by pointer (existing soft-link mechanism preserved)
4. expireMemories() soft-deletes the old chain on its next pass

Recall returns only the latest content. prior_versions[] (stored as JSON) is queryable for audit / root-cause / "what did I previously think?" analysis. No history loss when retracting.

Migrations Directory

Schema changes are now versioned in migrations/:

migrations/
├── 001-add-superseded-by.sql        # supersede pointer column (paper trail prerequisite)
├── 003-add-decay-and-priors.sql     # decay_score + prior_versions + cold-pool index
└── 004-add-dedup-and-event-time.sql # content_hash dedup + event_time (v2.2)

Apply in order against an existing tokenmem.db for auditing. Fresh installs don't need to run these by hand — initMemory() applies the column additions inline (idempotent ALTER TABLE in try/catch). The schema is forward-compatible — pre-migration records get default values (decay_score = 1.0, prior_versions = '[]') so existing recall calls keep working.

Stronger Database Backup Protection

.gitignore now covers *.db.bak / *.db.bak-* / *.db.bak.* patterns — previous versions only blocked *.db.backup-* which let date-suffixed backups slip through accidentally.

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What's New in v2.2

HTTP Streamable Transport (single shared daemon)

In addition to the default stdio transport (one server process per client), mneme can now run as a single long-lived HTTP server shared by all clients:

node mcp-server.mjs --transport=http --port=18792

Why: when N agent sessions each spawn their own stdio mcp-server process, they contend on the same SQLite WAL and can pile up into zombie processes. One daemon-managed HTTP instance with a single SQLite connection roots that out. Exposes GET /health (returns embeddingConfigured + vectorCoverage so a supervisor can detect a silently-degraded vector path).

Store-Time Dedup + event_time

• content_hash dedup: a 5-minute window stops agents that retry-store the same content from bloating the table — the existing row's access_count is bumped instead, preserving the "told you already" signal.
• event_time: when the event actually happened, distinct from created_at (when it was recorded) — lets recall do temporal reasoning ("what did I do last June?") even for memories recorded later.

recall_by_id

Fetch exact memories by rowid (CLI + MCP tool), without bumping access_count — for citation / audit / "show me memory #N" without polluting the recall-frequency signal.

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How It Works

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Any MCP-Compatible Agent             │
│      (Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf / ...)   │
│                                                │
│  User prompt → "Do I already know this?"       │
│                     │                          │
│              ┌──────┴──────┐                   │
│              ↓ Yes         ↓ No                │
│         Answer directly    recall_memory()     │
│         (0 extra tokens)       ↓               │
│                          MCP Server            │
│                              ↓                 │
│                    FTS5 + sqlite-vec KNN       │
│                    + RRF fusion scoring        │
│                       (tokenmem.db)            │
│                              ↓                 │
│                    ← ranked results            │
│                                                │
│  store_memory("important fact",                │
│    level: "meta_knowledge") → MCP Server       │
│                                      ↓         │
│                     INSERT + embedding → vec   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

MCP tools exposed:

Tool	Purpose
recall_memory(query, limit?, category?)	Hybrid search: FTS5 + vector KNN + RRF fusion scoring
store_memory(content, level?, ...)	Store with abstraction level (meta_knowledge / semi_abstract / concrete_trace)
recall_by_id(ids)	Fetch exact memories by rowid (no access_count bump) — citation / audit
memory_stats()	Stats including compression pressure, dead knowledge, search miss rate, vector coverage

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Why MCP Makes This Universal

mneme is a standard MCP server, supporting both stdio (default, one process per client) and HTTP Streamable transport (--transport=http, a single shared daemon). Any AI agent or IDE that supports the Model Context Protocol can connect to it — no code changes needed.

