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<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/dreamor/memvault@master/assets/memvault-logo.png" alt="MemVault — a round hamster mascot hugging its memory nut, honey gold and brown on cream" width="360" />

# MemVault

### The Shared Memory Layer for Every AI Agent You Run

> Not "agent learns to search memory" — memory finds the agent.

**MCP Native · Hybrid Retrieval · Auto-Injection · Zero-Config Sync**

**Open Source · Self-Hosted · Private · MIT Licensed**

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**English** · [简体中文](README.zh-CN.md)

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```bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dreamor/memvault/master/scripts/install.sh | bash
```

</div>

---

Every AI agent session starts from scratch. Claude Desktop doesn't know what Cursor just learned. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) doesn't know what you told Claude Code yesterday. Whatever agent you're running — international or domestic, IDE plugin or CLI harness — it forgets your preferences every time you start a new conversation.

You've been manually repeating context — project conventions, personal preferences, past decisions — across agents that should already know. This isn't a limitation of the models. It's a missing infrastructure layer.

MemVault is that layer. A lightweight, self-hosted memory router that sits between your agents and their context. It speaks plain MCP — no MemVault-specific SDK, no per-agent API integration. **Any MCP-compatible agent, from any vendor, automatically shares the same persistent memory the moment it connects.**

**Who it's for:**

- **Anyone running an MCP-capable agent** — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Continue, DeepSeek Harness (dsh), or any other MCP client, domestic or international — who wants preferences, project context, and past decisions to persist across sessions without repeating yourself
- **Multi-agent power users** running several of the above side by side, on different models, from different vendors — all sharing the same memory without configuration
- **Platform teams** deploying AI-assisted workflows where consistency matters across a mixed agent fleet: code review conventions, architecture decisions, project-specific preferences
- **Anyone tired of telling their AI the same thing twice** — MemVault works the way your brain should: you say it once, it's there when you need it, no matter which agent is asking

**[Quick Start](#quick-start)** · **[How It Works](#how-it-works)** · **[What MemVault Gives You](#what-memvault-gives-you)** · **[Why MemVault](#why-memvault)** · **[MCP Server](#mcp-server)** · **[CLI Reference](#cli-reference)** · **[Integrations](#integrations)** · **[Architecture](#architecture)** · **[Project Status](#project-status)** · **[Testing](#testing)** · **[Documentation](#documentation)** · **[Contributing](#contributing)** · **[License](#license)**

---

## Quick Start

Don't install MemVault by hand — paste this one prompt into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, dsh, or any other MCP-capable agent. It points the agent at a machine-readable install guide, so the agent does the whole setup itself:

```text
Install MemVault as your long-term memory and wire it into this agent. Fetch and follow https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dreamor/memvault/master/docs/AGENT-INSTALL.md — install the binaries, register MemVault as an MCP server for this host, and verify recall works. Then keep saving my preferences, project decisions, and lessons from each session so my next agent starts with them instead of from scratch.
```

Or install manually:

```bash
# Install (Linux / macOS): official script, auto-verifies SHA-256
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dreamor/memvault/master/scripts/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$HOME/.memvault/bin:$PATH"

# Windows (PowerShell):
#   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\install.ps1

# Homebrew (Apple Silicon):
#   brew install dreamor/tap/memvault

# Or from crates.io:
#   cargo install memvault-cli memvault-mcp

# The installers auto-start the local REST backend (host of the Web
# Dashboard). Open it, or start it on demand:
memvault-cli dashboard

# Save a MUST-level preference (injected as instruction, agent must follow)
memvault-cli save --content "User prefers Python" --priority MUST --type preference \
  --instruction "Use Python for code, not Java" --tags "coding,python"

# Search across all memory (hybrid: keyword + semantic when embedding is enabled)
memvault-cli search --query "Python"

# See what context gets injected when a specific agent connects
memvault-cli session-start --agent-id claude-desktop --context "Help me write code"

# Extract structured memories from free text
memvault-cli extract --text "I prefer dark mode. Our project uses Rust." --save

# Auto-generate agent instruction files from memory
memvault-cli sync

# All in one: dedup, decay, archive stale memories
memvault-cli dedup && memvault-cli decay
```

> **System requirements:**
> - **Prebuilt Linux binaries** (install script / GitHub release): glibc ≥ 2.39 + GLIBCXX_3.4.31 (GCC 13-era runtime — Ubuntu 24.04+ / Fedora 40+ / Arch). Release builds are pinned to Ubuntu 24.04 runners, and the release workflow gates the highest glibc/GLIBCXX symbol version every binary may require plus a startup smoke test, so this floor cannot silently drift upward (0.6.9 shipped x86_64 binaries requiring glibc 2.43 that way). TLS is rustls, so no OpenSSL dependency. Ubuntu 22.04 / RHEL or EL8/EL9 users: use the Docker image (`dreamor/memvault`) or build from source.
> - **Building from source** (`cargo install` / `cargo build`): links fastembed's prebuilt ONNX Runtime static library and needs a GCC 13-class toolchain. Older toolchains (e.g. GCC 8, CentOS 7/8-era libstdc++) fail at link time with missing C++20/23 stdlib symbols (`std::format`, `std::to_chars`). macOS / Windows (MSVC) / Homebrew / Docker are unaffected.

**Verify your install in 5 seconds:**

```bash
memvault-cli --version
# memvault 0.6.10

# sanity check: list saved memories (verifies DB is healthy)
memvault-cli list
```

### Local Ollama Demo (Zero Cost, Stays on Your Machine)

MemVault is plug-and-play with a local Ollama: unconfigured LLM extraction (full-text understanding / failure reflection / relation extraction) auto-detects a local Ollama; embeddings use the local model with the `ollama` or `auto` provider.

