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One memory. Every AI tool. Yours to keep. Local-first, MCP-compatible, Apache 2.0.
Tell AI once how you work. piia-engram stores your identity, standards, lessons, decisions, and project context as local files you own. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, and MCP-compatible tools can start from the same approved context. AI proposes; high-risk items wait for your review, and everything stays visible and reversible. No cloud account, no vendor lock-in, no hidden memory you cannot inspect.
cross-tool memory | local-first | Claude Code | Codex | Cursor | Windsurf | MCP
TL;DR: piia-engram is a local-first personal AI identity layer. It helps multiple coding agents start from the same understanding of you: your preferences, quality bar, lessons learned, decisions, and project context. It is not an agent memory database; it is the user-owned layer above your tools.
Why not just use native memory? Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Windsurf are adding their own memories and rules. Those are useful, but they are scoped to one tool or workspace. piia-engram gives you one portable identity layer above them: local files you own, AI-proposed knowledge you review, and context that can follow you across tools.
Trust model in four lines:
pip, keep the core store on your machine.~/.engram/ as JSON/Markdown.Want proof? See the live cross-tool continuity proof — a memory written by Claude Code, read back by Codex through one local store — or the one-command reproducible code demo.
pip install piia-engram && engram setup
The wizard auto-detects your AI tools — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Claude Desktop — lists the exact config files it will touch, and writes the MCP connection after a one-keystroke confirm (every write is backed up first; decline and nothing changes). It previews your identity card, then you restart your configured tool; the first conversation can load your approved context through startup or search tools. (full walkthrough ↓)
Your AI forgets you every time you switch tools or start a new chat. piia-engram fixes the handoff.
Every time you open a new chat window, switch from Claude Code to Codex, update your AI tool, or move into a different project, you're back to zero:
This happens because AI memory today is locked inside each platform. It belongs to the tool, not to you. The tool updates, resets, or gets replaced — and your context disappears with it.
piia-engram gives you a personal identity layer that lives on your machine, independent of any AI tool. You tell it once who you are, how you work, and what you've learned. MCP-compatible tools can read the same approved context. New chat, new tool, new version — your identity stays portable.
piia-engram is not an agent memory database. Tools like Mem0, Zep, and Letta store task context and session history for AI agents. piia-engram stores who you are as a person — your identity, preferences, hard-won lessons, and key decisions. It's a different layer: not what happened in a task, but who is behind every task.
| Without piia-engram | With piia-engram |
|---|---|
| New chat window = start from zero | Configured conversations can load your approved context |
| AI tool updates and your preferences vanish | Your identity lives on your machine, survives any update |
| Switching tools loses accumulated context | Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor read the same memory |
| Past mistakes get repeated | Lessons learned follow you across tools and sessions |
| Memory is locked inside one product | Data stays local, editable, and portable |
piia-engram is built for developers who use multiple AI coding tools and are tired of re-explaining themselves.
If you switch between Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor — your code standards, architecture decisions, and hard-won lessons reset every time. piia-engram makes every tool start from the same understanding of who you are.
If you open 10+ AI chat windows a week — each one starts from zero. piia-engram lets each conversation start from the same approved identity and knowledge context.
If you've lost preferences after a tool update — your identity lives on your machine, not inside any platform. Updates, resets, and migrations don't touch your memory.
Investment analysts Decisions get made but reasoning gets lost. piia-engram stores the full reasoning chain so six months later, "why did I pass on that?" has a real answer — and your analytical framework travels with you across every new analysis.
System architects Architecture decisions need context: what you chose, what you ruled out, and why. piia-engram keeps living Architecture Decision Records that travel with you across companies and projects, queryable by any AI tool.
Backend developers API quirks, integration gotchas, performance trade-offs — tacit knowledge that normally lives in your head and resets when you change jobs. piia-engram turns it into a searchable library that persists across everything.
Frontend and design Design philosophy rarely gets documented in a way AI tools can use. piia-engram stores your real standards, UX lessons from real users, and the reasoning behind component decisions — so every project starts where your last one ended.
Vibe coders You build with AI and move fast. The problem: every new session your AI starts from scratch — different style choices, inconsistent patterns, re-explaining the same preferences. piia-engram makes every tool consistent from session one: your stack, your patterns, your voice, already there.
All data lives under ~/.engram/ as plain JSON and Markdown files you can open, edit, back up, or migrate yourself.
Most memory tools are passive — you put things in, they give them back. piia-engram is also active.
Knowledge inheritance across projects
Describe a new project in plain text. get_knowledge_inheritance returns a curated starter pack of the most relevant lessons and decisions from everything you have ever worked on. Your tenth project benefits from all nine before it — one tool call away.
