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https://github.com/sdsrss/claude-mem-lite

Lightweight persistent memory system for Claude Code — FTS5 search, episode batching, error-triggered recall
https://github.com/sdsrss/claude-mem-lite

claude-code fts5 hooks mcp memory persistence sqlite

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Lightweight persistent memory system for Claude Code — FTS5 search, episode batching, error-triggered recall

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README 

          
[English](README.md) | [中文](README.zh-CN.md)



# claude-mem-lite



Lightweight persistent memory system for [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code). Automatically captures coding observations, decisions, and bug fixes during sessions, then provides full-text search to recall them later.



Built as an [MCP server](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) + Claude Code hooks. Zero external services, single SQLite database, minimal overhead.



## Why claude-mem-lite?



A ground-up redesign of [claude-mem](https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem), replacing its heavyweight architecture with a smarter, leaner approach.



### Architecture comparison



| | claude-mem (original) | claude-mem-lite |

|---|---|---|

| **LLM calls** | Every tool use triggers a Sonnet call | Only on episode flush (5-10 ops batched) |

| **LLM input** | Raw `tool_input` + `tool_output` JSON | Pre-processed action summaries |

| **Conversation** | Multi-turn, accumulates full history | Stateless single-turn extraction |

| **Noise filtering** | LLM decides via "WHEN TO SKIP" prompt | Deterministic code-level Tier 1 filter |

| **Runtime** | Long-running worker process (1.8MB .cjs) | On-demand spawn, exits immediately |

| **Dependencies** | Bun + Python/uv + Chroma vector DB | Node.js only (3 npm packages) |

| **Source size** | ~2.3MB compiled bundles | ~50KB readable source |

| **Data directory** | `~/.claude-mem/` | `~/.claude-mem-lite/` (hidden, auto-migrates) |



### Token & cost efficiency



For a typical 50-tool-call session:



| | claude-mem | claude-mem-lite | Ratio |

|---|---|---|---|

| LLM calls | ~50 (every tool use) | ~5-8 (per episode) | **7-10x fewer** |

| Tokens per call | 1,000-5,000 (raw JSON + history) | 200-500 (summaries only) | **5-10x smaller** |

| Total tokens | ~100K-250K | ~1K-4K | **50-100x less** |

| Model cost | Sonnet ($3/$15 per M) | Haiku ($0.25/$1.25 per M) | **12x cheaper** |

| Combined savings | | | **600x+ lower cost** |



### Quality comparison



| Dimension | Winner | Why |

|---|---|---|

| **Classification accuracy** | Tie | Both produce correct type/title/narrative |

| **Noise filtering** | **lite** | Code-level filtering is deterministic; LLM "WHEN TO SKIP" is unreliable |

| **Observation coherence** | **lite** | Episode batching groups related edits into one coherent observation |

| **Code-level detail** | original | Sees full diffs, but rarely useful for memory search |

| **Search recall** | Tie | Users search semantic concepts ("auth bug"), not code lines |

| **Hook latency** | **lite** | Async background workers; original blocks 2-5s per hook |



### Design philosophy



The original sends **everything to the LLM and hopes it filters well**. claude-mem-lite **filters first with code, then sends only what matters** to a smaller model. This is not a downgrade; it's a smarter architecture that produces equivalent search quality at a fraction of the cost.



## Features



- **Automatic capture** -- Hooks into Claude Code lifecycle (PostToolUse, SessionStart, Stop, UserPromptSubmit) to record observations without manual effort

- **Hybrid search** -- FTS5 BM25 + TF-IDF vector cosine similarity, merged via Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF). FTS5 handles keyword matching; 512-dim TF-IDF vectors capture semantic similarity for recall beyond exact terms

- **Timeline browsing** -- Navigate observations chronologically with anchor-based context windows

- **Episode batching** -- Groups related file operations into coherent episodes before LLM encoding

- **Error-triggered recall** -- Automatically searches memory when Bash errors occur, surfacing relevant past fixes

- **Proactive file history** -- When editing a file, automatically shows relevant past observations for that file

- **Session summaries** -- LLM-generated summaries at session end (via background workers using `claude -p`)

- **Project-scoped context** -- Injects recent memory into `CLAUDE.md` and session startup for immediate context

- **Observation types** -- Categorized as `decision`, `bugfix`, `feature`, `refactor`, `discovery`, or `change`

- **Importance grading** -- LLM assigns 1-3 importance levels (routine / notable / critical) to each observation

- **Observation relations** -- Bidirectional links between related observations based on file overlap