```bash
# 1. Install and start Ollama
brew install ollama && brew services start ollama    # or the official installer

# 2. Pull models
ollama pull nomic-embed-text        # embeddings, 768-dim (default for ollama/auto)
ollama pull qwen2.5:3b-instruct     # chat: LLM extraction/reflection (default qwen2.5:7b, use 3b on small machines)

# 3. (Optional) Pin the providers explicitly — persist them in ~/.memvault/.env
#    (shell exports also work — env vars take precedence over the file — but the file survives reboots)
mkdir -p ~/.memvault
cat >> ~/.memvault/.env <<'EOF'
MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=ollama
MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_PROVIDER=ollama
MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL=qwen2.5:3b-instruct
EOF

# 4. Verify
memvault-cli status     # Embedding provider: configured and reachable
memvault-cli save --content "Build server IP is 10.20.30.40"   # output (embedded int8)
memvault-cli outcome --task "Deploy trading service" --status failure --cause "Disk space insufficient" --task-type deploy
#   → Lesson (Llm): ... means failure reflection ran through the local LLM (not the rule-based fallback)
```

With no configuration at all (neither env vars nor `~/.memvault/.env`), LLM extraction auto-detects a local Ollama and enables itself (default model `qwen2.5:7b`; pull it in advance with `ollama pull qwen2.5:7b`, or point `MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL` at an installed model). Embeddings still default to the in-process native embedder; set `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=auto` in `~/.memvault/.env` to prefer Ollama and fall back to native when it isn't running. The native model's first launch downloads the weights from HuggingFace **silently in the background** — the server/dashboard come up immediately and hot-swap to semantic search once the download finishes, so a fresh install never blocks on it (set `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=none` to run pure keyword and skip the download).

---

## How It Works

MemVault is a pipeline, not a single script. Every stage below is a shipping module:

