basic-memory

Skip the install — try Basic Memory in the cloud

Claude, Codex, or Cursor connected in 30 seconds. No Python, no JSON, no terminal. $15.00/mo locked in for life (12.50/mo yearly pricing). 7-day free trial — cancel any time before day 7 if it's not for you. Beta pricing — sign up now and your rate never goes up. OSS users: code BMFOSS takes another 20% off for 3 months.

Start free trial →

Basic Memory Teams is now available!

Give your team a single, shared cloud workspace. Knowledge isn't confined to one person — anything a teammate writes is immediately available to everyone else and to their AI assistants. Edit a note together in real time, hand work off between humans and agents, and build one connected knowledge base instead of scattered copies. Same pricing - start with one user and add more as needed.

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Basic Memory

Your AI never forgets again.

Pick up right where you left off — in Claude, Codex, Cursor, ChatGPT, or anything that speaks MCP. Your knowledge lives as Markdown files that both you and your AI can read, write, and search.

• Local-first. Plain text on your disk. Forever.
• Two-way. AI and humans write to the same files; sync keeps them in step.
• A real knowledge graph. Observations and wikilinks compound into context.
• Semantic search. Find notes by meaning, not just keywords, with optional cross-encoder reranking for higher-quality vector and hybrid results.
• MCP-native. Works with every major AI client and IDE.
• Progressive tool discovery. Every tool is tagged with behavior hints (read-only, destructive, idempotent) so agents pick the right tool on demand — no wasted context trying things to see what they do.
• Cloud, optional. Sync across devices when you want — never required.

Get started

Pick the path that fits you. Both run the same product on the same Markdown.

30 seconds. Sign up, connect your AI client, done.

• Works in any browser
• Mobile, web, desktop
• Cross-device sync built in
• We handle hosting, backups, snapshots

$15.00/mo locked for life · 7-day free trial · cancel any time

Start free trial →

2 minutes. Install, configure your AI client, run.

• Free forever (AGPL-3.0)
• All data on your disk
• Air-gapped friendly
• Requires Python via uv

uv tool install basic-memory --prerelease=allow

--prerelease=allow is required: Basic Memory 0.23 depends on a FastMCP 4 pre-release, and uv only accepts pre-releases of transitive dependencies when told to — without the flag it silently installs an older release. The same flag goes on every uvx / uv tool upgrade command below.

For Postgres deployments that store semantic vectors in Milvus, install the first-party optional extra instead:

uv tool install "basic-memory[milvus]" --prerelease=allow

Configure your client ↓

What people are saying

Basic Memory changed my whole relationship with LLMs. I switched from GPT and Gemini to exclusively Claude and Claude Code because of this integration and am completely revamping all our company's processes around a Basic Memory workflow.

— Alex, TrainerDay

Basic Memory is the missing 'wow' factor in AI chatbots. Now I can't imagine Claude or Claude Code without it.

— Caleb, Caleb Picker Consulting

I don't code without Basic Memory anymore. It's such a time saver to be able to refer to projects I don't currently have active and keep a running log of all my learnings and ProTips.

— @groksrc, Developer

More on basicmemory.com.

Basic Memory Cloud

The hosted version of Basic Memory. Same product, same Markdown files, same MCP tools — we just host the database, run the sync, and put it on your phone.

What you get

• Every device, same brain. Your knowledge graph on web, mobile, and desktop. No copy-paste between machines.
• Connect any MCP client. Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, ChatGPT (Custom GPTs), VS Code — one-click connect from the web app.
• Bidirectional sync to local. Edit on your phone, see it in Obsidian on your laptop. rclone-powered with conflict resolution.
• Snapshots and backups. Point-in-time restore. Browse history. Never lose a note.
• No lock-in. Your notes are plain Markdown. Export to local Markdown any time — same files, same format, same wikilinks. Cancel anytime, your data stays yours.

Built on WorkOS AuthKit, Neon Postgres, and Tigris S3.

Pricing

$15.00/mo, locked in for the life of your subscription (regular price $19). Sign up during beta and the rate never goes up — as long as you stay subscribed, you keep the price. One plan, no tiers, no surprise upgrades. Unlimited notes, unlimited projects, every feature.

