claude-mem
Remembers what happened in past sessions and brings it back when it matters.
What claude-mem does
Every Claude Code session normally starts from zero. claude-mem changes that: it watches the tools Claude uses, writes compressed summaries of what happened, and injects the relevant ones at the start of later sessions. You can also search that history in plain language.
It is a plugin rather than a single skill. Lifecycle hooks capture activity, a local worker service stores it in SQLite with a Chroma vector index for search, and a mem-search skill plus four MCP tools let Claude look things up. A local web viewer shows the memory stream as it is written.
Use it when
- You work on the same project across many sessions and keep re-explaining decisions.
- You want to ask "what did we change in the auth flow last week?" and get an answer with references.
- You switch between Claude Code and other harnesses and want shared history.
Skip it when
- Your sessions are one-off tasks with nothing worth carrying over.
- You cannot install Node.js 20 or allow a background worker on the machine.
How it works
- Hooks fire at session start, on each prompt, before and after each tool call, and at the end of the session.
- A worker summarises what happened into observations and stores them locally in SQLite.
- At the start of the next session, relevant observations are injected as context.
- Searches use three steps to save tokens: a compact index first, then a timeline around interesting results, then full details only for the IDs that matter. The project estimates roughly ten times fewer tokens than fetching everything.
How to install claude-mem
Claude Code
npx claude-mem installRestart Claude Code afterwards.
Claude Code (plugin marketplace)
/plugin marketplace add thedotmack/claude-mem
/plugin install claude-memOpenCode, T3 Code, Antigravity and others
npx claude-mem install --ide opencodeOther values include t3code, antigravity and pi.
npm install -g claude-mem installs only the library, not the hooks. The installer asks you to sign in for a hosted memory observer with a 30-day free trial; after the trial, memory runs on your own Anthropic plan unless you subscribe. To skip sign-in, pass an explicit --provider flag or set CLAUDE_MEM_ONLINE_OPTIN=false.
Prompts to try
- What did we decide about the payment webhook retries?
- Search memory for the bug we fixed in the login form
- Show me everything we changed in the billing module this week
Tips and gotchas
- Wrap anything sensitive in <private> tags and it is excluded from storage.
- Settings live in ~/.claude-mem/settings.json; set CLAUDE_MEM_MODE to code--zh or code--ja for Chinese or Japanese observations.
- On Windows, make sure Node.js and npm are on your PATH, then restart the terminal after installing.
- Open the web viewer (its address is printed when the worker starts) to see exactly what is being stored.
FAQ
Is claude-mem free?
The software is open source under Apache-2.0. The optional hosted observer has a 30-day free trial and then a subscription; without it, memory processing uses your own Anthropic plan or an OpenRouter or Gemini key.
Where is my memory stored?
Locally, in a SQLite database managed by the claude-mem worker. Optional cloud sync to the project's service exists but is not required.
Can I keep secrets out of memory?
Yes. Content inside <private> tags is not stored.
Is claude-mem a skill or a plugin?
A plugin. It bundles hooks, a worker service, MCP tools and a mem-search skill.
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claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-officialThis page summarises the project's own README.md and README, checked on 2026-10-16. Star count from GitHub on 2026-10-16. Commands change between releases, so check the repository if one fails. Written by Skillary; not affiliated with Alex Newman (thedotmack). See how we review skills.