Passive knowledge capture
Paste a session summary into extract_session_insights and piia-engram extracts and stores the lessons and decisions. No manual note-taking. Knowledge accumulates through normal AI conversations.
Works with tools that do not support MCP
ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi — get_identity_card exports a ready-to-paste Markdown identity card. Your context travels even to tools that cannot connect directly.
Automatic playbook extraction
Finish a multi-step workflow — release to PyPI, deploy to Cloudflare, publish to MCP Registry — and piia-engram detects it at session end. It generates a structured draft playbook (steps, pitfalls, trigger keywords) and saves it to a staging area. Next time you do the same task, the AI can retrieve the confirmed playbook as a passive reference, walk through the steps with you, and record the outcome. No manual recording required — Engram starts the draft, you confirm, the host AI stays accountable. See Playbook Auto-Extraction below.
Local tools registry
AI tools constantly search for local programs, runtimes, and CLIs. register_tool records what's installed and where; find_tool retrieves it instantly. No more which python every session — the environment map persists across tools and conversations.
Knowledge health and discovery
get_knowledge_overview surfaces stale lessons (not reviewed in 30+ days), computes a 0–100 health score across four dimensions (freshness, quality, coverage, cleanliness), and flags gaps worth revisiting. suggest_merges scans your entire knowledge base for near-duplicates and returns actionable merge commands. link_knowledge connects related lessons and decisions into a navigable knowledge graph.
pip install piia-engram
engram setup
New to piia-engram? See the fuller first-value quickstart for the install -> first memory -> fresh-session recall path using only the default 17 core tools. Host-specific setup cards are available for Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. For proposal-only safe-context, replay, freshness/conflict, and evidence drafts, see Context governance.
The setup wizard will:
~/.engram, another drive, or a custom path)CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules filesengram setup --advanced), show your optional privacy preferences (cross-tool sync, anonymous statistics)After setup writes the MCP connection (you confirm at the prompt first), restart your AI tool. Many clients can call get_user_context at startup; when a host does not do that proactively, an explicit search_knowledge or get_resume_brief call is still the expected L2 path.
For non-interactive or CI runs, skip the confirmation prompt and write directly:
engram setup --apply-external-config
Either way, every external config write is backed up under the selected Engram data folder, and declining the prompt leaves every external config untouched.
Check health anytime:
engram status # redacted install + memory health summary
engram status --html # write a local redacted status page
engram continuity # metadata-only proof that cross-tool handoff is ready
engram management # metadata-only review/playbook management view
engram doctor # diagnose all tools
engram doctor --fix # auto-repair issues + inject missing instructions
engram repair-encoding # dry-run scan for garbled / mojibake text
engram repair-encoding --apply # repair reversible cases with a backup
engram continuity is metadata-only: it reports saved-session counts, contributing tools, resume-brief readiness, and aggregate context-load / wrap-up signals without printing memory bodies, raw telemetry events, session IDs, or local paths.
For a machine-readable synthetic loop proof, run:
python demos/cross_tool_continuity_demo.py --json
engram continuity reports readiness metadata. The demo JSON proves an isolated write -> resume -> search -> provenance loop using synthetic data only.
For broader release evidence, run the synthetic MCIC benchmark:
python demos/mcic_benchmark.py --json
MCIC v1 contains 10 purpose-labeled continuity scenarios covering explicit recall, implicit personalization signals, false-premise guard signals, public action boundaries, version-chain HEAD selection, negative control, and provenance. Its claim is narrow: Engram makes the right signal available to the next client; live model compliance still needs separate A/B testing.
piia-engram treats trust claims as release artifacts, not marketing copy:
| Claim | Public evidence | What it proves | Boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory retrieval stays measurable | docs/trust-evidence.md, docs/benchmarks/memory-eval-suite-v1.md, python scripts/run_memory_evals.py | Recall/admission fixtures pass deterministic, knowledge-ID-scored checks with no LLM judge | Synthetic regression floor, not a broad live-agent benchmark |
| Public numbers do not drift silently | python scripts/check_public_fact_sync.py and python scripts/check_public_claim_drift.py | README / registry / architecture facts match docs/public-facts.json | Historical CHANGELOG and release-evidence/ keep old release facts |
| Security and privacy wording stays consistent | python scripts/check_public_trust_claims.py | Network, telemetry, endpoint, plaintext, and optional-encryption statements stay aligned across public docs | Prose consistency guard, not a third-party security audit |
| Releases cannot skip evidence | release-evidence/README.md, python scripts/check_release_gate.py | Each release records tests, sanitize, allowlist, package, artifact scan, eval, and review markers | Evidence files are factual summaries, not private review logs |
Release evidence index: release-evidence/README.md. Each tagged release records a matching release-evidence/v<version>.md file.