- **User prompt capture** -- Records user prompts via UserPromptSubmit hook for intent tracking

- **Read file tracking** -- Tracks files read during sessions for richer episode context

- **Zero data loss** -- If LLM fails, observations are saved with degraded (inferred) metadata instead of being discarded

- **Two-tier dedup** -- Jaccard similarity (5-minute window) + MinHash signatures (7-day cross-session window) prevent duplicates

- **Synonym expansion** -- Abbreviations like `K8s`, `DB`, `auth` automatically expand to full forms in FTS5 search (100+ pairs including CJK↔EN cross-language mappings)

- **CJK synonym extraction** -- Unsegmented Chinese text is scanned for known vocabulary words (数据库→database, 搜索→search, etc.) enabling cross-language memory recall

- **Stop-word filtering** -- English stop words filtered from both TF-IDF vocabulary (reclaiming ~18% of vector dimensions) and FTS queries (preventing false negatives from noise terms like "how", "the", "does")

- **Persisted vocabulary** -- TF-IDF vocabulary persisted to `vocab_state` table, preventing vector staleness when document frequencies shift. Vectors stay valid until explicit rebuild

- **Pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF)** -- Top results seed expansion queries for broader recall

- **Concept co-occurrence** -- Shared concepts across observations expand search to related topics

- **Context-aware re-ranking** -- Active file overlap boosts relevance (exact match + directory-level half-weight)

- **Superseded detection** -- Marks older observations as outdated when newer ones cover the same files with higher importance

- **Adaptive time windows** -- Session startup recall uses velocity-based time windows (high/medium/low activity tiers)

- **Token-budgeted context** -- Greedy knapsack algorithm selects session-start context within a 2,000-token budget, prioritizing by recency and importance

- **Observation compression** -- Old low-value observations can be compressed into weekly summaries to reduce noise

- **Secret scrubbing** -- Automatic redaction of API keys, tokens, PEM blocks, connection strings, and 15+ credential patterns

- **Atomic writes** -- All file writes (episodes, CLAUDE.md) use write-to-tmp + rename to prevent corruption on crash

- **Robust locking** -- PID-aware lock files with automatic stale/orphan cleanup (>30s timeout or dead PID)

- **Stale session cleanup** -- Sessions active for >24h are automatically marked as abandoned on next start

- **Resource registry** -- Indexes installed skills and agents with FTS5 search, composite scoring, and invocation tracking; searchable via `mem_registry` MCP tool

- **Unified resource discovery** -- Shared filesystem traversal layer (`resource-discovery.mjs`) used by both runtime scanner and offline indexer, supporting flat directories, plugin nesting, and loose `.md` files

- **Domain synonym expansion** -- Registry search queries expand to domain synonyms (e.g., "fix" → debug, bugfix, troubleshoot, diagnose, repair)

- **Dual LLM mode** -- Auto-detects `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` for direct API calls; falls back to `claude -p` CLI when no key is available

- **Lesson-learned indexing** -- `lesson_learned` field indexed in FTS5 with weight 8, making past debugging insights directly searchable

- **Cross-source normalization** -- `mem_search` normalizes scores across observations, sessions, and prompts before merging, preventing any source from dominating results

- **Exponential recency decay** -- Type-differentiated half-lives (decisions: 90d, discoveries: 60d, bugfixes: 14d, changes: 7d) consistently applied in all ranking paths

- **Prompt-time memory injection** -- UserPromptSubmit hook automatically searches and injects relevant past observations with recency and importance weighting

- **Smart skill invocation** -- Auto-loaded and searched managed skills/agents include portable `~` paths with `Read()` guidance; native plugin skills recommend `Skill("full:name")`; prevents `Skill()` misuse for managed resources that aren't registered with Claude Code's native handler

- **Dual injection dedup** -- `user-prompt-search.js` and `handleUserPrompt` coordinate via temp file to prevent duplicate memory injection

- **Plugin cache hook self-heal** -- Claude Code runtime reads plugin hooks from `~/.claude/plugins/cache////hooks/hooks.json`, not from the marketplace source. When `install.mjs`-managed `settings.json` hooks coexist with a stale cache `hooks.json` (e.g. from a previous marketplace install or a plugin auto-update), the runtime registers hooks twice → every session start / user prompt fires twice. `install.mjs` and `hook-update.mjs` now clear cache `hooks.json` in every version dir, and `hook.mjs session-start` self-heals on every session (gated by `hasInstallManagedHooks` so plugin-only users are not affected). `install.mjs status` reports cache pollution state (since v2.31.1/2.31.2).