```
Agent connects (MCP stdio/SSE)
        │
        ▼
┌───────────────────┐
│  Agent Router      │  ← match agent type/tag → filter relevant memory
│  (Agent Registry)  │
└────────┬──────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌───────────────────┐
│  Memory Retrieval  │  ← keyword (BM25) + vector (embedding) + RRF fusion
│  (3 search modes)  │     synonym expansion · scoring · soft filtering
└────────┬──────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌───────────────────┐
│  Auto-Injection    │  ← MUST-level → instruction prompt
│                    │     REFERENCE → context resource
│                    │     NORMAL    → search result
└────────┬──────────┘
         │
         ▼
  Agent receives context ──→ makes better decisions
```

- **Storage:** SQLite with bundled FTS5 (full-text search); embeddings stored int8-quantized (~1/4 the size of f32 at near-identical ranking quality, legacy f32 rows still readable)
- **Retrieval:** BM25 keyword search over FTS5 with CJK bigram tokenization (Chinese two-character words match correctly) and tiered match fallback (strict → relaxed unigram → synonym OR; relaxations are reported, never silent), local-first embedding (in-process native by default — switch to local Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible model), RRF fusion with per-result recall provenance (`kw#2`/`vec#5`), synonym expansion, relevance scoring, soft intent filtering
- **Pipeline:** Automatic entity extraction, delta-write on save (near-duplicates skipped, similar memories absorb only the residual), semantic deduplication, time-based decay, archive of stale memories
- **Sync:** Zero-invasion file generation — `memvault-cli sync` produces CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, etc. directly from database contents

---

## What MemVault Gives You

- **Auto-Injected Context:** Session start automatically pulls relevant memory by agent identity — MUST-level rules land as instructions, not just chat history
- **Hybrid Retrieval:** BM25 + vector + RRF fusion with synonym expansion, relevance scoring, and per-result provenance (which path recalled each memory, at what rank) — available via CLI, MCP tool, and REST API
- **Explainable Injection:** every candidate dropped on the way into an agent's context is recorded with a reason (budget, caps, intent/type penalties) — "why didn't the agent get this memory?" always has an answer
- **MUST Enforcement:** MUST-priority memories are never filtered or truncated. Always in context, always obeyed — trust comes from provenance (human-authored/reviewed), with an opt-in fallback for memories independently corroborated by multiple identity-verified agents (`MEMVAULT_CORROBORATION_GATE`), so a single spoofed/compromised agent can't unilaterally inject a binding MUST
- **Multi-Agent Awareness:** Agent Registry with type/tag-based soft filtering (score demotion, not hard exclusion)
- **`agent_id` Is Provenance, Not a Filter:** retrieval never filters by `agent_id` — the field only records which agent wrote a memory (`source_agent`). Every agent searches the same shared corpus; per-agent differences apply only at injection time (type/tag soft scoring via `agents.yaml` `inject_rules`)
- **MCP Proxy:** Transparent proxy that injects memory into ANY upstream MCP server's responses — zero client changes
- **Compliance Tracking:** `inject_session_id` traces what was injected and measures follow-through rate
- **Cross-Platform:** CLI + MCP Server (stdio & SSE) + Web Dashboard (browser) + Obsidian Plugin
- **Zero-Invasion Sync:** Generate AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md from memory — no per-agent config files to edit
- **Contextual Extraction, Local-First:** Rule-based keyword extraction by default; optionally understands a full user+assistant exchange via an LLM, auto-detecting a local Ollama for free before ever touching a remote API
- **History & Rollback:** Every update/delete is snapshotted into `memory_history` — `memvault-cli checkpoints` + `memvault-cli restore` roll one memory back without touching the rest
- **Self-Diagnostics:** `memvault-cli status` reports exactly which features are degraded when no embedding provider is configured, plus a schema fingerprint (migration version + checksum) for cross-database comparison
- **Episodic Memory:** `record_outcome` records task results; failures are distilled into lessons and auto-injected next time (REFERENCE → MUST only with human approval), so the same trap isn't hit twice
- **Procedural Skill Activation:** skills whose `trigger` matches intent are injected as structured `[SKILL]` blocks with success-rate stats (shown after ≥3 runs); failures flag the skill for revision (`version++` on human edit), repeated successes auto-draft new skills into the review inbox
- **Semantic Knowledge Links:** lightweight relation triples, repeated facts consolidated into a linked semantic fact with provenance, and superseded facts archived (never re-injected, still listable & restorable)
- **Team Shared Pool & SOP Import:** memories marked `shared` are injected into every session (capped at 20); Markdown SOPs can be batch-imported as verifiable skills
- **Delta-Write on Save:** every save is checked against its namespace first — near-duplicates are skipped, similar memories absorb only the *residual* (what's genuinely new) and get their strength refreshed, so the library converges instead of accumulating near-copies; `--force` / `force_insert` bypasses
- **Task-Level Evaluation:** `memvault-cli bench` samples your own failure history (episodes that distilled a lesson) and measures lesson retrieval/injection rates — and with `--judge`, an LLM scores "plan without vs. with memory" against the known failure cause, so you see *task-success* lift, not just retrieval recall
- **Two-Phase Injection (never blocks):** MUST rules resolve deterministically with zero embedding calls and are served immediately; the semantic pipeline prefetches in the background and lands within a short window (250ms) — if it doesn't, the deterministic baseline is served and the request moves on (two-phase design)
- **Conversation-N-Gram Retrieval:** retrieval keys are conditioned on the recent turn window, weighted by recency so the current focus dominates — not a single flat query
- **Single Canonical Injection Channel:** per-agent `inject_channel` (`mcp` / `proxy` / `sync` in `agents.yaml`) restricts automatic injection to one delivery path, so the same memory is never sent to the same agent twice
- **Data You Own:** Single SQLite file. Full export/import. No cloud dependency. Your data, your machine.

---

## Why MemVault

Looking for a **self-hosted alternative to Mem0, Zep, or Letta/MemGPT**? Those are hosted APIs or Python frameworks tied to one SDK. MemVault ships as a single Rust binary with no hosted service and no vendor lock-in, speaks plain MCP instead of a proprietary SDK, and shares one memory store across every agent you run — Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, dsh — not just one.

| Feature | Plain CLAUDE.md | Vector DB + RAG | **MemVault** |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Context injection** | Manual edits | Query-time only | Auto on session start |
| **Multi-agent sharing** | Copy-paste | Separate indexes | Single shared store |
| **MUST enforcement** | None | None | Instruction-layer injection |
| **Search modes** | File grep | Embedding only | BM25 + Vector + Hybrid |
| **Synonym expansion** | No | No | Built-in |
| **Deduplication** | No | No | Semantic dedup pipeline |
| **Write-time delta merge** | No | No | Near-dupes skip, similar absorb the residual at save |
| **Task-level evaluation** | None | Recall metrics only | `bench`: with-vs-without-memory task success delta |
| **Decay / archival** | No | No | Time-based + auto archive |
| **Memory extraction** | Manual | N/A | Rule-based by default; optional local-first LLM extraction |
| **MCP native** | No | No | stdio + SSE + Proxy |
| **Agent differentiation** | Global file | Query filter | Type/tag registry |
| **Compliance tracking** | None | None | inject_session_id + rate |
| **Self-hosted** | Yes | Varies | Single binary, no cloud |

MemVault complements your existing agent setup rather than replacing it. Keep your LLM, your IDE, and your workflow exactly as they are. MemVault adds the memory layer underneath.

---

## MCP Server

> Tier-1 agents (Claude Code, OpenCode, dsh, Gemini CLI, Codex) have one-command plugin installs — see [Installing into your agents](#installing-into-your-agents) first. Everything below is the universal fallback for any other MCP client.

### stdio (any standard MCP client)

MemVault speaks plain MCP stdio — the same `mcpServers` JSON works verbatim in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Continue, and any other client that reads this format:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memvault": {
      "command": "/path/to/memvault-mcp",
      "args": ["--db", "~/.memvault/data.db"],
      "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-..." }
    }
  }
}
```

A couple of clients use their own one-liner instead of hand-editing JSON:

```bash
# Claude Code
claude mcp add memvault /path/to/memvault-mcp -- --db ~/.memvault/data.db
```

**DeepSeek Harness (dsh)** — a domestic (China) agent harness — gets deeper treatment than a generic stdio config: a native Cordis plugin (`dsh-plugin/`) that auto-injects memory into the system prompt and auto-extracts at turn end, with no per-turn cooperation required from the agent. See [docs/INSTALL.md §2.5](docs/INSTALL.md#25-deepseek-harness-dsh) for both the zero-code MCP route and the deep-integration plugin.

