cortexdb

CortexDB

AI memory and a knowledge graph in one SQLite file. Pure Go, no service to run, works without an embedding model.

Install

Go library	go get github.com/liliang-cn/cortexdb/v2
Claude Code	/plugin marketplace add liliang-cn/cortexdb, then /plugin install cortexdb@cortexdb
Codex	codex plugin marketplace add liliang-cn/cortexdb && codex plugin add cortexdb@cortexdb
Claude Code mod (optional)	/plugin install cortexdb-live@cortexdb
DeepSeek Harness	dsh plugin --profile web add "github:liliang-cn/cortexdb#semver:^2&path:/plugins/dsh-cortexdb-memory" (guide)
Obsidian	unzip a release's cortexdb-obsidian.zip into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/ (guide)
Shared-brain server	go install github.com/liliang-cn/cortexdb/v2/cmd/cortexdb-grpc@latest
Clients	cargo add cortexdb-client · pip install cortexdb-client · npm install cortexdb-client

Use

db, _ := cortexdb.Open(cortexdb.DefaultConfig("brain.db"))
defer db.Close()
brain := db.KnowledgeMemory()
_, _ = brain.Remember(ctx, cortexdb.KnowledgeMemoryRememberRequest{Content: "Alice prefers tabs.", Scope: "user"})
rec, _ := brain.Recall(ctx, cortexdb.KnowledgeMemoryRecallRequest{Query: "what does Alice prefer?"})
fmt.Println(rec.ContextPack.Text)

The plugin gives Claude Code and Codex one global brain at ~/.cortexdb/cortexdb.db, /remember, /recall and an auto-recall hook. A session starts with an index of what the brain knows about its project, an agent about to open a file is told what happened to it before, and a session's durable facts are captured with <private> text and credentials kept out. Point several agents or machines at one cortexdb-grpc and they share the same memory and graph.

In Codex, review and trust the plugin hooks in /hooks to activate automatic recall. See the plugin guide for setup and cortexdb-mcp --doctor --self-test diagnostics (v2.119.0+).

Claude Code mod

cortexdb-live is an optional mod that runs inside Claude Code on top of the cortexdb plugin. Install it after the plugin:

/plugin install cortexdb-live@cortexdb

The mod calls three of the plugin's tools itself, and a hook gets no permission prompt, so allow them once in ~/.claude/settings.json (not needed in bypass mode):

"permissions": {
  "allow": [
    "mcp__plugin_cortexdb_cortexdb__knowledge_memory_recall",
    "mcp__plugin_cortexdb_cortexdb__graph_statistics",
    "mcp__plugin_cortexdb_cortexdb__memory_save"
  ]
}

Without them the status line names the missing rules.

• Planned recall. Before the brain is searched, haiku turns each prompt into keywords in Chinese and English, aliases, entity names and a retrieval mode. A bare "ok" or "go ahead" searches nothing. The band above the prompt shows what was recalled; expand it to see the plan and every hit. Hide lasts until the next recall; /cortexdb-show brings the hidden one back.
• Status line. Which brain the session uses, its node count and the last recall's time, or why the brain can't be reached.
• Capture. 90 seconds after a session goes idle, haiku distils the new part of the conversation into durable memories (auto:<session>:<slug>). Each later pass replaces a memory under the same slug rather than adding a copy. Older memories a new one makes untrue (a host moved, a decision reversed) are marked superseded: kept, but no longer recalled as current.

Haiku runs on Claude Code's own model access, so no API key is needed. Language: /config → cortexdb-live → language (auto, zh, en). The mod honours the plugin's own switches: cortexdb-recall --disable and cortexdb-session-end --disable turn recall and capture off for both. While the mod runs, the plugin's shell recall and capture hooks stand down, so nothing is done twice. Codex keeps those hooks. Mods are an early-access Claude Code feature (built against 2.1.290).

What's inside

• Vectors (HNSW, IVF, flat, binary codes), FTS5 full-text search, hybrid and graph retrieval
• EmbeddedConfig for small devices: an SQ8 index, bounded SQLite caches, snapshots that survive a power cut — 100k 768-d vectors open in 0.28 s with a 193 MB heap
• RAG knowledge, scoped agent memory, context packs with sources
• RDF 1.2 knowledge graph: SPARQL 1.1/1.2, RDFS + OWL 2 RL inference, SHACL Core + SHACL-SPARQL, RDF/XML import — passing the W3C test suites — and read-only Cypher
• Palantir-style ontology with governed actions
• 80+ tools, in-process or over MCP
• serve_graph_3d: a live 3D view to find, ask, query and expand, on desktop or phone — or the same brain as a library, each memory a book on its project's shelf
• import_agent_memory: bring in what Claude Code, Codex and DeepSeek Harness already remember — memory notes, CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md, Codex's memories, and optionally past sessions distilled into memories — into a local or shared brain
• Change feed: every committed write, in order, exactly once
• SQLite by default, PostgreSQL + pgvector with a postgres:// DSN

Environment

Variable	Meaning
CORTEXDB_PATH	Database file (default ~/.cortexdb/cortexdb.db)
CORTEXDB_REMOTE	Use a shared cortexdb-grpc at host:port (plaintext) or https://host (TLS, behind a proxy) instead of a local file
CORTEXDB_GRPC_TOKEN	Bearer token for that server
CORTEXDB_GRPC_ADDR	Server listen address (default 127.0.0.1:47821)
CORTEXDB_EMBED_BASE_URL	OpenAI-compatible embeddings endpoint; unset = lexical mode
CORTEXDB_EMBED_MODEL / CORTEXDB_EMBED_DIM	Embedding model and dimension
CORTEXDB_SLOW_MS	Server: log calls slower than this, with the time each stage took (default 1000, 0 = none)
CORTEXDB_TRACE / CORTEXDB_TRACE_FILE	Server: log every call; also append the records to a JSON-lines file

Docs

Website · Guide (full feature reference) · Examples · Changelog · 中文

License

MIT