- **Result-dedup cooldown** -- User-prompt memory injection uses result-overlap detection (>80% ID overlap → skip) instead of time-based cooldown, allowing topic switches within seconds while preventing redundant injections

- **OR query fallback** -- When AND-joined FTS5 queries return zero results, automatically relaxes to OR-joined queries for broader recall (applied in both user-prompt-search and hook-memory paths)

- **Configurable LLM model** -- Switch between Haiku (fast/cheap) and Sonnet (deeper analysis) via `CLAUDE_MEM_MODEL` env var

- **DB auto-recovery** -- Detects and cleans corrupted WAL/SHM files on startup; periodic WAL checkpoints prevent unbounded growth

- **Schema auto-migration** -- Idempotent `ALTER TABLE` migrations run on every startup, safely adding new columns and indexes without data loss

- **Exploration bonus** -- New resources in the registry get a fair chance in composite ranking; zombie resources (high recommend, zero adopt) are penalized in scoring

- **LLM concurrency control** -- File-based semaphore limits background workers to 2 concurrent LLM calls, preventing resource contention

- **stdin overflow protection** -- Hook input truncated at 256KB with regex-based action salvage for oversized tool outputs

- **Cross-session handoff** -- Captures session state (request, completed work, next steps, key files) on `/clear` or `/exit`, then injects context when the next session detects continuation intent via explicit keywords or FTS5 term overlap

- **Git-SHA continuation anchor** (v2.31.0) -- Handoff rows include `git_sha_at_handoff`; any handoff matching the current `HEAD` counts as continuation regardless of TTL. Code state is a stronger continuation signal than wall-clock time

- **Startup dashboard** (v2.31.0) -- SessionStart hook aggregates `git status` + `~/.claude/tasks/*.json` + `~/.claude/plans/*.md` + most-recent exit handoff + recent event count into a single structured block injected via `hookSpecificOutput.additionalContext`

- **Activity namespace** (v2.31.0) -- Dedicated `events` table + FTS5 for non-memdir types (`bugfix`, `lesson`, `bug`, `discovery`, `refactor`, `feature`, `observation`, `decision`) that don't compete with `WHAT_NOT_TO_SAVE` semantics on the observations table. CLI: `claude-mem-lite activity save|search|recent|show`. Slash commands: `/lesson`, `/bug`. `hook-llm` routes non-memdir summary types through `persistHaikuSummary` so upgrades from observations→events are atomic

- **In-place observation updates** -- `mem_update` tool modifies existing observations atomically (field update + FTS text rebuild + vector re-computation in one transaction), preserving original IDs and references

- **Bulk export** -- `mem_export` tool exports observations as JSON or JSONL, with project/type/date filtering and 1000-row pagination cap with batch guidance

- **FTS integrity management** -- `mem_fts_check` tool verifies FTS5 index health or rebuilds indexes on demand, useful after database recovery or when search results seem wrong

- **Atomic multi-table writes** -- `saveObservation` wraps observations + observation_files + observation_vectors INSERTs in a single `db.transaction()`, preventing orphaned rows on crash

- **Modular NLP pipeline** -- Synonym maps, stop words, scoring constants, and query building extracted into focused modules (`synonyms.mjs`, `stop-words.mjs`, `scoring-sql.mjs`, `nlp.mjs`) for independent testing and maintenance

- **Porter-aligned PRF** -- Pseudo-relevance feedback terms are now stemmed with the same Porter algorithm used by FTS5, ensuring PRF expansion terms match the search index



## Platform Support



| Platform | Status | Notes |

|----------|--------|-------|

| **Linux** | Supported | Primary development and testing platform |

| **macOS** | Supported | Fully compatible (Intel and Apple Silicon) |

| **Windows** | Not supported | Uses POSIX shell scripts (`post-tool-use.sh`, `setup.sh`) and Unix file locking; WSL2 may work but is untested |



## Requirements



- **Node.js** >= 18

- **Claude Code** CLI installed and configured (`claude` command available)

- **SQLite3** support (provided by `better-sqlite3`, compiled on install)

- **Platform**: Linux or macOS (see [Platform Support](#platform-support))



## Installation



### Method 1: Plugin Marketplace (recommended)



```bash

/plugin marketplace add sdsrss/claude-mem-lite

/plugin install claude-mem-lite

```



Plugin mode manages its own hooks/runtime. On session start it only **checks and reports** new claude-mem-lite versions; it does **not** self-overwrite plugin files in place. Update plugin-mode installs through Claude's plugin workflow.