# Guided setup; confirms before writing external client configs (backed up first)
engram setup
# Skip the confirmation prompt for non-interactive/CI runs
engram setup --apply-external-config
# Or manual:
claude mcp add piia-engram -- piia-engram-mcp
Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"command": "piia-engram-mcp",
"args": ["--transport", "stdio"]
}
}
}
Compatible fallback if console scripts are not on PATH:
{
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "piia_engram.mcp_server"]
}
Add to ~/.codex/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "piia_engram.mcp_server"]
}
}
}
Plugin manifest note (Codex CLI 0.130.0+): piia-engram ships a
.claude-plugin/plugin.jsonwhose schema is also recognized by Codex CLI. Native one-command plugin install via Codex's marketplace flow isn't supported yet (Codex expects a multi-plugin marketplace manifest at the repo root, which would conflict with the single-plugin manifest used by other tools). For now, configure Codex via the~/.codex/mcp.jsonsnippet above — it's the supported path and works on every Codex version.
Add to claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "piia_engram.mcp_server"]
}
}
}
Any tool that supports MCP over stdio works. Use this config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "piia_engram.mcp_server"]
}
}
}
For tools without MCP support (ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi): run get_identity_card in any MCP tool and paste the exported Markdown card into your chat.
engram setup detects Trae (~/.trae/mcp.json) and Tencent CodeBuddy (~/.codebuddy/mcp.json) without changing those files by default. To let Engram write those standard mcpServers files for you, run engram setup --apply-external-config; the previous file is backed up under your selected Engram data folder first.
Tongyi Lingma (通义灵码), Baidu Comate (文心快码), and Qoder manage MCP servers through their in-app MCP panel (or a project-level config), so the wizard can't write them for you. Open the tool's MCP settings and paste:
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "piia_engram.mcp_server"]
}
}
}
Zero-install alternative (no prior pip install needed) — set "command": "uvx" and "args": ["--from", "piia-engram", "piia-engram-mcp"]. They all speak the same standard MCP-over-stdio protocol.
You → "Help me refactor this auth module"
# WITHOUT piia-engram: AI starts from scratch
AI → "What language? What framework? What's your testing preference?"
# WITH piia-engram: AI can load your approved context
AI → "Based on your preference for pytest + 90% coverage, and your
lesson about always separating auth middleware from business
logic (from the March incident), here's my approach..."
After setup, run engram doctor to verify everything is connected:
$ engram doctor
Detected 3 AI tool(s):
[ok] Claude Code — Engram configured
[ok] Cursor — Engram configured
[ok] Codex — Engram configured
[ok] All configured tools look healthy.
── Functional Checks ──
[ok] piia_engram.core importable
[ok] Engram initialized (~/.engram)
[ok] Identity loaded (role: Senior Backend Developer)
[ok] quick_context.md ready (4096 bytes)
[ok] MCP server: 17 tools registered
-- Terminal encoding --
[ok] stdout/stderr: utf-8 / utf-8
[ok] PYTHONIOENCODING not set (stdout/stderr already UTF-8)
[ok] Runtime encodings: preferred=UTF-8, filesystem=utf-8
-- Config Integrity --
[ok] MCP configs: 3/13 files found, 3 configured
[ok] Instruction files: 3/4 found, 3 fresh
[ok] Project rule files: 1 found
[ok] Shared instructions: 1 found
[ok] Claude hooks: 4/4 registered
[ok] Report is metadata-only (hashes + counts; no rule bodies)
-- Continuity --
[--] No saved agent sessions yet
Run an AI session, then wrap up or stop the tool to create one.
[ok] Resume brief builds (2 section(s))
pip install --upgrade piia-engram
After upgrading, piia-engram automatically migrates any stale MCP configs the next time its server starts (stdio mode). If your AI tool still shows an "MCP disconnected" error after restarting, run:
piia-engram doctor # show what's wrong
piia-engram doctor --fix # auto-repair and fix in one step
Then restart the affected AI tool. The doctor command checks Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, and community-supported MCP config locations, removes outdated server entries, and prints a metadata-only config integrity summary.
Run piia-engram on your own server and connect from anywhere.
# Install with remote support
pip install piia-engram[remote]
# Generate an auth token
python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))"
# Save the output, e.g. "abc123..."
# Start in SSE mode
ENGRAM_AUTH_TOKEN=abc123... python -m piia_engram.mcp_server --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8767
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"url": "http://your-server:8767/sse",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer abc123..."