Other MCP-compatible agents — international or domestic, IDE plugin or CLI harness — should work the same way: any client implementing standard MCP stdio/SSE can connect without MemVault-side changes. The ones above are the ones we've actually verified; if you get MemVault working with another one, a PR to this list is welcome.

### SSE (multi-client, network-accessible)

```bash
memvault-mcp --transport sse --port 3777
# Clients connect at http://127.0.0.1:3777/mcp
```

SSE features: multi-client simultaneous connections, auto-triggered embedding backfill on initialization, HTTP remote access.

> **Note:** `--transport sse` only mounts the MCP-over-HTTP endpoint (`/mcp`) — it does **not** expose the REST API (`/api/*`). The Web Dashboard is served by the REST backend (`memvault-mcp --transport http --serve-web <dist>`), and the Obsidian plugin also uses the REST API and requires `--transport http` instead. See [docs/INSTALL.md §2.6](docs/INSTALL.md#26-rest-api-required-by-the-obsidian-plugin).

### 20 MCP Tools

| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `save_memory` | Save with auto-embedding; delta-write by default (near-dupes skip, similar merge) — `force_insert` to bypass |
| `record_outcome` | Record a task outcome (episodic memory); failures reflect into lessons |
| `infer_outcome` | Classify + record a task outcome from host-provided evidence (friction counts, terminal state) instead of a raw transcript — same rule-floor-plus-optional-LLM-judge logic as the Stop hook's `outcome --infer`; built for hosts without a Claude-Code-shaped JSONL transcript (e.g. dsh/Cordis). Returns `skipped` (not an error) when nothing is inferred |
| `import_skills` | Import skills from a Markdown SOP (headings → skills, list items → steps) |
| `search_memory` | Hybrid (default) / keyword / semantic; semantic modes fall back to keyword when embeddings are unavailable |
| `session_start` | Agent-aware context injection; honors the agent's `inject_channel` (skips with an explanation when another channel is canonical); records compliance injections when enabled |
| `review_memory` | Approve / reject / edit; edit also works on already-approved memories, reject only applies to pending ones |
| `delete_memory` | Soft delete — removes the live row and cascaded evidence relations, restorable via CLI `restore`; use `forget_memory` for irreversible purge |
| `forget_memory` | Permanently erase one memory or a criteria-matched bulk set (GDPR-style, irreversible); `dry_run` defaults to `true` |
| `extract_memories` | Structured extraction from text |
| `run_dedup` | Read-only deduplication scan (reports near-duplicates; does not merge/delete) |
| `run_decay` | Decay + auto-archive; opt-in permanent auto-forget when `MEMVAULT_FORGET_AUTO_ENABLED=1` |
| `confirm_read` | Mark read (increments `access_count`; repeated calls increment again) |
| `list_inbox` | List memories pending human review; `limit` only, no pagination |
| `run_promote` | Promote pipeline (L1→L2→L3), archive sources to L0 |
| `report_compliance` | Report follow/violate status for an injected session; bad items are skipped, so check the returned updated/total counts |
| `get_compliance_report` | Compliance rates per session or aggregate |
| `add_evidence` | Record evidence relations: supports / contradicts / sourced_from; identical relations are rejected rather than duplicated |
| `get_memory_evidence` | Get the raw-evidence chain a memory was distilled from (its L0 trace rows) plus its evidence profile — read-only grounding, so an agent can quote the original session text and name its sources |
| `get_effectiveness_report` | Automatic effectiveness judgments for injected memories (useful/neutral/harmful/insufficient-context rates, judged from `record_outcome`) — independent of the manual `report_compliance` flow |

### 2 MCP Resources

| URI | Content |
|-----|---------|
| `memory://user-profile` | MUST-level rules, auto-loaded on connect |
| `memory://project-context` | REFERENCE-level project context |

### Configuration (.env file & environment variables)

Copy [.env.example](.env.example) to `~/.memvault/.env` and uncomment what you need — it is also the single source of truth documenting every key.

Precedence (high → low): **CLI flags > process environment > `~/.memvault/.env` > built-in defaults**. Every binary loads the env file first thing at startup; `--env-file <path>` or `MEMVAULT_ENV_FILE` points elsewhere, and a missing file is silently skipped. `memvault-cli status` prints where each setting came from (env / file / default).