• 7-day free trial. Cancel any time before day 7 if it's not for you.
• Cancel anytime after that too — export your notes whenever you want.
• OSS users: code BMFOSS for another 20% off for 3 months (~$11.40/mo).

Start your 7-day free trial →

Cloud vs. local

	Cloud	Local
Setup time	30 seconds	2 minutes (requires Python)
Cost	$15.00/mo, locked for life (7-day trial)	Free
Storage	We host (Tigris S3)	Your disk
Cross-device sync	Built in	Manual (Git, Syncthing, etc.)
Mobile access	Yes (web + app)	No
Air-gapped	No	Yes
Your data stays yours	Yes — export anytime	Yes — already there
Source code	AGPL-3.0	AGPL-3.0
Snapshots & backups	Built in	Roll your own

Both paths use the same OSS engine and the same Markdown files. There's no lock-in either way — flip between them when your needs change.

Works with the tools you already use

Client	Transport	Notes
Cloud web app	https	Sign in at basicmemory.com — no install
Claude Desktop	stdio/https	macOS / Windows / Linux
Claude Code	stdio/https	claude mcp add
Codex	stdio/https	OpenAI's coding agent
Cursor	stdio/https	.cursor/mcp.json
VS Code	stdio/https	Native MCP support
ChatGPT	https	Custom GPT actions (search / fetch)
Obsidian	—	Reads/writes the same Markdown directly
Anything MCP	stdio/https	If it speaks MCP, it works

Official agent packages

This repository is also the canonical home for Basic Memory's host-native agent packages. The core Python package, Claude Code plugin, shared skills, Hermes plugin, and OpenClaw plugin all ship from the same source tree.

Maintainers can verify the whole consolidated surface from the repo root:

just package-check

Package-local justfiles are also available when working inside one host:

just package-check-claude-code
just package-check-skills
just package-check-hermes
just package-check-openclaw

Claude Code plugin

The Claude Code plugin is the bridge between Claude's working memory and Basic Memory — session-start briefings, pre-compaction checkpoints, an opt-in capture output style, and /basic-memory:bm-setup · :remember · :share · :status.

Connect the Basic Memory MCP server first — see Connect your AI client. The plugin's hooks and skills call it, so it's a hard prerequisite. Then install the plugin:

bm install claude-code

That registers the marketplace and installs the plugin through Claude Code. Add --scope project to declare both in the repository's settings for a team, or --dry-run to see the underlying claude plugin commands without running them.

Source: plugins/claude-code.

Shared skills

Framework-agnostic SKILL.md files live in skills/. If your Skills CLI supports repository subdirectory sources:

npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills

If your installed Skills CLI cannot load that source, update the CLI or copy the memory-* directories from skills/ into your agent's skills directory.

Hermes

Hermes keeps its native plugin shape under integrations/hermes:

hermes plugins install basicmachines-co/basic-memory/integrations/hermes

Hermes does not install a plugin's Python dependencies, so also add the mcp package to the Hermes venv — see the plugin README for that step and the supported Hermes releases.

OpenClaw

OpenClaw stays package-native and publishes from integrations/openclaw:

openclaw plugins install @basicmemory/openclaw-basic-memory

Pick up where you left off

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a55d8238-8dd0-454a-be4c-8860dbbd0ddc

Connect your AI client

If you went the Cloud route, the web app walks you through client connect. The snippets below are for local installs.

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "basic-memory": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--prerelease=allow", "basic-memory", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Notes live in ~/basic-memory by default.

Claude Code

claude mcp add basic-memory -- uvx --prerelease=allow basic-memory mcp

For the full memory bridge — session briefings, pre-compaction checkpoints, and the /basic-memory:* commands — also install the Claude Code plugin on top of this.

Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.basic-memory]
command = "uvx"
args = ["--prerelease=allow", "basic-memory", "mcp"]

Codex can keep its default MCP approval behavior, or you can pre-approve eligible Basic Memory tools by adding this server-scoped setting to the same table:

[mcp_servers.basic-memory]
command = "uvx"
args = ["--prerelease=allow", "basic-memory", "mcp"]
default_tools_approval_mode = "approve"

This does not disable Codex approvals globally or expand which Basic Memory