}
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"url": "http://your-server:8767/sse",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer abc123..."
}
}
}
}
Security notes:
127.0.0.1 for localhost only. Use 0.0.0.0 only behind a reverse proxy.ENGRAM_CORS_ORIGINS to restrict cross-origin access (e.g. https://your-domain.com).piia-engram ships 87 MCP tools. By default, only the 17 Tier-1 Core tools are loaded to keep the AI's context clean. Core means "used in most sessions", not "read-only": some core tools write local memory or owner-gated export files, and the governance layer still gates those side effects. For the short operator view, see the MCP cheatsheet. To unlock all 87 tools, add ENGRAM_TOOLS=all to your MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"piia-engram": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "piia_engram.mcp_server"],
"env": { "ENGRAM_TOOLS": "all" }
}
}
}
Startup sync: Engram reconciles memories/config snippets from local AI tools when an MCP server starts. By default this runs in the background so stdio clients can initialize quickly. Set ENGRAM_MCP_STARTUP_SYNC=eager to restore synchronous startup sync, or ENGRAM_MCP_STARTUP_SYNC=off to skip startup sync for latency-sensitive test arms. ENGRAM_EPHEMERAL=1 also skips startup sync and migration work in container/ephemeral clients.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
get_user_context | Startup — Load identity + knowledge at session start (supports token_budget for context size control) |
wrap_up_session | Session end — Save insights + sync at session end |
memory_store | Writeback — Unified write endpoint: routes to add_lesson / add_decision / add_playbook by kind |
add_lesson | Store a reusable lesson learned |
add_decision | Record a key decision with reasoning |
add_playbook | Record an operational playbook (multi-step procedure with trigger keywords) |
search_knowledge | Retrieval — Search lessons, decisions, and playbooks (supports filters_json for domain/tier/date filtering) |
get_relevant_knowledge | Find knowledge relevant to current project |
get_recall | Return one structured identity + recent activity + relevant knowledge recall payload |
get_identity_card | Owner-gated export: write and return a Markdown identity card for non-MCP tools |
update_identity | Update profile, preferences, or quality standards |
get_project_context | Read a saved project snapshot |
save_project_snapshot | Persist project state for future sessions |
get_recent_context | Recover lost session context after restart |
get_daily_log | Read a human-friendly project timeline for a day |
get_resume_brief | Build a cross-session/cross-tool resume brief |
doctor | Run memory system self-diagnosis |
Advanced tools include optional local integrations, owner/admin surfaces, and maintenance helpers. Tools that export files, import whole stores, generate review pages, or mutate caller trust are owner/admin/export surfaces even when they are broadly useful product capabilities.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
register_tool | Optional local integration governed write: register a local tool, runtime, or CLI to the environment map |
find_tool | Optional local integration: look up a registered local tool by name |
list_tools | Optional local integration: list registered local tools (optionally filter by category) |
save_agent_context | Save AI session checkpoint (also runs automatically) |
list_agent_sessions | Browse saved session records across tools |
refresh_quick_context | Refresh local quick_context.md snapshot for offline/cross-tool use |
get_profile | Read user profile (safe=true by default) |
get_work_style | Deprecated compatibility read; prefer get_preferences |
get_preferences | Read communication and workflow preferences |
get_trust_boundaries | Read data access boundaries |
get_quality_standards | Read quality expectations |
preview_context_governance | Advanced owner-gated preview: build safe-context, freshness/conflict, replay, or evidence proposals without applying changes |
get_playbooks | List saved operational playbooks |
get_playbook | Get full content of a single playbook by ID |
get_recent_playbooks | List playbooks by most recent use |
update_playbook | Update playbook steps, triggers, or other fields |
archive_playbook | Archive a playbook that is no longer used |
prepare_playbook_execution | Prepare a guided step plan with parameter substitution (passive reference; no auto-execution) |
update_execution_step | Mark a step as completed, skipped, or failed |
get_execution_status | View step progress and outcome rollup for a playbook |
get_lessons | List reusable lessons learned |
get_decisions | List key decisions and reasons |
get_domains | Read domain experience stats |
get_knowledge_inheritance | Build cross-project knowledge starter pack |
list_projects | List saved project snapshots |
extract_session_insights | Extract lessons and decisions from session text |
bulk_add_knowledge | Add multiple lessons or decisions in one call |