Two groups are intentionally not in the table below: the host installation contract (`MEMVAULT_AGENT_ID`, `MEMVAULT_HOOK_EXTRACT`, … — per-agent values authored in each host's plugin/mcpServers config), and the proxy's `upstreams` topology (structured data, lives in `~/.memvault/proxy.yaml`).

| Variable | Purpose | Default |
|----------|---------|---------|
| `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER` | Provider: `native` (in-process, default), `auto` (Ollama-first, native fallback), `ollama`/`local`, `openai`, `openai-compatible` (any OpenAI-compatible endpoint), or `none` (pure keyword, skips the download) | `native` |
| `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_API_KEY` (legacy fallback: `OPENAI_API_KEY`) | API key for remote providers (not needed for local Ollama); the default `native` provider needs no key | (not needed — `native` local model) |
| `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_API_BASE` | Any OpenAI-compatible base URL (OpenAI / Azure / vLLM / gateway...). For `ollama`/`local` the embedder uses Ollama's native endpoint `http://localhost:11434/api` | `https://api.openai.com/v1` / `http://localhost:11434/api` (Ollama) |
| `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_MODEL` | Embedding model: `bge-small-zh` (zh, ~95MB) / `multilingual`/`e5-base` for native; `nomic-embed-text` (768-dim) for Ollama; or any model name for API providers | `bge-small-zh` (native) / `nomic-embed-text` (Ollama) / `text-embedding-3-small` (API) |
| `MEMVAULT_EMBEDDING_DIM` | Vector dimensions | `768` (local/Ollama) / `1536` (API) |
| `MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_PROVIDER` | Optional: enables LLM-based *contextual* memory extraction (understands a full user+assistant exchange, not just keyword lines). Unset/`auto` → **local-first**: auto-detects a running local Ollama and uses it for free, no config needed; falls back to rule-based if none is running. `openai`/`openai-compatible`/custom → explicit remote provider (never auto-enabled just because an API key exists elsewhere — remote calls cost money and carry hallucination risk). `off`/`disabled`/`none` → force pure rule-based, even if local Ollama is running | (unset — local-first, rule-based if no local Ollama) |
| `MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_API_KEY` (falls back to `OPENAI_API_KEY`) / `MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_API_BASE` / `MEMVAULT_LLM_EXTRACTION_MODEL` | Chat-completions endpoint config for LLM extraction | local: `http://localhost:11434/v1` / `qwen2.5:7b` (no key) — remote: `https://api.openai.com/v1` / `gpt-4o-mini` |
| `MEMVAULT_RELATIONS` | Opt-in LLM relation extraction: `true` makes `extract_memories` (mode=llm) also persist `supports`/`contradicts`/`sourced_from` triples | (unset / false) |
| `MEMVAULT_DELTA_WRITE` | Delta-write on save: dedup within the same namespace first — near-duplicates skipped, similar memories absorb the residual. `false` turns it off; per-save bypass via `--force` / `force_insert` | true |
| `MEMVAULT_CONTEXT_NGRAM_WINDOW` | How many recent observed turns build the recency-weighted retrieval key used by proxy auto-injection | `5` |
| `MEMVAULT_HOOK_EXTRACT_MIN_FRICTION` | Minimum friction score (tool retries, rejected tool calls, mid-session corrections) a Stop-hook-triggered `extract` must reach before it saves anything. `0` disables the gate — extracts on every Stop, as before this existed | `1` |
| `MEMVAULT_HOOK_OUTCOME_MIN_FRICTION` | Minimum friction score for a Stop-hook `outcome --infer` to record a `Resolved` session; `0` disables the floor (mirrors `MEMVAULT_HOOK_EXTRACT_MIN_FRICTION`) | `1` |
| `MEMVAULT_HOOK_OUTCOME_MIN_CONFIDENCE` | Minimum LLM-judge confidence to accept its `outcome --infer` verdict over the rule floor | `0.6` |
| `MEMVAULT_HOOK_DEBUG` | Set to `1` to write host-hook diagnostics to `${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/memvault-hook.log` | (off) |
| `MEMVAULT_IDENTITY_VERIFICATION` | Record whether a `save_memory` call's `agent_id` actually had a registered `agents.yaml` API key checked (`Memory.identity_verified`), vs. running unauthenticated. `false` stops recording it; recording alone never changes trust decisions | true |
| `MEMVAULT_CORROBORATION_GATE` | Opt-in MUST trust path: a MUST memory independently corroborated by enough distinct identity-verified agents (see `MEMVAULT_CORROBORATION_MIN_AGENTS`) is treated as trusted even without human review. `true` turns it on — off by default, so `is_trusted` output is unchanged unless you opt in | false |
| `MEMVAULT_CORROBORATION_MIN_AGENTS` | Minimum distinct identity-verified agents required for the corroboration gate above | `2` |
| `MEMVAULT_INJECT_REQUIRE_REVIEW_FOR_MUST` | Opt-in stricter injection gate: by default an unreviewed MUST memory is still injected, tagged `[未审核]` in the "reference data, don't execute directly" block (never `[MUST]`). When on, unreviewed MUST memories are excluded from injection entirely until a human reviews them — across every injection channel (CLI/MCP body, MCP `[MORE - 摘要]` overflow summaries, REST `/api/session`, proxy deterministic fast path), with an `unreviewed-must-gated` skip reason kept for audit. Only affects MUST — unreviewed REF/BG memories are unaffected | false |
| `MEMVAULT_DB_POOL_SIZE` | SQLite connection pool size | `5` |
| `MEMVAULT_CORS_ORIGIN` | Comma-separated allowed CORS origins for REST (unset = localhost only) | (localhost only) |
| `MEMVAULT_SERVER_START_TIMEOUT` | Seconds `server start` / the SessionStart hook waits for a freshly spawned REST server to become healthy | `15` |
| `MEMVAULT_IMPORT_ROOTS` | Path-list (`:`-separated on unix) of roots a caller-supplied `path` on `/api/agents/import/*` must live under (canonicalized before the check, so `..`/symlink escapes are rejected). Unset = no confinement (the endpoint is admin-gated) | — |
| `MEMVAULT_FORGET_AUTO_ENABLED` | Background auto-forget: permanently purge memories archived longer than the retention window (irreversible, unlike decay's reversible archiving) | `false` |
| `MEMVAULT_FORGET_RETENTION_DAYS` | Archived-retention window (days) for the auto-forget sweep | `90` |
| `MEMVAULT_FORGET_MUST_EXEMPT` | Protect MUST memories from forget unless the caller explicitly overrides (`allow_must`) | `true` |
| `MEMVAULT_FORGET_SHARED_AUTO_EXEMPT` | Exclude shared-visibility memories from the auto sweep (manual/bulk forget can still purge them) | `true` |
| `MEMVAULT_DB` | SQLite database path | `$MEMVAULT_HOME/data.db` when `MEMVAULT_HOME` is set, else `~/.memvault/data.db` |
| `MEMVAULT_STORAGE_BACKEND` | Storage backend: `sqlite` (default) or `markdown` (alias `md`) — markdown makes a directory of `{id}.md` files authoritative and an internal `.memvault-cache.db` a rebuildable index (see [`docs/DESIGN.md` §18](docs/DESIGN.md#18-storage-backends-sqlite-vs-markdown)) | `sqlite` |
| `MEMVAULT_MARKDOWN_DIR` | markdown-backend data directory (also `--markdown-dir` on cli/mcp/proxy); required when the backend is `markdown`. `backup`/`checkpoints`/`restore` stay sqlite-only | — (markdown mode only) |
| `RUST_LOG` | Log verbosity | `info` |
| `MEMVAULT_HOME` | Base directory: where `.env` lives, plus the model cache (`~/.memvault/models`) and `agents.yaml`. Environment-only — it can't be set inside the `.env` file itself (a file can't define its own location) | `~/.memvault` |
| `MEMVAULT_ENV_FILE` | Path to the env file (`--env-file <path>` also works); process-env only — the file can't relocate itself | `$MEMVAULT_HOME/.env` / `~/.memvault/.env` |
| `HF_ENDPOINT` | HuggingFace endpoint override for native model downloads (e.g. `https://hf-mirror.com` on CN networks) | (HuggingFace default) |
| `MEMVAULT_EXTRACT_ASSISTANT` | Proxy-path contextual extraction of agent-produced text: on by default but saved downgraded (`review:required`, lowered confidence — nothing agent-produced is trusted before human review). `off`/`disabled`/`false`/`0` disables extracting from agent responses entirely | (on — downgraded) |