### Method 2: npx (one-liner)



```bash

npx github:sdsrss/claude-mem-lite

```



Source files are automatically copied to `~/.claude-mem-lite/` for persistence.



### Method 3: git clone



```bash

git clone https://github.com/sdsrss/claude-mem-lite.git

cd claude-mem-lite

node install.mjs install

```



Source files stay in the cloned repo. Update via `git pull && node install.mjs install`.



### What happens during installation



1. **Install dependencies** -- `npm install --omit=dev` (compiles native `better-sqlite3`)

2. **Register MCP server** -- `mem` server with 16 tools (search, recent, recall, timeline, get, save, update, stats, delete, compress, maintain, export, fts_check, browse, registry, use)

3. **Configure hooks** -- `PostToolUse`, `SessionStart`, `Stop`, `UserPromptSubmit` lifecycle hooks

4. **Create data directory** -- `~/.claude-mem-lite/` (hidden) for database, runtime, and managed resource files

5. **Auto-migrate** -- If `~/.claude-mem/` (original claude-mem) or `~/claude-mem-lite/` (pre-v0.5 unhidden) exists, migrates database and runtime files to `~/.claude-mem-lite/`, preserving the original untouched

6. **Initialize database** -- SQLite with WAL mode, FTS5 indexes created on first server start



Restart Claude Code after installation to activate.



### Migration



All installation methods auto-detect and migrate from previous versions:



**From claude-mem (original `~/.claude-mem/`):**

- Copy `claude-mem.db` → `~/.claude-mem-lite/claude-mem-lite.db` (renamed)

- Copy the `runtime/` directory

- **Original `~/.claude-mem/` is preserved** (no deletion, no overwrite)



**From pre-v0.5 unhidden directory (`~/claude-mem-lite/`):**

- Entire directory is moved to `~/.claude-mem-lite/` (hidden)



**In-place rename:**

- Existing `claude-mem.db` in `~/.claude-mem-lite/` is automatically renamed to `claude-mem-lite.db`



Remove old directories manually after confirming:

```bash

rm -rf ~/.claude-mem/       # original claude-mem

rm -rf ~/claude-mem-lite/   # pre-v0.5 unhidden (if not auto-moved)

```



### Directory Structure



```

~/.claude-mem-lite/

  claude-mem-lite.db       # SQLite database — memory (WAL mode)

  resource-registry.db     # SQLite database — skill/agent registry

  runtime/

    session-    # Active session state

    ep-.json    # Episode buffer

    ep-flush-*.json      # Flushed episodes awaiting processing

    reads-.txt  # Read file paths (collected on flush)

  managed/

    skills/              # Standalone skills: {name}/SKILL.md

    agents/              # Agent plugins: {group}/agents/{name}.md + skills/*/SKILL.md

    repos/               # Shallow-cloned source repos

```



## Usage



### MCP Tools (used automatically by Claude)



As of v2.34.0, the server registers 17 tools in total but only the 6 **core**

tools appear in `tools/list`. The 11 **hidden** tools remain callable at the

protocol layer (`tools/call` by exact name still routes normally); they're

omitted from the list response so Claude Code sessions don't load 11 extra

tool schemas at startup. Hidden tools are the maintenance / admin / browser

surface — reach them through the CLI column in the second table.



**Core (6, exposed to Claude Code)**



| Tool | Description |

|------|-------------|

| `mem_search` | FTS5 full-text search with BM25 ranking. Filters by type, project, date range, importance level. |

| `mem_recent` | Show most recent observations, ordered by time. Quick snapshot of latest activity. |

| `mem_recall` | Recall observations related to a file. Use before editing to surface past bugfixes and context. |

| `mem_timeline` | Browse observations chronologically around an anchor point. |

| `mem_get` | Retrieve full details for specific observation IDs (includes importance and related_ids). |

| `mem_save` | Manually save a memory/observation. |



**Hidden-but-callable (11, CLI-routed)**



| Tool | CLI equivalent | Notes |

|------|----------------|-------|

| `mem_update` | `claude-mem-lite update ` | Edit an observation in place. |

| `mem_stats` | `claude-mem-lite stats` | Counts, type distribution, daily activity. |

| `mem_delete` | `claude-mem-lite delete ` | Preview / confirm workflow, FTS5 cleanup. |

| `mem_compress` | `claude-mem-lite compress --preview` | Roll up old low-value observations. |

