Amem — Agent MEMory

Self-hosted, local-first knowledge & memory for AI agents.

Amem is a single binary/container that gives your agents (Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, …) a shared, persistent knowledge graph — so they stop re-explaining themselves, stop hallucinating from stale context, and stop wasting tokens on duplicate memory. The LLM does the curation dirty-work (distill, cross-link, organize, keep it consistent); you browse and steer. The knowledge base snowballs.

It is the open, self-hostable answer to llm-wiki / obsidian-wiki / vendor lock-in: we provide the service, your data is yours (local SQLite, fully exportable, OKF-compatible).

Why

• Reduce context waste — recall returns a compact, cited context block within a token budget instead of raw history; dedup skips re-storing known knowledge.

• Reduce hallucination — answers ground on units with citations; stable conclusions ("crystals") require ≥3 independent sources.

• Reduce duplicate data — embedding-based dedup + merge across sessions and tools.

• LLM as librarian, not search engine — it maintains the knowledge base for you: summarizing, cross-referencing, classifying, keeping it consistent — continuously, in the background.

• Data sovereignty — runs locally, stores in amem.db on your disk, exports to JSON or an OKF markdown bundle anytime.

Related MCP server: ShelbyMCP

Features

• AI-first storage: a knowledge graph (units = nodes, typed links = edges), not markdown files. Markdown is only an export format (OKF).

• Three memory forms: Trace (raw) → Unit (atomic, 8 types) → Crystal (cross-validated).

• Auto-organization: distillation, dedup/merge, link (cross-reference) generation, contradiction detection, crystal promotion, decay/forgetting.

• Working memory: a daily compact briefing of the most relevant knowledge (attention prefetch).

• MCP server: read/write the graph from Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP client.

• REST API: full CRUD + search + recall + import/export + stats.

• Web dashboard: interactive graph, hybrid search, trace viewer, review queue, stats.

• Self-contained: zero-config offline mode (deterministic embedder, no network); drop in an OpenAI-compatible LLM/embedding endpoint for semantic quality.

Web UI routes

The dashboard is a real URL-routed SPA (no hash routing) — every tab is a deep-linkable path:

Legacy /#/graph-style hash links are automatically redirected to the path routes. Server-side SPA fallback means any of these URLs can be opened, refreshed, or shared directly.

Quick start

One-command Docker (recommended)

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up --build -d
# open http://localhost:8321

Set AMEM_EMBEDDING_BASE_URL / AMEM_LLM_BASE_URL (+ model/key) in your env for semantic + LLM distillation. Works offline out of the box.

Setup wizard (detect → plan → apply → verify)

pnpm setup            # or: node tools/amem-setup.mjs all
node tools/amem-setup.mjs detect | plan | apply | verify

The wizard checks the running service, wires a Personal Access Token into ~/.codex/config.toml, installs the Stop/SessionEnd ingest hook, and verifies the MCP OAuth challenge (401 + WWW-Authenticate) plus a PAT-authenticated MCP session. Run node tools/amem-setup.mjs verify any time to confirm the install is healthy.

Local (dev)

pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm --filter @amem/server start     # API + web on http://127.0.0.1:8321

AI providers (Settings → AI Providers)

Amem's automatic organization (distillation on ingest, link generation, curation summaries, contradiction review) is powered by an OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint. Configure it in the Web UI — no env vars or restarts needed:

1. Open Settings → AI Providers and pick a quick-fill preset (DeepSeek, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama, or a custom local gateway such as an opencode Go service, vLLM, or LM Studio).

2. Fill name, base URL, model, and (optional) API key, then Save provider.

3. Hit Test to probe /models (falls back to a 1-token chat completion), then Activate. The LLM is hot-swapped — every AI feature uses it immediately.

Priority: active provider → AMEM_LLM_* env → offline (mock). Keys are AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest (derived from AMEM_AUTH_SECRET) and never returned by the API — only hasKey + a 6-char prefix are exposed.

Semantic search quality uses a separate embedding endpoint (env only, since many chat providers don't offer embeddings):

AMEM_EMBEDDING_MODE=api AMEM_EMBEDDING_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 \
AMEM_EMBEDDING_MODEL=nomic-embed-text AMEM_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=... \
pnpm --filter @amem/server start

Without any LLM or embedding config, Amem runs fully offline with a deterministic embedder and a mock LLM — every feature works, semantic quality is just lower.