---

## CLI Reference

`save` · `outcome` · `search` · `list` · `review` · `delete` · `session-start` · `resource` · `extract` · `dedup` · `decay` · `forget` · `forget-log` · `doctor` · `promote` · `backup` · `export` · `export-skill` · `import` · `import-skills` · `import-agent` · `ingest` · `confirm-read` · `backfill-embeddings` · `sync` · `reindex` · `migrate-to-markdown` · `checkpoints` · `restore` · `supersede` · `status` · `bench` · `eval-history` · `server start|status|stop` · `dashboard`

```bash
memvault-cli <command> --help   # detailed usage per command
```

### Key Commands

| Command | What It Does |
|---------|--------------|
| `save` | Save a memory with priority, type, optional instruction. Delta-write by default: near-duplicates are skipped, similar memories absorb the residual; `--force` to bypass |
| `outcome` | Record a task result (success/failure/partial); failures are distilled into lessons that auto-inject into similar future tasks |
| `search` | Hybrid retrieval with relevance scoring; flags: `--query`, `--top-k`, `--namespace` |
| `session-start` | Simulate what context an agent receives on connect; a multi-line `--context` is treated as a turn sequence and weighted by recency |
| `extract` | Parse free text, extract structured memories |
| `import-skills` | Import skills from a Markdown SOP (`# / ##` headings → skills, list items → steps); enters the review inbox unless `--approve` |
| `import-agent` | Cold-start import from another agent's native memory files: Claude Code/Desktop (`CLAUDE.md`/auto-memory), Codex CLI (`AGENTS.md`), Hermes Agent (`USER.md`/`MEMORY.md`/skills), Qoder (`.qoder/rules`), OpenClaw (experimental); `--scan` to detect-only, `--path` to override, `--paste`/stdin as a generic fallback for any other agent, enters the review inbox unless `--approve` |
| `ingest` | Incrementally ingest agent session transcripts (Claude Code / Codex / Hermes) into memory: turns with extractable signal are kept as L0 evidence rows, and their extracted candidates carry `source_trace_ids` back to that evidence; a per-session watermark means each turn is processed once. `--dry-run` to preview, `--approve` to skip the review inbox, `--agent`/`--home`/`--max-sessions` to scope |
| `sync` | Generate agent instruction files (AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / MEMORY-INDEX.md, …) from memory (with `--watch`) |
| `dedup` | Scan and merge semantically duplicate memories (vector-assisted when an embedding provider is configured) |
| `checkpoints` | List memory history snapshots (per-memory or global); flags: `--memory-id`, `--limit` |
| `restore` | Revert a memory to the state captured by a checkpoint (`--history-id`) |
| `supersede` | Archive an old fact and point it at its replacement (nothing is deleted; search skips superseded, list keeps them) |
| `status` | Show embedding provider readiness (distinguishes not-configured / explicitly-disabled / configured-but-unavailable) and which features degrade without it |
| `dashboard` | Ensure the local REST backend is running (spawns `memvault-mcp --transport http` detached if needed) and open the Web Dashboard in your browser |
| `server start` / `server status` / `server stop` | Manage that same backend: idempotent start (health-probes first, auto-moves to the next free port when 3777 is taken by a foreign process), status, and stop. Prints the active URL (with `--quiet`, the URL alone) |
| `doctor` | Read-only memory hygiene lint: dangling/stale/duplicate/contradicted + machine-readable `--json` |
| `bench` | Task-level memory benchmark: samples your own outcome history, measures lesson retrieval/injection rates; `--judge` adds an LLM-scored "plan without vs. with memory" success delta; each run persists itself for `eval-history` |
| `eval-history` | Trend-over-time view of past `bench`/`doctor` runs — every run persists itself automatically, this just lists what accumulated |
| `decay` | Archive stale memories based on access recency |
| `backup` | Create a consistent point-in-time SQLite backup |
| `export` / `import` | Backup and restore — JSON to a file or a directory (writes `export.json` inside); Markdown to/from a directory or a single `.md` file; import is idempotent (ids already present are skipped, never overwritten) |
| `confirm-read` | Mark memories as read (updates access_count) |