ingest_notes | Parse free-form notes into structured knowledge |
update_knowledge | Update a lesson or decision by ID |
archive_knowledge | Archive a lesson or decision by ID |
review_knowledge | Mark a knowledge item as reviewed |
merge_knowledge | Merge a duplicate into the primary item |
link_knowledge | Create a bidirectional link between items |
unlink_knowledge | Remove a bidirectional knowledge link |
get_knowledge_overview | Knowledge digest, health report, stale checks |
get_related_knowledge | Follow links between knowledge items |
find_similar_knowledge | Find similar items by content |
suggest_merges | Scan for near-duplicates with actionable merge commands |
classify_legacy_playbooks | Owner maintenance: dry-run project/global/shared scope suggestions for older Playbooks |
apply_legacy_playbook_scope_suggestions | Owner maintenance: apply high-confidence legacy Playbook scope suggestions after confirmation |
rollback_playbook_scope_migration | Owner maintenance: roll back the latest Playbook scope migration |
get_playbook_scope_review_queue | Owner maintenance: list ambiguous Playbooks that need manual scope review |
resolve_playbook_scope_review | Owner maintenance: accept global, project, or shared scope for one Playbook review item |
list_playbooks_for_management | List Playbooks for management, including archived/deleted metadata |
delete_playbook | Soft-delete a Playbook after confirmation |
restore_playbook | Restore an archived or deleted Playbook |
get_stale_knowledge | List items that need review |
export_knowledge_report | Owner-gated export: write a readable Markdown knowledge report |
request_outline_review | Owner-gated export: generate an interactive local HTML review page |
apply_review | Process review results (promote/archive staging items) |
export_engram | Owner-gated export: write a full backup |
import_engram | Owner/admin import: use dry_run=True first for a metadata-only merge/conflict preview |
export_engram_to_openclaw | Owner-gated export: write OpenClaw-compatible files |
import_engram_from_openclaw | Owner/admin import: read OpenClaw-compatible files |
read_web_content | Optional local Reader integration: fetch a user-provided URL through the Reader service |
get_audit_log | Get recent audit log entries |
start_project | Start a project with inherited knowledge |
add_relation | Create a typed, directed relation between knowledge items (decision threads) |
remove_relation | Remove a typed relation (undo of add_relation) |
get_decision_thread | Reconstruct how a decision evolved step by step |
get_decision_history | Query the full revision history of a decision by question text |
get_permission_profile | View all callers' trust levels and access boundaries |
set_caller_trust | Owner/admin: set or change a caller's trust level |
revoke_caller | Owner/admin: revoke a caller's future access (forward-only) |
export_feedback_report | Internal/dogfood: generate an anonymous beta feedback report |
piia-engram can detect multi-step workflows you complete during a session and automatically draft structured playbooks — no manual recording required.
wrap_up_session or save_agent_context, piia-engram scans for procedural workflow signals: checkpoint steps, action verbs, and trigger keywords.required_tools declarations. Thin drafts remain reviewable, but carry machine-readable quality warnings.prepare_playbook_execution returns resolved_tools, tools_ready, and missing_tools at runtime so the host AI can see which local tools are available without storing resolved paths in the Playbook.search_knowledge matches the trigger keywords and returns the playbook as a passive reference. The host AI walks through the steps with you and get_execution_status reports an outcome rollup (pending, partial, succeeded, or failed) instead of treating skipped steps as silent success.Playbook auto-extraction is not fully automatic. piia-engram detects the workflow and generates a rough draft — but the draft stays in staging until you explicitly confirm it. Once confirmed, AI tools can use the playbook as a governed, passive reference and record step outcomes; Engram does not silently execute the workflow for them. This keeps humans in the loop for quality control while eliminating the manual work of writing operational procedures.
| Level | Signal | AI Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| high | 3+ checkpoint steps from save_agent_context | AI notifies you: "Detected a reusable workflow, draft playbook generated." |
| medium | Text-based detection (trigger keywords + action verbs) | AI saves silently to staging, no notification. |
Before any draft is stored, piia-engram automatically redacts:
Bearer, sk-, ghp_, etc.)Users can disable or re-enable playbook auto-extraction at any time:
The AI calls update_identity(field="preferences", ...) to toggle playbook_auto_extract. Default is enabled.
You can always create playbooks manually with add_playbook, regardless of the auto-extraction setting. The kill switch only affects automatic detection during wrap_up_session.
