Stale facts
The agent keeps citing an old stack or a decision you reversed. Palimem records a new value and supersedes the old one instead of leaving both in the retrieval set.
Memory with layers.
Truth on top.
Local memory for coding agents. Facts supersede instead of pile up. Scoped recall, audit export, MCP stdio. Runs on your machine.
What goes wrong with append-only memory
Common failure modes in long-running agent sessions.
Scope bleed
User notes, session scratch, and repo facts use separate scopes so search does not mix contexts.
No audit trail
Point-in-time recall and audit export show what was current when, not only what ranks first today.
Core behavior
Specified in spec v1.7.0 and covered by the validation suite.
01
Correct by design
Supersession on write, structured subject keys, and dependent-field propagation — updates stay consistent without a nightly consolidation gamble.
02Scoped recall
User, session, and repository scopes keep context where it belongs. Optional subject filters reduce same-field pollution.
03Connect anywhere
Plugin, MCP, or SDK — Palimem meets you where you code. Examples for Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and Codex. Adapters for Hermes and OpenClaw.
04Audit-ready
Temporal queries, as_of recall, PII scan, retention controls,
and audit export — for teams that need to show their work.
Connect your harness
Palimem meets you where you code — plugin, MCP, or adapter. Example configs in the repo; no cloud account required.
MCP stdio
Claude Code
Recommended path. Run ai-memory connect claude-code or paste the committed MCP config — smoke-tested in CI.
Spec and tests
Open source under Apache-2.0.
v1.7.0
Published spec
138/138
Validation behaviors
11
MCP tools in spec
Apache-2.0
Open-source license
Frequently asked questions
Is Palimem a vector database?
No. Palimem stores governed records and rebuildable lexical indexes. Embeddings are optional; the default path does not require a vector database.
Do I need a cloud account?
No. Data stays in SQLite on disk under your project or home directory. Connect via MCP stdio or the bundled adapters.
Do I need MCP?
No. MCP is the easiest path for Claude Code and Cursor. Palimem also runs as a Python service with adapters for Hermes and OpenClaw. A REST API for platform integrations is on the roadmap.
What editors are supported?
Claude Code (plugin and hooks), Cursor, Copilot CLI, Codex, Windsurf, Hermes, and OpenClaw. See docs/integrations for per-editor setup.
What is the current release status?
Spec v1.7.0 with 138 automated validation behaviors and integration smoke tests for the documented editors. Install from source today; npm and PyPI packages are not published yet.
Install from source
Apache-2.0. Local SQLite storage. MCP stdio server.