Zipmem

Endless semantic memory for terminal AI agents — without the bloated context window.

zipmem-mcp is a local-first MCP server + CLI that lets agents like Claude Code carry an entire project's history across sessions while keeping the live context window small. It works by Anchored Compacting: stripping semantic noise, replacing massive code blocks with file-coordinate anchors, and preserving architectural blueprints, schemas, and hard-won lessons verbatim.

No cloud. No API keys. No AI calls on the server side. Your memory lives in a single human-readable JSON file under .zipmem/.

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The problem

Long, high-intensity agent sessions fill up the context window:

• Prompt caching only saves money, not space. Cached or not, every re-read of a giant terminal history still consumes window tokens.
• A 5-minute idle invalidates the cloud KV cache. The next turn re-reads the whole history at full price.
• Manual "summarize the session" is lossy and tedious, and dumping raw terminal logs just moves the bloat around.

The approach: Anchored Compacting

Instead of storing the session, zipmem stores its meaning:

Raw session content	What zipmem keeps
200-line code block you just wrote	[src/auth/oauth.ts -> 15-42 -> PKCE flow with refresh-token rotation]
A 6-step debugging saga	A one-line lesson: "Stripe webhook must be idempotent — it retries on 5xx"
Architecture you designed	A blueprint, preserved verbatim
Repetitive logs, dead ends, pleasantries	Discarded

Anchors are coordinates, not code — the agent re-reads the file on demand when it actually needs the detail. The result is an endless memory loop where the window stays small but nothing foundational is ever lost.

The intelligence lives in the prompt, not the server. zipmem init injects a Constitutional Directive into your CLAUDE.md. The agent itself produces the compact, structured payload; the server only validates, deduplicates, merges, and persists. That keeps the server dependency-free and instant.

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Install

npm install -g zipmem-mcp

Requires Node.js ≥ 18.

Quick start

# 1. Initialize in your project root (once per project)
cd your-project
zipmem init

# 2. Register the MCP server with Claude Code
#    (add -s user to make it available in every project — see below)
claude mcp add -s user zipmem-mcp -- npx zipmem-mcp

That's it. zipmem init:

• creates .zipmem/state.json (your memory store),
• injects the Constitutional Directive into CLAUDE.md (or memory.md, or creates CLAUDE.md),
• adds .zipmem/ to .gitignore (keep memory local — see Shared memory),
• records a checkpoint mode (balanced by default; pass --checkpoint=conservative|aggressive to change it).

From the next session on, the agent loads memory automatically at the start and compacts automatically when you say goodbye or it nears its context limit. You don't run anything by hand.

Manual MCP config

If you register MCP servers via a JSON config (claude_desktop_config.json or similar):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zipmem-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["zipmem-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The server reads CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR (set automatically by Claude Code) to find the project's .zipmem/. It otherwise falls back to the nearest .zipmem/ ancestor of the working directory.

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Using zipmem across multiple projects

zipmem works per-project, and getting it running everywhere depends on two separate, independent steps. If it works in one project but seems dead in another, one of these is almost always the reason:

1. Register the MCP server at the right scope. Claude Code's claude mcp add defaults to local scope — the server is then only visible inside the one directory where you ran it. In any other project the tools simply don't exist. To register it once for all your projects, use user scope:

claude mcp add -s user zipmem-mcp -- npx zipmem-mcp

Verify what's registered (and at which scope) from inside the project that isn't working:

claude mcp list

If zipmem-mcp isn't listed there, that's the problem — re-add it with -s user (or -s project to share it with a repo via a committed .mcp.json).

2. Run zipmem init in every project. This is per-project, not per-machine. Registering the server is not enough on its own, because init is what:

• creates that project's .zipmem/state.json (without it there's no memory to load), and
• injects the Constitutional Directive into that project's CLAUDE.md. Without the directive the agent never learns to call the tools — the server is running but nothing triggers it, so it looks like "zipmem doesn't work here."

cd your-other-project
zipmem init

Heads-up on project resolution. The server locates memory via CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR → the nearest .zipmem/ ancestor → cwd. If a project has no .zipmem/ of its own but sits inside another project that does, the agent can silently read/write the parent project's memory. Running zipmem init in each project gives it its own .zipmem/ and avoids this.