Tested with:

Agent	Setup
Claude Code	claude mcp add --scope user mneme -- node /path/to/mcp-server.mjs
Cursor	Add to .cursor/mcp.json
Windsurf	Add to MCP server config
Cline / Continue	Add to MCP settings

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Features

Memory Layers with Auto-Promotion

Layer	TTL	Auto-promotes when
working	6 hours	Accessed 3+ times or importance >= 7
short_term	7 days	Accessed 8+ times or importance >= 8
long_term	No expiry	—
permanent	No expiry, no deletion	—

Composite Scoring (AIRI-inspired)

score = FTS_relevance (40%) + importance (30%) + recency (20%) + access_frequency (10%)

With Memory Transfer Learning overlay:

final_score = base_score × level_weight × decay_score
  where level_weight = { meta_knowledge: 1.3, semi_abstract: 1.0, concrete_trace: 0.7 }
        decay_score  = power-law decay × reuse boost   (v2.1, defaults to 1.0)

In hybrid mode (FTS5 + vector):

score = (RRF_score × 0.7 + importance × 0.2 + recency × 0.1) × level_weight × decay_score

The × decay_score multiplier (v2.1) lets long-untouched records rank lower naturally, without manual TTL tuning. See What's New in v2.1 above.

9 Memory Categories

general · people · project · decision · feedback · bug · relationship · skill · preference

Chinese Tokenization (Optional)

Built-in support for Chinese via wangfenjin/simple — a native SQLite extension using cppjieba for word-level segmentation. Falls back gracefully to character-level FTS5 if the extension isn't installed.

Non-Chinese users: skip this entirely. The default FTS5 tokenizer works well for English and other languages.

Health Metrics

memory_stats() now reports:

• Compression pressure: ratio of temporary to permanent memories (>1.0 = piling up)
• Dead knowledge: long-term memories not accessed in 30 days
• Search miss rate: queries that returned zero results (knowledge blind spots)

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Any MCP-compatible AI agent

Optional Native Extensions

For enhanced functionality, you can add these SQLite extensions (place in lib/ directory):

• sqlite-vec: KNN vector search for hybrid retrieval
• wangfenjin/simple: Chinese word-level tokenization

Both are optional — mneme works fully with just FTS5 out of the box.

Install

git clone https://github.com/AgentGameLab/mneme.git
cd mneme
npm install

Configure Embeddings (Optional)

For hybrid search (FTS5 + vector), set these environment variables:

export EMBEDDING_API_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"  # or any OpenAI-compatible API
export EMBEDDING_API_KEY="your-key"
export EMBEDDING_MODEL="text-embedding-3-small"  # default
export EMBEDDING_DIMENSION="1536"  # default

You can also put these in a .env.local file in the project root.

Initialize

node index.mjs --stats
# Creates tokenmem.db on first run

Connect to Your Agent

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user mneme -- node /absolute/path/to/mcp-server.mjs

Cursor / Windsurf / Other MCP clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mneme": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server.mjs"]
    }
  }
}

Add Agent Instructions

mneme stores and recalls, but when and how your agent stores is driven by its instruction file — not by mneme. A few well-chosen lines keep the memory sharp instead of bloated. See docs/configuring-your-agent.md for the full guide: the instruction block plus where each agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Cline, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Amp) reads it.

The short version — paste into CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / .cursor/rules / GEMINI.md / etc.:

## Memory (mneme MCP)

You have persistent memory via `mneme`: `recall_memory`, `store_memory`, `memory_stats`.

- **Recall** only when context lacks a confident answer (past work, decisions, people,
  preferences, project history). Skip if context already answers, the question is generic,
  or you already asked this session.
- **Store is a write gate, not a reflex**: store only what will change future behavior or be
  useful in a different session — not passing chatter or one-off confirmations.
- **Default `semi_abstract`.** `meta_knowledge` is *earned* — reserve it for heuristics that
  would help even in a completely unrelated project. Importance is a weak prior (anchor it:
  9-10 identity/rules · 7-8 active decisions · 5-6 context · ≤4 traces), not a ranking lever —
  salience emerges from recall frequency, not the number you assign at write time.
- On a **near-duplicate** warning, `supersedes: ["<id>"]` the existing entry instead of duplicating.