~/.engram/
|-- schema_version.json
|-- identity/
| |-- profile.json
| |-- preferences.json
| |-- quality_standards.json
| `-- trust_boundaries.json
|-- knowledge/
| |-- lessons.json
| |-- decisions.json
| `-- domains.json
|-- playbooks/
| |-- _index.json
| `-- {playbook_id}.json
|-- tools/
| `-- registry.json
|-- projects/
| `-- {project_id}.json
|-- contexts/
| `-- {tool_name}/
| `-- {session_id}.md
|-- exports/
`-- compat/
`-- openclaw/
Everything lives in local JSON you own — inspect, edit, back up, or delete it directly. Three explicit export paths, each with a different boundary:
| Want | Tool | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| A portable card to paste into ChatGPT/Gemini/Kimi | get_identity_card | Curated Markdown: who you are, how you work, recent verified lessons/decisions. Excludes raw config-file knowledge and caps recent items. |
| A readable knowledge report | export_knowledge_report | Active lessons/decisions grouped by domain/month (Markdown). |
| A full local backup | export_engram / import_engram(dry_run=True) / engram import <backup.json> | The whole store as JSON. Treat the file as sensitive — it is a complete backup, including staging and labelled items. Preview imports first to see add/skip/conflict counts without writing data. |
| OpenClaw files | export_engram_to_openclaw | SOUL.md / MEMORY.md / USER.md. |
| A committable AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md digest | engram export-agents-md | Verified, non-sensitive lessons/decisions only, as a summary block. Staging and sensitive items are excluded by construction; refuses to overwrite an existing file. |
Exports are owner-gated when ENGRAM_GOVERNANCE=1 (see
docs/governance.md). There is no cloud copy and no hidden memory:
what you export is exactly what is on your disk.
Local data sovereignty. Backup and restore cover only the Engram directory
— engram backup-plan prints a metadata-only list of what to copy before an
upgrade (it reads no stored knowledge bodies and never reaches outside the
Engram root). For JSON backups, import_engram(..., dry_run=True) or
engram import <backup.json> returns a metadata-only merge plan with
add/skip/conflict counts before any write; --apply --yes is required to mutate
the local store. Same-summary lessons and same-question decisions with divergent
semantic fields are previewed as version-chain candidates; they are materialized
only when the owner explicitly runs
engram import <backup.json> --apply --yes --materialize-version-chain. Engram
never backs up, modifies, or deletes files in your project folders.
See docs/runbooks/setup-upgrade-safety.md.
Evidence levels follow the agent client validation runbook: L0/L1 means installed or wired, L2 means read/search behavior observed, L3 adds A/B behavior gain, L4 adds cross-client continuity, and L5 is public-safe reproducible evidence.
| Tool | Integration | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | MCP over stdio | L4 partial continuity proof (Claude Code -> Codex) |
| Codex | MCP over stdio | L4 partial continuity proof (Claude Code -> Codex) |
| Cursor | MCP over stdio | L2 setup/read-search evidence path |
| Claude Desktop | MCP over stdio | L1/L2 setup path; client-specific evidence pending |
| Windsurf | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| GitHub Copilot | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Cline | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Roo Code | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Amazon Q | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Augment | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Zed | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Trae | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| Tencent CodeBuddy | MCP over stdio | Expected to work |
| OpenClaw | SOUL.md / MEMORY.md / USER.md import and export | L3 static file-bridge evidence; live agent pending |
| ChatGPT / Gemini / Kimi | Markdown identity card fallback | 🔧 Usable |
| Feature | piia-engram | Claude Memory | Manual CLAUDE.md | Mem0 | Letta (MemGPT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | User identity across tools | Per-conversation memory | Per-project notes | Agent vector memory | Agent self-editing memory |
| Cross-tool by design | ✅ MCP-native (17 core tools) | ❌ Claude only | ❌ tool-specific | ⚠ requires per-tool wiring | ⚠ requires per-tool wiring |
| Storage | Local JSON in ~/.engram/ | Cloud | Local | Vector DB + Mem0 Cloud | Postgres or Letta Cloud |
| Local-first by default | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ⚠ Cloud is the default | ⚠ Cloud is the default |
| Encryption at rest | ✅ AES-256-GCM, PBKDF2 600k (opt-in) | depends on Cloud | ❌ plain Markdown | depends on store config | depends on Postgres config |
| Knowledge tiers (user gate) | ✅ staging → verified | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Conflict detection | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MCP-native | ✅ | n/a | n/a | ⚠ third-party | ⚠ third-party |
| Price | Free, AGPL-3.0 | Subscription-bundled | Free | Free / Cloud tiers | Free / Cloud tiers |
📊 For the full side-by-side, including when to choose a competitor over piia-engram, see docs/comparison.md.