Quick checklist when a project "doesn't work":

Symptom	Check	Fix
Tools not offered at all	claude mcp list — is zipmem-mcp there?	claude mcp add -s user zipmem-mcp -- npx zipmem-mcp
Server runs but agent never calls it	Is the directive in this project's CLAUDE.md? Is there a .zipmem/?	zipmem init in the project root
Wrong / unexpected memory loads	Does a parent folder have a .zipmem/?	zipmem init here so the project has its own store

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How the loop works

Session start ──► agent calls zipmem_load_memory ──► regains full context (few tokens)
      │
      │   ... work ...
      │
"we're done" message / context pressure ──► agent calls zipmem_save_and_compact
                                         │
                                         ▼
                          validate → dedup-merge → prune → write .zipmem/state.json

MCP tools

Tool	When the agent calls it	What it does
zipmem_load_memory	First thing, every session	Returns blueprints, anchors, and lessons as compact text. Surfaces a recovery banner if the previous session ended abruptly.
zipmem_checkpoint	Depends on the checkpoint mode (every unit of work, only at milestones, or when you say checkpoint)	Stages progress into a crash-safe buffer (session.json) — intermediate, not final, never touches state.json. Called many times per session.
zipmem_save_and_compact	When you signal the session is wrapping up in a chat message ("we're done", "that's all", "goodbye", or save), or when context nears its limit	Finalizes: folds the staged buffer + final delta into persistent memory (state.json), prunes, closes the session. Usually once at the end.

The tool descriptions are written so the agent knows when and why to call them without you prompting it.

Heads-up about exit / quit: these are Claude Code's own CLI commands — they close the terminal instantly, before the agent gets a turn, so they do not trigger zipmem_save_and_compact. To get a clean final save, send a normal chat message first ("we're done", "save", "goodbye"), let the agent compact, then quit. Otherwise durability falls back to your last checkpoint + next-session recovery.

Checkpoint vs. save — the one-line version

Checkpoint = cheap, frequent, "don't lose my progress" insurance (recovered only on the next session if you crash). Save & compact = the authoritative commit to long-term memory that a future zipmem_load_memory reads back. Many checkpoints during a session; one save at the end.

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Checkpoint modes

zipmem_checkpoint is the main cost ↔ safety knob. Each checkpoint is agent-generated output, so frequent checkpoints mean more durability but more tokens. You pick the cadence at init time and it's baked into the injected directive (the server treats every checkpoint identically — only the instruction to the agent changes):

zipmem init --checkpoint=balanced     # default

Mode	The agent is told to…	Best for
aggressive	Checkpoint after every meaningful unit of work (a feature wired up, a bug fixed). Maximum durability against hard exits.	Long, high-stakes sessions where losing even a few steps hurts.
balanced (default)	Checkpoint only at major milestones — a big refactor finished, a critical bug resolved, a foundational decision made.	Most projects: low token overhead, still protects the work that matters.
conservative	Never persist on its own. Memory is written only when you say so, via two plain words: say checkpoint → the agent stages progress (zipmem_checkpoint); say save → the agent does a full compaction (zipmem_save_and_compact). Either way it runs the tool immediately and replies with a one-line confirmation.	Token-tight workflows where you want full manual control.

Modes are instructions, not guarantees. The cadence lives in a prompt directive, not server code — the agent usually follows it but can't be forced to. In aggressive mode it may occasionally finish a unit of work without firing an interim zipmem_checkpoint, or ask before it saves rather than acting silently. That's an accepted trade-off: a missed checkpoint degrades gracefully via crash safety, and you can always force a write yourself by saying checkpoint or save.

In conservative mode you stay in the driver's seat: say checkpoint for a quick crash-safe stage, or save to compact everything into long-term memory — no slash commands, just the plain word.

