Engram

Engram is a self-hosted MCP server + dashboard that gives Claude Code, Cursor, Hermes, and any Model Context Protocol agent shared, long-term memory — over a plain, git-backed folder of markdown. No database: your notes are the source of truth, an in-memory index powers full-text search and a wikilink knowledge graph, and git is the durable store.

Think Obsidian, but agent-native — or markdown RAG without a vector database. Point it at any vault of .md files (or the bundled sample-vault/) and every agent on your team can search, read, and write the same knowledge. Humans edit it in a fast dashboard; agents edit it over one MCP endpoint.

Why it exists: autonomous AI agents forget everything between sessions. Engram is the persistent memory layer — one knowledge base that humans and agents share, versioned in git, so your Claude Code / Hermes / Cursor agents remember decisions, context, and everything they learn.

What it's for

• Long-term memory for Claude Code and other coding agents — stop re-explaining your project every session.

• Shared memory for a fleet of AI agents — one vault, many agents reading and writing concurrently.

• A team knowledge base agents can actually write to — meeting notes, decisions, client context, SOPs.

• A self-hosted, Obsidian-compatible second brain exposed over MCP — your notes, your server, your git repo.

• Markdown RAG without the vector database — full-text search + a link graph over human-readable files.

Related MCP server: memex-mcp

Features

• MCP server — 13 brain_* tools over one bearer-authenticated HTTP endpoint (POST /api/mcp, streamable HTTP JSON-RPC). Connect any MCP client to a single URL.

• Human dashboard — file tree, note viewer with Obsidian callouts, wikilinks, and backlinks, Preview / Edit / Split editor with autosave, ⌘K command-palette search, and a force-directed knowledge graph.

• Markdown-native — plain .md + YAML frontmatter + [[wikilinks]]. Drop in an existing Obsidian vault and it just works.

• Git-backed — optional auto commit + push of every change. Full history, no lock-in, your data lives in your repo.

• No database — files are the source of truth; an in-memory MiniSearch index + a ported wikilink graph power search and backlinks. Nothing to provision.

• Multi-workspace — connect multiple vault repos and switch the active one from the UI.

• Self-hosted — one Docker container. Railway / Render / Fly / any host with a volume. Not serverless (it needs a persistent volume, a file watcher, and a long-running index).

• Team auth — Google SSO + email allowlist for the dashboard; per-agent bearer tokens for MCP (create/revoke in the UI). Secrets encrypted at rest.

• Optional AI auto-filing (brain_capture) — dump a rough note and it gets filed into the right place, with the right frontmatter, automatically.

• Runtime Settings page — flip git-sync, capture, and OAuth on/off without a redeploy.

Works with

Claude Code · Claude Desktop · Cursor · Cline · Windsurf · Hermes · any MCP client. One endpoint, bearer-token auth — if it speaks the Model Context Protocol, it can use Engram as memory.

Quick start

bun install
bun dev            # http://localhost:3000 — runs against ./sample-vault

Point it at your own vault:

VAULT_DIR=/path/to/your/obsidian-or-markdown/vault bun dev

MCP tools

Agents only ever see the active vault — no repo, workspace, or GitHub tools are exposed.

Connect an agent (the dashboard → Connect page shows the exact command + token):

claude mcp add --transport http engram https://<host>/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Deploy

Runs anywhere you can run a Docker container with a persistent volume — Railway, Render, Fly, or your own box. Serverless (Vercel) won't work: Engram holds a volume, a file watcher, and an in-memory index that a serverless function can't keep alive.

1. Deploy this repo (root Dockerfile), mount a volume at /data, set ENGRAM_DATA_DIR=/data.

2. Connect your vault repo(s) in the dashboard (Workspaces) — by URL + token, or GitHub OAuth.

3. Sign in with Google, create MCP tokens on the Connect page, point your agents at the URL.

Most runtime config (git-sync, AI capture, GitHub OAuth, app name) is editable in the Settings page — only auth/infra bootstrap vars live on the host. Full setup: DEPLOY.md.

• Railway: New Project → Deploy from GitHub repo → add a Volume at /data.

• Render: one-click via the bundled render.yaml (Docker + a /data disk).

FAQ

How do I give Claude Code long-term memory? Deploy Engram, connect a markdown vault, and claude mcp add the endpoint. The brain_* tools let Claude Code search, read, and write persistent notes across sessions.

Can multiple AI agents share one knowledge base? Yes. Every agent points at the same MCP URL and reads/writes the same active vault — that's the point. Give each agent its own bearer token.

Does it work with my Obsidian vault? Yes. It reads plain markdown with frontmatter and [[wikilinks]], and renders Obsidian-style callouts and backlinks. No import step.

Do I need a vector database? No. Engram uses full-text search (MiniSearch) plus a wikilink graph over human-readable markdown — no embeddings service, no vector store to run.

Is my data locked in? No. It's just .md files in a git repo you own. Turn Engram off and you still have every note and its full history.

Where does it run / is it self-hosted? You host it. One Docker container on Railway / Render / Fly / any VM with a volume. Your keys, your data.

Stack

Next.js 16 (App Router) · React 19 · TypeScript · Tailwind v4 · shadcn/base-ui · bun · MiniSearch · d3-force · MCP SDK. MIT licensed.

Keywords: MCP server · Model Context Protocol · second brain for AI agents · agent memory · long-term memory for Claude Code · shared memory for AI agents · self-hosted knowledge base · Obsidian-compatible · markdown · knowledge graph · wikilinks · PKM · Zettelkasten · git-backed notes · Hermes agent memory · Cursor memory · RAG without a vector database.