These are factual claims about piia-engram itself, refreshed each minor release.
| v3.51.2 (2026-06-06) | |
|---|---|
| Supported AI tools | 15 (evidence level varies by client; see Supported Tools and the validation runbook) |
| MCP tools | 17 Core (loaded by default) + 70 Advanced (opt-in via ENGRAM_TOOLS=all) |
| Knowledge types | 3 (lessons, decisions, playbooks) |
| Tests passing | 3045 (unit + integration; 2 skipped, 3047 collected) |
| Code coverage | 96% total; mcp_server 99%, setup_wizard 93%, storage 100%, core 95% |
Lines in core.py | 3336 (facade + mixins total ~8159; down from 4277 monolith pre-v3.14.1 — see architecture.md) |
| PBKDF2 iterations | 600,000 (OWASP 2023+ floor; legacy 100k still decrypts) |
| Encryption | Optional field-level AES-256-GCM for supported profile fields; local files are plaintext JSON/Markdown by default |
| Cold-start time | < 100 ms typical (local JSON, no network) |
| Network calls by default | 0 for identity and knowledge tools — except optional read_web_content; remote telemetry and feedback require separate explicit opt-in and send counts only (see privacy details) |
piia-engram is a human-directed, AI-assisted open-source project.
| Contributor | Role |
|---|---|
| @Patdolitse | Creator, product direction, strategy, ownership |
| Claude Code | Architecture, task planning, code review assistance |
| Codex | Implementation, testing, documentation assistance |
What MCP server lets me share memory between Claude Code and Cursor?
piia-engram. Install with pip install piia-engram && engram setup, and both tools read the same identity, preferences, and lessons from ~/.engram/. No cloud, no sync service — they both read local JSON files through MCP.
What is piia-engram? piia-engram is a persistent memory layer for AI tools. It stores your identity, preferences, code standards, lessons learned, and key decisions as local JSON files on your machine. Configured MCP-compatible coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop) can read the same approved context, so new chats and tool switches can start from the same user-owned memory.
How is piia-engram different from the official MCP memory server?
The official @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory stores a generic knowledge graph of entities and relations. piia-engram is specialized for developer identity: it has structured fields for your profile, code standards, quality bar, lessons learned, and key decisions — plus 87 tools for knowledge lifecycle management (search, review, merge, inherit across projects). If you need general-purpose entity memory, use the official server. If you want MCP-compatible coding tools to start from the same approved understanding of your preferences and past mistakes, use piia-engram.
How is piia-engram different from agent memory tools like Mem0, Zep, or Letta? Those tools store task context and session history for AI agents — what happened during a workflow. piia-engram stores who you are as a person — your identity, preferences, hard-won lessons, and key decisions. It's a different layer: identity persists across tools, sessions, and projects, while task memory is scoped to a single agent run. Your data is local JSON files you own and can edit directly.
Why not just use AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules? Those config files are great for repo-specific rules (build steps, coding conventions). piia-engram is for you — your preferences, lessons, and decisions that can follow you across repos and configured MCP-compatible tools. They complement each other: use AGENTS.md for the project, piia-engram for the person. See the full comparison in docs/comparison.md.
Can I use piia-engram with multiple AI tools at once?
Yes. That's the primary use case. piia-engram uses local file storage (~/.engram/) with atomic writes and file locking. Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any other MCP client can connect simultaneously. A lesson recorded in Claude Code is immediately available in Cursor.
Which AI tools does piia-engram support?
Any MCP-compatible tool: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Roo Code, Amazon Q, Augment, Zed, and more. For tools without MCP support (ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi), export a Markdown identity card with get_identity_card and paste it in.
Where is my data stored?
All data lives in ~/.engram/ on your local machine as plain JSON and Markdown files. No cloud, no account, no subscription. You can open, edit, back up, or migrate the files yourself. Optional AES-256-GCM encryption is available via pip install piia-engram[secure].
How do I install piia-engram?
pip install piia-engram
engram setup
The setup wizard detects your AI tools without changing their config files by default. To auto-configure MCP entries with backups, run engram setup --apply-external-config, then restart your AI tool. The AI will call get_user_context at the start of each session.
After upgrading, my AI tool shows "MCP server disconnected". How do I fix it?
Run engram doctor --fix in a terminal, then restart your AI tool. This command scans all known MCP config files, removes outdated server entries, and repairs broken paths in one step.
Does piia-engram send data to the cloud?
Not by default. Identity and knowledge tools use local files, and telemetry is off by default. Optional anonymous usage statistics can be enabled as a local log; remote telemetry and weekly feedback reports require separate explicit opt-in and send counts only, never knowledge content. You can inspect the next payload with engram telemetry preview, disable anytime with engram telemetry off, and turn remote sending off with engram telemetry remote off. See PRIVACY.md for the full data flow diagram, what is and isn't collected, and your data rights.