---

## Integrations

### Installing into your agents

MemVault ships native adapters for most agents — one shared store, per-host identity via `MEMVAULT_AGENT_ID`, four tiers (Tier 1/2/3 details below; per-client registration snippets in [integrations/mcp-clients/](integrations/mcp-clients/)).

**Core packages & versions:**

| Package | Version | Install / Source |
|---|---|---|
| `memvault-core` (crates.io) | 0.6.10 | library dependency |
| `memvault-cli` · `memvault-mcp` · `memvault-proxy` (crates.io) | 0.6.10 | `cargo install memvault-cli memvault-mcp memvault-proxy` |
| `@dreamor/dsh-memvault` (npm) | 0.6.10 | npm registry (dsh Cordis plugin, below) |

**Shipped plugins & versions** — each bumps on its own schedule:

| Plugin | Version | Distributed via |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code / Codex plugin bundle ([`plugins/memvault/`](plugins/memvault/)) | 0.6.10 | `dreamor/memvault` marketplace |
| Gemini CLI extension (`gemini-extension.json`) | 0.6.10 | `gemini extensions install` |
| Qoder plugin (`.qoder-plugin/`) | 0.6.10 | in-repo manifest |
| Obsidian plugin ([`obsidian-plugin/`](obsidian-plugin/)) | 0.3.6 | [`dreamor/memvault-obsidian`](https://github.com/dreamor/memvault-obsidian) (BRAT / community dir) |
| dsh Cordis plugin ([`dsh-plugin/`](dsh-plugin/)) | 0.6.10 | npm [`@dreamor/dsh-memvault`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@dreamor/dsh-memvault) |

**Tier 1 — one-command native plugins** (memory injected by hooks; extraction opt-in where the host exposes lifecycle hooks):

| Agent | Install | Recall | Extract |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Claude Code** | `/plugin marketplace add dreamor/memvault`, then `/plugin install memvault@memvault` (two separate prompts) — bundles the MCP server, 4 skills, 4 slash commands | ✅ SessionStart hook | ✅ Stop hook, enable with `MEMVAULT_HOOK_EXTRACT=1` |
| **OpenCode** | merge [`integrations/opencode/opencode.json`](integrations/opencode/opencode.json) into your project | ✅ system transform | ✅ on `session.idle` |
| **DeepSeek Harness (dsh)** | built-in Cordis plugin [`dsh-plugin/`](dsh-plugin/) — see [docs/INSTALL.md §2.5](docs/INSTALL.md#25-deepseek-harness-dsh) | ✅ system prompt | ✅ turn-end |
| **Gemini CLI / Antigravity** | `gemini extensions install https://github.com/dreamor/memvault` | ⚠️ rule context + tools | ❌ |
| **Codex CLI** | `codex plugin marketplace add dreamor/memvault`, then install `memvault@memvault` from the plugin browser — the same [`plugins/memvault/`](plugins/memvault/) bundle; manual fallback in [integrations/codex/](integrations/codex/) | ✅ SessionStart hook — approve the bundled hook once in `/hooks` | ✅ Stop hook — approve in `/hooks`; opt-in via `MEMVAULT_HOOK_EXTRACT=1` / `MEMVAULT_HOOK_OUTCOME=1` |

⚠️ = the host has no injection hooks; recall is rule-driven (the agent calls `session_start` once) with the bundled canonical rule text.

**Tier 2 — paste an MCP snippet.** Strict-JSON registrations with per-host identities in [integrations/mcp-clients/](integrations/mcp-clients/) (target paths in its [README](integrations/mcp-clients/README.md)): Cursor · Windsurf · Cline/Roo · Continue · Zed · JetBrains AI/Junie · VS Code (Copilot Chat) · Claude Desktop.

