Cartographer

Why

AI agents start every session from zero. The usual fixes each solve a third of the problem:

• RAG retrieves, but nothing accumulates — the agent never gets to write down what it learned.

• A folder of Markdown the agent edits freely ends in broken links, lost history and silent corruption.

• Skills, subagents and instructions get hand-copied into .claude/, .codex/, .kiro/… and drift apart on every machine.

Cartographer puts all three in one place: your agents read and grow a knowledge base only through MCP tools, behind a server that enforces the rules, and the same knowledge base carries how your agents are set up.

Related MCP server: llm-wiki-mcp

What you get

• 🧠 Memory that compounds A wiki the agent builds over time (Karpathy's LLM Wiki pattern): plain Markdown + YAML, one git repo per KB, readable in Obsidian or any editor. No lock-in.

• 🛡️ Guardrails, not good intentions Schema validation, link checks, lint, immutability gates, optimistic concurrency, one commit per write, a signed audit log. The agent cannot leave the KB in a broken state.

• 🧩 One KB configures every agent Skills, subagents, hooks and standing instructions live in the KB and reach each client in its native format (below). Edit once, every machine converges.

• 👥 Built for teams Several KBs behind one server — a native user service, a container or a Kubernetes workload — per-KB and per-map access with bearer-token roles, git as the sync layer, conflicts turned into a guided workflow, Ed25519-signed artifacts.

• 🗺️ See it all in the Atlas A read-only web UI in the same binary: a living 3D graph, search, what the agents changed, what the KB ships to them, and what needs fixing. No extra service, no CDN.

• 🔑 Secrets, done properly SOPS-encrypted values referenced by concepts and resolved on demand; plaintext is never stored.

Quick start

You need git and an empty git repository you own (GitHub, Gitea, any host) to hold your first KB.

brew install beppetemp/tap/cartographer   # macOS — Windows, Linux and source: see Install
cartographer setup                        # server, first KB and your agents, in one guided step

setup shows its plan before touching anything, then installs the local service, creates the KB, connects every agent client it detects and verifies the result. Restart already-open agent sessions and ask your agent what it knows. Step by step: docs/getting-started.md.

Prefer to let your agent install it? Paste this:

Set up Cartographer on this machine by following
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/main/docs/agent-install.md
My first knowledge base is at: `<git remote URL>`

If you are an agent asked to install Cartographer: follow that runbook, not the Quick start.

One KB, every agent

cartographer connect detects your installed clients and writes, in each one's own format:

Subagents and hooks are translated, not copied. Every — is a gap declared for a stated reason, never a silent omission. Cartographer re-syncs at session start (or on a timer where a client has no hook), restores files edited or deleted by hand, and only ever touches what it created. Exact paths and reasons: docs/sync.md.

Install

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install beppetemp/tap/cartographer

# Windows (PowerShell; no administrator rights)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/main/install.ps1 | iex

# Linux / macOS without Homebrew
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/main/install.sh | sh

# From source (Go 1.26+)
go install github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/cmd/cartographer@latest

What lands where, upgrades and removal: docs/getting-started.md. Server configuration, environment variables and deployment topologies: docs/deployment.md.

Documentation

Browsable at beppetemp.github.io/cartographer; the map is docs/index.md.

• Getting started — from zero to a working wiki

• Overview — vision, principles, architecture

• MCP tools — the full tool API

• Deployment — topologies, configuration, backup

• Sync — how artifacts reach each agent client

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome: CONTRIBUTING.md covers building, testing and the PR flow. Cartographer is a personal project maintained on a best-effort basis. Security reports: SECURITY.md.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.