Changing modes later — re-run init with a different value; it updates meta.checkpoint_mode in state.json and rewrites the directive block in place (re-running without --checkpoint leaves your stored mode untouched):

zipmem init --checkpoint=conservative   # switch an existing project to conservative

In aggressive and balanced, the agent still calls zipmem_save_and_compact on its own when you signal you're done (in chat) or context nears the limit — modes only govern the interim checkpoint cadence. In conservative, nothing is automatic: the final save happens only when you say save.

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Crash safety (hard exits & Ctrl+C)

Relying on the agent to gracefully call zipmem_save_and_compact on the way out is fragile: a closed terminal window, Ctrl+C, or a killed process can skip it. zipmem defends against this in layers — and is honest about the limits:

1. Continuous checkpointing. zipmem_checkpoint writes .zipmem/session.json atomically on every call. A hard exit therefore loses at most the work since the last checkpoint, and that data is already on disk — no death-handler required.
2. Parent-process lifecycle monitor. The server watches the claude process via the stdin pipe (EOF when the parent dies), SIGINT/SIGTERM/SIGHUP, and a PID liveness probe. On any catchable termination it does the minimal safe thing: a single atomic write marking the session interrupted and recording the reason. It deliberately does not fold into state.json or shell out to git — heavy I/O during the narrow OS termination window risks a torn write. All folding is deferred to layer 3.
3. Next-session recovery. On startup (a calm moment) the server detects a session that never closed cleanly, folds any leftover checkpoints into state.json, captures the git-changed files, and zipmem_load_memory shows a ⚠️ ZipMem recovery banner so the agent re-anchors them. This is the authoritative path — it also covers the SIGKILL case where layer 2 never ran.

Honest limitation: a true hard kill (SIGKILL, kill -9, power loss) cannot be intercepted by any in-process handler — and semantic compaction can't run at death time anyway, because it requires the LLM. zipmem does not dump raw code or git diff into memory (that would violate Anchored Compacting). Instead, durability comes from checkpoints already on disk + next-session recovery, which together guarantee no silent loss: the worst case is "the last few un-checkpointed steps need redoing," and the next session is explicitly told what changed.

The practical takeaway: checkpoint as you go (the injected directive tells the agent to, at the cadence set by your checkpoint mode), and abrupt exits become recoverable instead of catastrophic. If you run in conservative mode, remember that durability is on you — say checkpoint at the points you don't want to lose.

.zipmem/session.json is runtime state and is always gitignored (via .zipmem/.gitignore), even in --shared mode — only state.json is shared.

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CLI

zipmem init [--shared] [--checkpoint=<mode>]   # set up .zipmem/ and inject the directive
                                               #   <mode>: conservative | balanced | aggressive
zipmem status            # summary: counts, size vs. limits, mode, checkpoint mode, timestamps
zipmem --version
zipmem --help

--checkpoint is validated — an unknown value errors out with the allowed set. See Checkpoint modes for what each does.

zipmem status

ZipMem status — my-app

  Blueprints : 4
  Anchors    : 11
  Lessons    : 6
  Sessions   : 18
  Compactions: 18

  Size       : 7.4KB
  Mode       : local (gitignored)
  Checkpoint : balanced
  Created    : 2026-05-02T10:01:55.000Z
  Updated    : 2026-06-20T13:32:17.324Z

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The memory file

Everything lives in one validated JSON file at .zipmem/state.json:

• blueprints[] — immutable-by-default architectural facts (architecture, schema, decision, convention, dependency), preserved verbatim.
• anchors[] — { file_path, line_range, concept } coordinate stand-ins for code.
• lessons[] — distilled bug fixes and gotchas, so regressions don't recur.
• session_log[] — an append-only audit trail of compactions.
• meta — counters plus shared and checkpoint_mode (your chosen checkpoint cadence).

Merging is deterministic: blueprints dedup by title+category (immutable ones are never overwritten unless explicitly superseded), overlapping anchors for a file union-merge with the newest concept winning, and duplicate lessons are skipped. Writes are atomic (temp file + rename) so a crash can never corrupt your memory.

Size management: above a 100 KB soft limit you get a nudge; above a 500 KB hard limit the next compaction auto-prunes least-valuable data first (stale anchors whose files are gone, then old session-log rows, then oldest lessons).

Shared vs. local memory

By default memory is local (.zipmem/ is gitignored) — personal to each developer, no merge conflicts.

