cortex

Repo-local cognitive memory for AI agents. Gives Claude Code, OpenCode, and other AI coding agents persistent, self-improving memory per project — plus a global memory layer that carries your preferences across all projects.

Install

# From source
cargo install --path .

# Or from crates.io (once published)
cargo install cortex

# Or download a release binary from GitHub
# https://github.com/thrashr888/cortex/releases

Quick Start

# Initialize in any project
cd /path/to/your/project
cortex init

# Save learnings during work
cortex save "Always use eager loading for UserList queries" --type pattern
cortex save "Fixed race condition in upload handler" --type bugfix
cortex save "Chose SQLite over Postgres for simplicity" --type decision

# Search memories (includes global knowledge automatically)
cortex recall "performance"
cortex recall "upload" --limit 5

# Check stats
cortex stats

How It Works

Cortex uses a two-database architecture inspired by how human memory works:

• raw.db (gitignored) — Fast episodic memory. Every observation saved during work.
• consolidated.db (committed) — Long-term memory. Merged patterns, resolved contradictions, high-confidence learnings.
• skills/ (committed) — Auto-generated markdown skill files from consolidated patterns.

Global Memory

Cortex automatically maintains a system-wide memory at ~/.cortex/ for knowledge that applies across all projects — your name, preferred languages, tools, coding style, and workflow habits.

How it works: You don't need to do anything special. During sleep consolidation, the LLM identifies personal preferences and cross-project patterns and automatically promotes them to ~/.cortex/. Recall and context transparently search both project and global memory.

# Save something to any project
cortex save "I prefer Rust and Go for CLI tools" --type preference

# Sleep consolidates — the LLM promotes cross-project knowledge to global
cortex sleep

# From ANY project, global knowledge shows up automatically
cortex recall "prefer"
# → [global] Language preference: Rust and Go for CLI tools

cortex context
# → includes both project patterns and global knowledge

Global dream runs automatically (nightly) to find deeper patterns across your global knowledge. You can also trigger it manually:

cortex sleep --global    # Consolidate global store explicitly
cortex dream --global    # Deep reflection on global knowledge
cortex stats --global    # View global stats only

Three Modes

Wake — Session start. Catches up any unconsolidated memories from interrupted sessions.

cortex wake

Sleep — Consolidation. Micro (SQL-only, instant) or Quick (1 LLM call, ~10s). Automatically promotes cross-project knowledge to global.

cortex sleep --micro    # Dedup + decay, no LLM, instant
cortex sleep            # LLM-powered: consolidate, promote globals, generate skills

Dream — Deep reflection. Cross-session pattern mining, meta-learning.

cortex dream

CLI Reference

Command	Description
cortex init	Initialize .cortex/ in current directory
cortex save <text> --type <type>	Save a memory (types: bugfix, decision, pattern, preference, observation)
cortex recall <query>	FTS5 search across project + global memory
cortex stats [--global]	Memory health (counts, last sleep)
cortex sleep [--micro] [--global]	Run consolidation
cortex dream [--global]	Deep reflection (2-3 LLM calls)
cortex wake	Session start catch-up + context output
cortex context [--compact]	Output memory context for prompt injection
cortex mcp	Start MCP stdio server

Add --json to recall and stats for JSON output. Use --dir <path> to target a different project.

MCP Server

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortex": {
      "command": "cortex",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Exposes 5 tools: cortex_save, cortex_recall, cortex_context, cortex_sleep, cortex_stats. All tools automatically include global memory — recall and context blend both stores, and sleep promotes cross-project patterns to global.

Claude Code Hooks

Add to .claude/hooks/hooks.json for automatic consolidation:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [{ "command": "cortex sleep --quick", "timeout": 15000 }],
    "SubagentStop": [{ "command": "cortex sleep --micro", "timeout": 5000 }]
  }
}

Configuration

.cortex/config.toml:

[consolidation]
auto_micro_threshold = 10    # Auto micro-sleep after N saves
decay_threshold = 0.1        # Remove low-value consolidated memories
model = "claude-haiku-4-5"  # Model for sleep/dream LLM calls

Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for direct API access, or use AWS credentials (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID/AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY/AWS_SESSION_TOKEN env vars or ~/.aws/credentials) for Bedrock. Without LLM credentials, only micro sleep (SQL-only) works.

What Gets Committed

Path	Git	Purpose
.cortex/consolidated.db	committed	Long-term learned patterns
.cortex/skills/*.md	committed	Auto-generated skill files
.cortex/config.toml	committed	Settings
.cortex/raw.db	gitignored	Ephemeral session observations
~/.cortex/	n/a	Global cross-project memory

Architecture

Session start → cortex wake (catch up if needed, blend global context)
  ↓
Working... cortex save × N (micro sleep at threshold)
  ↓
Session end → cortex sleep --quick (consolidate + auto-promote to global)
  ↓
Nightly → auto global dream (cross-project pattern mining)

~1000 LOC Rust. SQLite + FTS5 for storage, Anthropic API for consolidation, JSON-RPC for MCP.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.