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mcp-ariel-memory

Give your AI agents real memory — episodic recall, knowledge graphs, hybrid search, and envelope encryption in a single MCP server. 19 tools. 4-layer hierarchy. 250+ tests.

CI codecov License: MIT Python 3.10+ Ruff MCP Compatible Docs Release


About

mcp-ariel-memory is a production-ready MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides persistent, searchable memory for AI agents. It implements a two-layer architecture:

  • Layer 1 (User) — stores facts about users: preferences, conversation history, emotional context, relationships

  • Layer 2 (Agent) — stores agent identity: decisions, errors, personality evolution, learning patterns

The server is built with the official MCP Python SDK (FastMCP), supports both stdio and HTTP transports, and includes enterprise features like authentication, rate limiting, automatic backups, and a real-time dashboard.

Architecture

graph TD
    A[LLM Agent] -->|MCP Protocol| B[mcp_server]
    B --> C{ImportanceGate}
    C -->|score > 0.3| D[L1: ReflexBuffer]
    C -->|score ≤ 0.3| E[Filtered Out]
    D --> F[L2: SessionStore]
    F --> G{EmotionTrigger?}
    G -->|high emotion| H[L3: EpisodicMemory]
    G -->|normal| I[Consolidation]
    H --> J[L4: CoreMemory]
    I --> J

    B --> K[RAG Engine]
    K --> L[FTS5 Search]
    K --> M[MIB Binary Search]
    K --> N[Hybrid Scoring]

    B --> O[Wiki System]
    O --> P[.md Files]
    O --> Q[SQLite Index]

    B --> R[Knowledge Graphs]
    R --> S[Epistemic Graph]
    R --> T[Temporal Graph]

Why mcp-ariel-memory?

Feature

mcp-ariel-memory

Typical Memory

Memory hierarchy

L1→L2→L3→L4 (4 layers)

Flat key-value store

Hybrid search

FTS5 + binary embeddings + RRF

FTS or vector only

ITS scoring

Novelty + relevance via document frequency

None

Knowledge graphs

Epistemic + Temporal

None

Typed memory

13 categories with per-type retention

None

Two layers

User (about people) + Agent (self-knowledge)

User only

Wiki

14 types, .md files as source of truth, FTS5

None

24 hooks

Intercept operations at every stage

0

Lost-in-the-Middle prevention

L4 CoreMemory at start/end of prompt

None

Encryption

libsodium secretbox (keychain-first)

Usually none

Tests

250 (79 property-based/logic/chaos)

Dashboard

Real-time HTML dashboard

Who needs this?

  • AI agent developers — give your agent memory that persists across sessions

  • Multi-agent systems — one database, isolated tables, shared memory on demand

  • Anyone tired of "forget context every request" — mcp-ariel-memory remembers for you

  • Data-conscious teams — everything local, no cloud dependency

Related MCP server: ContextStream MCP Server

Installation

npx mcp-ariel-memory --transport stdio

Requires Python 3.10+ on the system. The npm wrapper automatically installs the Python package.

Option 2: pip

pip install git+https://github.com/Cipher208/mcp-ariel-memory.git
python -m mcp_server --transport stdio

Option 3: Docker

docker build -t ariel-memory .
docker run -p 8000:8000 ariel-memory

Option 4: From source

git clone https://github.com/Cipher208/mcp-ariel-memory.git
cd mcp-ariel-memory
pip install -e ".[all]"
python -m mcp_server.server --transport stdio

Quick Start

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ariel-memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-ariel-memory", "--transport", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ariel-memory": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "ariel-memory", "--transport", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Hermes Agent

Add to Hermes config (YAML format):

mcpServers:
  ariel-memory:
    command: npx
    args:
      - mcp-ariel-memory
      - --transport
      - stdio

HTTP Server

# Start HTTP server (no auth required for MCP endpoint)
python -m mcp_server.server --transport http --port 8000

# With dashboard (disabled by default)
python -m mcp_server.server --transport http --port 8000 --dashboard

# Development mode (no auth at all)
python -m mcp_server.server --transport http --port 8000 --no-auth

# Or with Docker
docker run -p 8000:8000 ariel-memory --transport http --port 8000

docker-compose

docker-compose up

Platform Support

Platform

Method

Notes

Windows

npm / pip / Docker

aiosqlite fallback (sync sqlite3 + to_thread)

Linux

npm / pip / Docker

aiosqlite (native async)

macOS

npm / pip / Docker

aiosqlite (native async)

Docker

Any

Works on all platforms with Docker


Database Schema (21 tables)

Single memory.db file — no external database required.

Table

Module

Purpose

core_memory

core/memory.py

L4 key-value facts

sessions

core/session.py

L2 session history

episodes

core/episodic.py

L3 episodic memories

staging_memories

shared/dream_buffer.py

Temporary staging

archived_memories

shared/archived_memories.py

Archived memories

audit_log

features/audit_trail.py

Audit trail

rate_limits

features/rate_limiting.py

Rate limiting

embedding_cache

shared/embeddings.py

Cached embeddings

rag_pages

rag/engine.py

RAG document pages

rag_chunks

rag/engine.py

RAG document chunks

rag_relations

rag/engine.py

RAG relations

epi_nodes

graph/epistemic.py

Epistemic graph nodes

epi_edges

graph/epistemic.py

Epistemic graph edges

temporal_events

graph/temporal.py

Temporal events

temporal_links

graph/temporal.py

Temporal links

user_wiki

wiki/user_wiki.py

User wiki entries

agent_wiki

wiki/agent_wiki.py

Agent wiki entries

wiki_index

wiki/file_wiki.py

Wiki FTS5 index

memory_conflicts

rag/conflict.py

Memory conflicts

migration_log

shared/migrations.py

Migration history


Features

Feature

Description

19 MCP Tools

Layer tools (11): remember, recall, forget, session, episode, graph, stats, context. Ops tools (8): api_key, backup, saga, data, replica, cleanup, purge, search