**Tier 3 — native manifests, verify-on-install.** Qoder (`.qoder/rules/` + `.qoder-plugin/` + a `UserPromptSubmit` hook template), Grok Build (`grok plugin install dreamor/memvault --trust`), the Hermes Python plugin ([integrations/hermes/](integrations/hermes/), `pre_llm_call` recall + extraction helper) and the pi extension (`pi-extension/`, `pi install git:github.com/dreamor/memvault`) ship in-repo; OpenClaw and Swival consume the generated root `skills/` (also exported to `.openclaw/skills/`); Devin stays a manual recipe in [integrations/README.md](integrations/README.md).

**Tier 4 — instruction-only rule copies.** Canonical text + `scripts/gen-rule-copies.sh` (parity-checked in CI) produce `AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md` blocks, `.cursor/rules/`, `.clinerules/`, `.kiro/steering/`, Junie guidelines; `memvault-cli sync --watch` keeps them fresh from the store.

Any other MCP-speaking client (domestic or international, IDE plugin or CLI harness) connects with zero MemVault-side changes via the standard stdio config below — not individually verified; PRs adding a verified entry are welcome.

GUI surfaces are independent of agent installs: **Web Dashboard** (9 tabs) · **Obsidian plugin** (α — Vault sync + browse/capture) · **MCP Proxy** (transparent memory injection for any upstream server).

---

## Architecture

```
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Clients (any MCP-compatible agent)             │
│  ┌────────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ ┌────────┐  │
│  │ Claude Code│ │ Cursor │ │ dsh │ │ Others │  │
│  └────────────┘ └────────┘ └─────┘ └────────┘  │
└──────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┘
                   │ MCP (stdio / SSE / HTTP)
┌──────────────────▼───────────────────────────────┐
│  memvault-mcp     (rmcp 3.1.1)                    │
│  ┌──────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐ ┌────────┐  │
│  │  20 tools    │ │  2 Resources   │ │ SSE    │  │
│  │   + REST API │ │  + Auto-Inject │ │ Server │  │
│  └──────┬───────┘ └──────┬─────────┘ └────────┘  │
│         └────────┬───────┘                        │
│              ┌───▼────────┐                       │
│              │ Agent       │ (Agent Registry      │
│              │ Router      │  type/tag filter)     │
│              └───┬────────┘                       │
├──────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│  memvault-core    │                               │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌─▼───────┐ ┌────────────┐ ┌───┐ │
│  │ storage  │  │retrieval│ │ pipeline   │ │sync│ │
│  │ SQLite   │  │BM25+Vec │ │extractor   │ │   │ │
│  │          │  │RRF+syn  │ │dedup/decay │ │   │ │
│  │embed     │  │onym     │ │export/     │ │   │ │
│  │backfill  │  │scoring  │ │import      │ │   │ │
│  └──────────┘  └─────────┘ └────────────┘ └───┘ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

---

## Project Status

MemVault is in **beta**. The Rust core (storage / search / injection) is CI-gated and stable; plugin adapters and GUI surfaces evolve faster. All configuration is environment-driven (see `.env.example`), and every change is recorded in [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md).

## Testing

```bash
cargo test                      # ~1300 tests (full workspace)
cargo clippy --all-targets      # zero warnings
cargo fmt --all -- --check      # format check
cargo llvm-cov --workspace --all-features   # CI gate: line ≥92% / region ≥90% / function ≥85%
```

---

## Documentation

| Doc | Content |
|-----|---------|
| [docs/DESIGN.md](docs/DESIGN.md) | Product & architecture design |
| [docs/INSTALL.md](docs/INSTALL.md) | Installation guide (all platforms) |
| [docs/AGENT-INSTALL.md](docs/AGENT-INSTALL.md) | Agent-facing install guide — the target of the one-prompt Quick Start (install → register as MCP → verify recall) |
| [docs/DOCKER.md](docs/DOCKER.md) | Docker deployment |
| [docs/RUNBOOK.md](docs/RUNBOOK.md) | Deployment / health check / rollback runbook |
| [docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md) | Symptom → cause → fix troubleshooting guide |
| [docs/experiments/](docs/experiments/README.md) | Hypothesis-validation experiments (H1–H7, 2026-08-11 → 2026-08-27, all CONFIRMED) + runtime plumbing regression (2026-08-28) |
| [docs/RELEASING.md](docs/RELEASING.md) | Release process — what CI automates (Linux/macOS binaries, Docker image, dashboard archive, Obsidian zip) vs. manual steps (Obsidian submission — no macOS signing needed) |
| [docs/DISTRIBUTION.md](docs/DISTRIBUTION.md) | Distribution channel map — automated vs. manual channels, required credentials, MCP registries, optional channels |
| [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md) | Release history |
| [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) | Contribution guide |
| [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) | Security disclosures |
| [ACCESSIBILITY.md](ACCESSIBILITY.md) | Accessibility statement — commitment, supported environments, known limitations, how to report a barrier |
| [.env.example](.env.example) | Configuration template — single source of truth for every config key |

---

## Contributing

- 🐛 **Bugs:** [Issue Tracker](https://github.com/dreamor/memvault/issues/new)
- 💡 **Ideas:** [Feature Request](https://github.com/dreamor/memvault/issues/new)
- 📖 **Guide:** [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md)
- 🔒 **Security:** [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md)
- ♿ **Accessibility:** [ACCESSIBILITY.md](ACCESSIBILITY.md)

---

## License

MemVault is released under the [MIT License](LICENSE).