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CLI Usage

mneme also works as a standalone CLI tool — useful for hooks, scripts, and debugging:

# Check stats
node index.mjs --stats

# Recall memories
node index.mjs --recall "food preferences" --limit 5

# Store a memory with abstraction level
node index.mjs --store "When encountering X, always check Y first" \
  --importance 8 --type long_term --category skill \
  --level meta_knowledge

# Build context for injection (useful in hooks)
node index.mjs --context "current project status"

# Compress old conversations (requires claude CLI)
node index.mjs --compress <chat_id> --days 30
node index.mjs --compress-all

# Ingest compact summary (called by SessionStart hook)
TOKENMEM_COMPACT_SUMMARY="..." node index.mjs --store-compact-summary

# Backfill embeddings for existing memories
node backfill-embeddings.mjs --concurrency 3
node backfill-embeddings.mjs --dry-run  # count only

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Utilities

backfill-embeddings.mjs

Batch-generates embedding vectors for existing memories that don't have them yet. Useful when first enabling vector search on an existing database.

migrate-claude-memories.mjs

Imports Claude Code's auto-memory .md files (~/.claude/projects/*/memory/*.md) into the SQLite database. Idempotent — safe to re-run. Does not delete original files.

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File Structure

mneme/
├── mcp-server.mjs              # MCP server entry point (stdio transport)
├── index.mjs                   # Core engine: store, recall, hybrid search, compression, decay
├── schema.sql                  # SQLite schema (memories, conversations, FTS5, goals)
├── migrations/                 # Versioned schema migrations (apply in order)
│   ├── 001-add-superseded-by.sql
│   └── 003-add-decay-and-priors.sql
├── package.json                # 3 dependencies only
├── backfill-embeddings.mjs     # Batch embedding backfill script
├── migrate-claude-memories.mjs # Claude auto-memory migration tool
├── tokenmem.db                 # SQLite database (auto-created, gitignored)
└── lib/                        # Optional: native extension binaries (gitignored)
    ├── libsimple-windows-x64/  #   Chinese tokenizer (wangfenjin/simple)
    └── sqlite-vec-windows-x64/ #   Vector search (asg017/sqlite-vec)

~1,800 lines of code. 3 dependencies. No build step.

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Design Decisions

Why SQLite, not a vector database?
For personal agent memory, FTS5 + sqlite-vec provides sufficient semantic recall without operational overhead. The hybrid approach (FTS5 for exact matching + sqlite-vec for semantic) covers both query styles.

Why on-demand, not pre-injection?
Pre-injection wastes tokens on every message. On-demand lets the agent skip the lookup when it already has the answer — which is most of the time.

Why MCP, not a custom API?
MCP is the emerging standard for agent-tool communication. One implementation works across Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any future MCP-compatible agent.

Why Memory Transfer Learning?
Research shows that concrete execution traces transfer poorly across contexts and can even cause negative transfer. By automatically weighting meta-knowledge higher during recall, the system surfaces reusable patterns over raw event logs.

Why RRF for hybrid search?
Reciprocal Rank Fusion uses only rank positions, not raw scores. This means FTS5 BM25 scores and vector distances — which have completely different scales — can be merged fairly without normalization.

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Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
TOKENMEM_DB_PATH	./tokenmem.db	Path to SQLite database
EMBEDDING_API_BASE_URL	—	OpenAI-compatible embedding API base URL
EMBEDDING_API_KEY	—	API key for embedding service
EMBEDDING_MODEL	text-embedding-3-small	Embedding model name
EMBEDDING_DIMENSION	1536	Vector dimension
ENTITY_LLM_API_BASE_URL	—	OpenAI-compatible chat base URL for the optional entity layer (v2.5; dormant if unset)
ENTITY_LLM_API_KEY	—	API key for entity extraction
ENTITY_LLM_MODEL	gpt-4o-mini	Chat model for entity extraction
CLAUDE_BIN	claude	Path to Claude CLI (for compression pipeline)
TOKENMEM_COMPACT_SUMMARY	—	Compact summary text (for SessionStart hook)
TOKENMEM_COMPACT_SESSION	—	Session ID for compact summary

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References

• moeru-ai/airi — Memory architecture inspiration (composite scoring model)
• wangfenjin/simple — Chinese tokenizer for SQLite FTS5 (cppjieba-based)
• asg017/sqlite-vec — SQLite vector search extension
• SQLite FTS5 — Full-text search extension with BM25 ranking
• Model Context Protocol — The standard for agent-tool communication
• Memory Transfer Learning (arxiv 2604.14004) — Cross-context memory reuse research

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License

MIT