To share memory with your team (commit it to git so everyone's agent inherits the same blueprints and lessons):

zipmem init --shared

This leaves .gitignore untouched so you can commit .zipmem/state.json.

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Where the token savings come from

A single 200-line code block can cost ~2,000+ tokens every time it re-enters the window. One anchor costs ~20. A new session that would otherwise re-read tens of thousands of tokens of history to regain context instead loads a few hundred tokens of structured memory. Because the compaction is semantic (not just truncation), the agent loses none of the decisions — only the bulk.

Be precise about where the saving happens. zipmem does not shrink your live context window within a single chat — there it's a small (mostly cacheable) overhead. The payoff is at the session boundary: the next chat reloads compressed memory instead of re-deriving the project from scratch. So it's net-positive for long, multi-session work and net-negative for one-off short chats. See docs/token-economics.md for a realistic per-stage and cross-session cost model.

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How ZipMem compares

zipmem isn't the only way to give an agent memory. Here's where it fits — and what it trades away. (This is a comparison, not a claim of being strictly "better"; the right tool depends on your workflow.)

Approach	Persists across sessions	Token cost	Infra / API keys	Determinism	Main trade-off
No memory (re-read each session)	❌	Highest over time	None	—	Context rebuilt from zero every session
Paste old transcript	⚠️ manual	Very high	None	Low	Bloats the window — defeats the purpose
Manual CLAUDE.md notes	✅ but static	Very low	None	Medium	Hand-maintained, goes stale, no anchors, lossy
Claude Code /compact	❌ (within a session)	Low	None	Medium	Shrinks the live window only; not persistent; lossy
RAG / vector memory (e.g. mem0, Letta/MemGPT)	✅	Medium (retrieval per query)	Embeddings + DB/keys	Low (fuzzy)	Infra overhead; can retrieve noise; non-deterministic
Whole codebase in context	❌	Highest	None	High	Expensive and window-bound
zipmem	✅	Low (mostly cacheable, bounded)	None (local, key-free)	High (deterministic)	One project at a time; no fuzzy semantic recall; relies on checkpoint discipline

How to read this: zipmem is complementary to /compact, not a competitor — /compact trims the live window within a session, zipmem carries meaning across sessions. Versus RAG/vector memories it gives you zero infrastructure, no API keys, deterministic output, verbatim blueprints, and code anchors; in exchange it gives up fuzzy semantic retrieval breadth and multi-project scope. Versus a hand-kept CLAUDE.md it's automatic, structured, and anchor-based; versus pasting transcripts it's incomparably cheaper.

Limitations

Being honest about what zipmem does not do:

• One session per project at a time. session.json is a single "current session" file and state.json uses read-modify-write without locking. Running two claude sessions in the same project simultaneously (e.g. two terminal tabs) will clobber session.json and can silently lose compactions through a race — with no error shown. Different projects are fully isolated and safe. Fixing same-project concurrency would require per-session files + locking; it's a known design boundary, not a bug.
• Within a single chat, zipmem is overhead — not savings. The benefit is realized only when the next session reloads compressed memory. A one-off short chat pays a small net cost. (See Where the token savings come from and docs/token-economics.md.)
• Recovery depends on checkpoint discipline. The directive instructs the agent to checkpoint, but can't force it. Work that was never checkpointed or compacted before a hard kill is lost — the server has no LLM to reconstruct it.
• No semantic compaction at death time. A SIGKILL / power loss can't be intercepted, and compaction needs the LLM anyway. zipmem never writes raw code or git diff into memory — durability comes from on-disk checkpoints + next-session recovery, never from dumping the transcript.

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Development

npm install
npm run build        # tsc -> dist/
npm test             # vitest
npm run test:watch
npm run lint
npm run format

Run a single test file:

npx vitest run tests/core/state.test.ts
npx vitest run -t "merges overlapping anchors"

Manual end-to-end smoke tests (build first):

npm run build
node tests/smoke-mcp.mjs /path/to/a/project   # handshake + save→load
node tests/smoke-crash.mjs                     # checkpoint → hard exit → recovery

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.