Knowledge graph hygiene

Auto-linking is degree-bounded so the graph stays readable and cheap to traverse: every unit keeps at most maxLinksPerUnit auto links (default 8, set via AMEM_MAX_LINKS_PER_UNIT), chosen by confidence. Typed relations (supports / part_of / extends / …) are only assigned when two units are semantically similar — the weaker shared-tag signal only ever produces related_to, so a generic tag can't mass-produce fake typed hubs. The graph API also caps related_to edges per node for rendering (12/node), keeping the force layout readable even on large histories.

Existing databases that predate these caps can be repaired in one call (API POST /api/v1/links/prune with { "maxPerUnit": 8 }, MCP prune_links):

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $AMEM_PAT" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"maxPerUnit":8,"dryRun":true}' http://127.0.0.1:8321/api/v1/links/prune

Run with dryRun: true first to preview { examined, kept, deleted }, then repeat without it. Manual links and importer-created part_of edges are never touched.

Codex as first-class client

See docs/CODEX.md. Open the Web UI Activity tab to watch new knowledge and recalls live.

Connect an agent (write + read)

Claude Code .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "amem": { "command": "node", "args": ["/path/to/amem/packages/mcp/dist/cli.js"] }
  }
}

Codex / Cursor / any MCP client: point at the same command, or at http://127.0.0.1:8321/mcp (Streamable HTTP). See docs/MCP_TOOLS.md.

Typical loop:

1. Start of session: working_memory + recall "active project" → warm context.

2. As you work: save_unit for decisions/plans/procedures.

3. End of session: ingest with the transcript → Amem distills, dedups, and links.

4. Background consolidation keeps the graph consistent and growing.

REST API

See docs/API.md. Base /api/v1 on 127.0.0.1:8321 by default. Auth modes:

• None (localhost default) — AMEM_AUTH_ENABLED=false, no bearer required.

• PAT — set AMEM_API_TOKEN (or use a minted PAT) and send Authorization: Bearer amem_pat_*. Legacy single-token mode stays behind AMEM_ALLOW_LEGACY_API_TOKEN=true.

• OAuth 2.1 — AMEM_AUTH_ENABLED=true enables the full authorization flow: .well-known/oauth-authorization-server, authorize + PKCE (S256), token / refresh (rotation + reuse detection), revoke. Web UI has a login consent page; MCP clients follow the standard 401 → WWW-Authenticate dance.

Auth, scopes & workspaces

Amem separates who you are (user / login session / PAT) from what you can touch (workspace + scope). Requests are denied server-side before any storage access — scope checks are not a UI nicety.

• Scopes: read, write, admin, plus per-workspace ws:<slug>:read / ws:<slug>:write. Every token carries a scope set; MCP and REST enforce it on every call.

• Workspaces: isolated namespaces (e.g. acme-prod, acme-labs, personal). Units, links, traces, and activity are stored and queried inside one workspace only. Users are members with roles (owner / admin / member / reader).

• Tokens: PATs (amem_pat_*, signed, TTL + scope-capped) for agents/CLI; access tokens (amem_atk_*) from the OAuth flow; refresh tokens rotate on every use with replay detection.

• Posture: a workspace can only tighten (never loosen) the instance default, e.g. force auth on even if the instance runs open on localhost.

Full threat model, schema, and setup-wizard design: docs/AUTH_WORKSPACES.md.

Docs

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — design & layering

• docs/DATA_MODEL.md — graph schema

• docs/API.md — REST API

• docs/MCP_TOOLS.md — MCP tools

• docs/AUTH_WORKSPACES.md — OAuth / PAT / scopes / workspaces

• docs/CODEX.md — Codex integration + Stop hook setup

• docs/DEPLOYMENT.md — Docker / compose / config reference

• docs/DEVELOPMENT.md — build, test, run

• docs/BENCHMARK.md — OmniMemEval / LoCoMo results + real-store recall eval

• docs/TENCENTDB_REFERENCE.md — design reference vs TencentDB memory engine

• docs/OPERATIONS.md — backup / restore / upgrade / monitoring

Self-contained HTML evaluation reports: docs/bench-report-amem-v3.html (LoCoMo run) and docs/eval-recall-report.html (real-store recall eval).

Security: SECURITY.md (threat model + hardening checklist). Community: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md · CONTRIBUTING.md. Releases: CHANGELOG.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, testing guidelines, and the PR process.

License

MIT