Two-Layer Memory

L1 ReflexBuffer → L2 SessionStore → L3 EpisodicMemory → L4 CoreMemory

Envelope Encryption

libsodium secretbox (AES-256-GCM) for API keys, tokens, saga state

Unified Search API

Single search() method with 4 strategies: fts, mib, hybrid, auto

MultiSourceRAG

Unified search across RAG + Wiki with deduplication and reranking

ITS Scoring

Novelty component using document frequency as prior for better ranking

Supervised Thresholds

Per-dimension MIB thresholds trained on labeled data (+10-15% recall)

Knowledge Graph

Epistemic graph (facts, decisions) + Temporal graph (timeline)

Wiki System

14 types (7 user + 7 agent), .md files as source of truth, FTS5 index

24 Hooks

12 user hooks + 12 agent hooks, integrated into tool pipeline

Saga Pattern

Multi-step operations with compensation, timeout, watchdog

Dashboard

HTML dashboard with stats, facts, episodes, audit log

Auth

API keys + Bearer tokens, encrypted at rest

Rate Limiting

Per-user limits on write operations (100 req/min default)

Backup

Auto-backups with jitter, restore, cleanup

Metrics

Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoint

Read-Only Replica

SQLite read-only replica for queries

Embeddings

Multilingual (100+ languages including Russian)


Architecture

Memory Hierarchy

Message → L1 (ReflexBuffer, ring buffer, 50 items)
         → ImportanceGate (noise filter, threshold 0.3)
         → L2 (SessionStore, SQLite, 100 sessions)
         → EmotionTrigger (emotional analysis)
         → L3 (EpisodicMemory, SQLite, 1000 episodes)
         → L4 (CoreMemory, key-value, 5000 facts)

Secret Resolution Order

1. OS keychain (keyring library) — recommended for production
2. .env file (MCP_MASTER_KEY=...)
3. config.yaml (crypto.master_key_hex)
4. Environment variable (MCP_MASTER_KEY)

Search Strategies

Strategy

Description

When to Use

fts

Full-text search via FTS5 with LIKE fallback

Short queries (<3 words), keyword-heavy

mib

Binary embedding similarity (Hamming distance)

Semantic similarity, concept-based

hybrid

Combines FTS5 + MIB with Scorer ranking

General-purpose, best recall

auto

Automatically selects fts for short queries, hybrid for longer

Default for most use cases


Documentation

Full documentation with API reference, architecture diagrams, and guides:

Read the Docs →

Topic

Link

Architecture

Overview

MCP Tools

Reference

Configuration

Guide

API Reference

Secrets, Importance


Testing

# Run all tests (250 passed, 39 property-based)
pytest tests/ -v

# Run with parallel execution
pytest tests/ -v -n auto

# Run only integration tests
pytest tests/test_integration.py -v

# Run with coverage
pytest tests/ --cov=. --cov-report=term-missing

# Run performance benchmark
python -m tests.benchmark_perf

Benchmark

Operation

Speed

Notes

memory_remember

1533 ops/s

SQLite + encryption

memory_recall

6739 q/s

FTS5 search

encrypt+decrypt

402 ops/s

argon2id KDF

fts_search

1817 ops/s

FTS5 full-text search

mib_search

215 ops/s

Binary embedding search (batched)

hybrid_search

178 ops/s

FTS5 + MIB combined

epi_tags_join

1850 ops/s

Tag lookup via epi_tags table

rag_chunks_join

3537 ops/s

rag_chunks + rag_pages JOIN


Configuration

# config.yaml (optional, mounted as volume)
layers: { user: { enabled: true }, agent: { enabled: true } }
limits: { l1_buffer_size: 50, l4_core_limit: 5000 }
hooks: { user: { message_received: true }, agent: { error_occurred: true } }
forgetting: { decay_rate: 0.01, archive_threshold_days: 90 }
rag: { fts_enabled: true, vec_enabled: true }
embeddings: { model: "BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5" }
wiki:
  user: { diary: true, external_dirs: ["/path/to/notes"] }
  agent: { decision_log: true, external_dirs: ["/path/to/lore"] }
auth: { api_keys_enabled: true, bearer_token_enabled: true }
backup: { auto_backup: true, backup_interval_hours: 24 }

# Security: master key (add config.yaml to .gitignore!)
# crypto:
#   master_key_hex: "your-32-byte-hex-key"

Secrets Management

On first run without a master key, the server auto-generates a key and saves it to .env for development convenience.

# Check if .env was created
cat .env

# For production, set explicitly:
export MCP_MASTER_KEY="your-32-byte-hex-key"

# Or use OS keychain (recommended)
pip install keyring
python -c "from features.secrets import install_master_key_to_keychain; install_master_key_to_keychain('your-key')"

Development

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev,binary]"

# Run linter
ruff check .

# Format code
ruff format .

# Type check
mypy --config-file pyproject.toml features/ shared/ mcp_server/ rag/ hooks/ wiki/ lifecycle/ graph/ core/

# Run tests
pytest tests/ -v --timeout=30

Community


License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.


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