How many MCP tools does piia-engram provide? Two tiers, designed so most users only see 17 tools:
| Tier | Tools | What they do | Loaded by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | 17 | Identity, knowledge read/write, project context, session recovery, diagnostics | Default |
| Advanced | 70 | Knowledge review, merge, decision threads, permission management, tools registry, import/export, audit | ENGRAM_TOOLS=all |
Most users never need to enable Advanced tools — Core covers everyday use.
Is piia-engram free? Yes. Free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. No subscription, no cloud tiers, no vendor lock-in.
piia-engram is functional and actively used, but some things it intentionally does not do yet:
| Area | Current State | Planned |
|---|---|---|
| File safety | Atomic JSON writes with a shared portalocker file lock | Broader stress testing |
| Access control | restricted_fields filters profile output. Optional agent governance (ENGRAM_GOVERNANCE=1) adds trust-level read/write gates, owner-only export/import controls, and a hash-chained disclosure ledger. See docs/governance.md. | Stronger caller identity binding requires MCP/client support |
| Encryption | Optional field-level AES-256-GCM encryption via ENGRAM_SECRET env var. Install pip install piia-engram[secure]. | Full-disk encryption for all files (v4.0) |
| Audit logging | Optional access audit log via ENGRAM_AUDIT=1 env var. Logs to ~/.engram/audit.log. | Per-caller audit (blocked by MCP spec) |
| Caller identity | MCP protocol doesn't pass tool identity | Blocked by MCP spec |
| Concurrent writes | Protected by file lock + atomic replace for piia-engram JSON writes | Network-filesystem edge cases not guaranteed |
What this means in practice:
~/.engram/ can read your datarestricted_fields reduces what piia-engram emits in cold-start context, but it is not encryption or a true ACLThis is not a warning to avoid piia-engram — it's an honest description of what it is: a local memory layer for personal AI context. For personal use, it works well today.
Encrypt sensitive profile fields (email, phone, location, etc.) at rest:
pip install piia-engram[secure]
export ENGRAM_SECRET="your-strong-passphrase"
Encrypted fields are stored as enc:v2:... in JSON files; legacy enc:v1:... values still decrypt. Without ENGRAM_SECRET, piia-engram works normally with plaintext (backward compatible).
Track all read/write operations:
export ENGRAM_AUDIT=1
Logs are written to ~/.engram/audit.log in JSON-lines format. Query with get_audit_log tool or grep.
Enable per-caller trust levels and disclosure receipts:
export ENGRAM_GOVERNANCE=1
export ENGRAM_CLIENT_TYPE=claude_code
Governance is off by default. When enabled, known local coding agents are
filtered to public/work knowledge, unknown callers fail closed to public-only,
and owner-only exports/imports/grant changes require private-self. See
docs/governance.md for the exact trust levels, gates,
honest boundaries, and ledger commands.
engram setup # Interactive install wizard (confirms before writing client configs)
engram setup --apply-external-config # Skip the confirm prompt (non-interactive/CI); writes with backups
piia-engram doctor # Check config health (all AI tools)
piia-engram status # Redacted install + memory health summary
piia-engram status --html # Write a local redacted status page
piia-engram continuity # Prove cross-tool handoff readiness (metadata only)
piia-engram management # Show a metadata-only review/playbook management view
piia-engram doctor --fix # Auto-repair any issues found
piia-engram sessions # List saved cross-tool agent sessions
piia-engram sessions show <id> # Print one saved session
piia-engram review # List staging knowledge awaiting review
piia-engram review show <id> # Inspect one review item
piia-engram review approve <id> --yes # Promote a staging item
piia-engram review archive <id> --yes # Archive a review item
piia-engram management action review approve <id> --yes --json # Structured metadata-only action receipt
piia-engram management action playbook delete <id> --yes --json # Soft-delete a Playbook without body echo
piia-engram management action playbook_scope accept_project <id> --project . --yes --json # Resolve ambiguous Playbook scope
piia-engram management action playbook_scope accept_shared <id> --project ./app-a --project ./app-b --yes --json # Share one Playbook with selected projects
piia-engram repair-encoding # Dry-run scan for garbled / mojibake text
piia-engram repair-encoding --apply # Repair reversible cases with a backup
piia-engram backup-plan # Metadata-only plan of what to copy before upgrading (local-only)
piia-engram export-agents-md # Export verified, non-sensitive knowledge as an AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md block
piia-engram stats # Show project growth metrics (GitHub + PyPI)
piia-engram stats --log # Append stats snapshot to local log
engram telemetry # Manage anonymous usage statistics
engram privacy # Show what data piia-engram stores and where
Contributions, issues, and feedback are welcome.
See CONTRIBUTING.md.
AGPL-3.0. piia-engram is free software. Your memory belongs to you.
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