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CortexGraph

Memory persistence for AI assistants with temporal decay

Tests codecov Security License: MIT Python 3.10+

What is CortexGraph?

CortexGraph is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI assistants like Claude a memory system with:

  • Short-term memory (STM) with temporal decay (like human working memory)
  • Long-term memory (LTM) for permanent storage in Obsidian-compatible Markdown
  • Knowledge graph with entities, relations, and context tracking
  • Natural language activation (v0.6.0+) - Conversational memory without explicit commands
  • Smart consolidation to merge related memories
  • 13 MCP tools and 7 CLI commands

Why CortexGraph?

🔒 Privacy First: All data stored locally on your machine - no cloud, no tracking, no data sharing

📁 Human-Readable:

  • Short-term memory in JSONL format (one JSON object per line)
  • Long-term memory in Markdown with YAML frontmatter
  • Both formats are easy to inspect, edit, and version control

🎯 Full Control: Your memories, your files, your rules

Quick Start

Installation

# Recommended: UV tool install
uv tool install git+https://github.com/prefrontal-systems/cortexgraph.git

Configuration

Create ~/.config/cortexgraph/.env:

# Storage
CORTEXGRAPH_STORAGE_PATH=~/.config/cortexgraph/jsonl

# Decay model (power_law | exponential | two_component)
CORTEXGRAPH_DECAY_MODEL=power_law
CORTEXGRAPH_PL_HALFLIFE_DAYS=3.0

# Long-term memory
LTM_VAULT_PATH=~/Documents/Obsidian/Vault

Claude Desktop Setup

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortexgraph": {
      "command": "/Users/yourusername/.local/bin/cortexgraph"
    }
  }
}

Find your path:

which cortexgraph

Use the full path from that command. GUI apps don't see shell PATH, so absolute paths work best.

Restart Claude Desktop and you're ready!

Features

🧠 Temporal Decay

Memories fade over time unless reinforced through repeated access:

  • Power-law decay (default): Realistic forgetting curve matching human memory
  • Exponential decay: Traditional time-based forgetting
  • Two-component decay: Fast + slow decay for short/long term

🔗 Knowledge Graph

Build a graph of connected concepts:

  • Entities: People, projects, concepts
  • Relations: Explicit links between memories
  • Context tracking: Understand relationships over time

🤝 Smart Consolidation

Automatically detect and merge similar memories:

  • Duplicate detection: Near-duplicates → keep longest
  • Content merging: Related but distinct → combine with separation
  • Metadata preservation: Tags, entities, timestamps all preserved
  • Audit trail: Track consolidation history

📊 Unified Search

Search across both STM and LTM:

  • Temporal ranking: Recent memories weighted higher
  • Semantic similarity: Optional embedding-based search
  • Entity matching: Find related concepts
  • Tag filtering: Narrow results by category

🧩 Modular Architecture (v1.2.0+)

Clean separation of concerns:

  • cortexgraph.core: Similarity, clustering, decay, search validation
  • cortexgraph.agents: Consolidation pipeline with storage utilities
  • cortexgraph.storage: JSONL/SQLite backends with batch operations
  • cortexgraph.tools: MCP tool implementations

💬 Natural Language Activation (v0.6.0+)

Conversational memory without explicit commands:

  • Auto-enrichment: Automatic entity extraction and importance scoring
  • Phrase detection: "remember this", "what did I say about"
  • Decision support: Tools help Claude decide when to save/recall
  • 70-80% reliability: Realistic MCP architecture ceiling

Documentation

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Status

✅ v1.2.0 Released (2026-01-30)

See ROADMAP.md for upcoming features.