| `mem_maintain` | `claude-mem-lite maintain --action scan` | dedup / decay / cleanup / rebuild_vectors. |

| `mem_optimize` | `claude-mem-lite optimize --action preview` | LLM-powered re-enrich / normalize / cluster-merge. |

| `mem_export` | `claude-mem-lite export` | JSON / JSONL dump, filters by project, type, date. |

| `mem_fts_check` | `claude-mem-lite fts-check [--rebuild]` | FTS5 integrity + rebuild. |

| `mem_browse` | `claude-mem-lite browse` | Tier-grouped dashboard (working / active / archive). |

| `mem_registry` | `claude-mem-lite registry ` | List / search / import / remove skills + agents. |

| `mem_use` | _MCP only_ | Load a skill / agent from the registry by name. |



### Skill Commands (in Claude Code chat)



```

/mem search         # Full-text search across all memories

/mem recent [n]            # Show recent N observations (default 10)

/mem recall          # Show past observations for a file

/mem save            # Save a manual memory/note

/mem stats                 # Show memory statistics

/mem timeline       # Browse timeline around a match

/mem browse                # Tier-grouped memory dashboard

/mem                # Shorthand for search

/lesson              # Save a non-obvious lesson to the events table (v2.31.0)

/bug                 # Log a known bug + repro steps to the events table (v2.31.0)

```



### Efficient Search Workflow



```

1. mem_search(query="auth bug")     -> compact ID index

2. mem_timeline(anchor=12345)       -> surrounding context

3. mem_get(ids=[12345, 12346])      -> full details

```



### Invited Memory (v2.32+)



Opt-in mechanism that installs a single sentinel-wrapped line into the project's

memdir (`~/.claude/projects//memory/MEMORY.md`) so Claude Code loads

the plugin's MCP-tool triggers as **user-memory** — a higher instruction-following

authority than MCP server instructions (which are framed as tool metadata).



```bash

claude-mem-lite adopt              # install for current project

claude-mem-lite adopt --all        # install for every project under ~/.claude/projects/

claude-mem-lite adopt --status     # list adopted projects + sentinel versions

claude-mem-lite adopt --dry-run    # preview without writing

claude-mem-lite unadopt            # remove cleanly

```



Slash commands `/adopt` and `/unadopt` wrap the same CLI.



**What adoption changes:**

- A `…` block is

  added to `MEMORY.md` under a `## 插件契约` header, containing one ≤150-char

  line pointing at `mem_recall` / `mem_save` with their key arguments.

- A `plugin_claude_mem_lite.md` detail file is written (not auto-loaded; read

  on demand when the MEMORY.md pointer surfaces in context).

- Post-adopt the conservative hook layer auto-trims: MCP server instructions

  drop the `WHEN TO USE` section, SessionStart injection drops the `File Lessons`

  / `Key Context` sections. `#ID` references and the `Recent` table still fire

  so `mem_get` remains reachable.



**When does it take effect?**

- The MEMORY.md sentinel and the hook-layer trim (`File Lessons` / `Key Context` /

  lesson suffix) apply on the **next SessionStart** (any new Claude Code session

  in the adopted project).

- The MCP server instructions are built once at server boot and MCP has no

  "push" protocol — the `WHEN TO USE` / `Decision rules` trim only applies

  after Claude Code restarts and re-spawns the mem MCP server. A single

  `/exit` + fresh session is enough. Same caveat applies to `unadopt`.



**Safety:**

- Hash-guarded: editing the sentinel body yourself blocks automatic rewrites

  unless you pass `--force`.

- Budget-gated: refuses to insert when MEMORY.md is already >180 lines, so

  Claude Code's 200-line MEMORY.md cap won't truncate the block.

- `install` only auto-adopts when run from the claude-mem-lite source repo

  itself (detected via git remote match); other users must opt in explicitly.

- The fallback hook layer is never removed from source — conditional trim is

  runtime-gated on sentinel presence, so projects without adoption get the

  full verbose output.



See `docs/plans/2026-04-16-invited-memory-pattern.md` for the full design

(including the reusable template other plugins can follow).



## Database Schema



Five core tables with FTS5 virtual tables for search:



**observations** -- Individual coding observations (decisions, bugfixes, features, etc.)

```

id, memory_session_id, project, type, title, subtitle,

text, narrative, concepts, facts, files_read, files_modified,

importance, related_ids, created_at, created_at_epoch,

lesson_learned, minhash_sig, access_count, compressed_into, search_aliases,

branch, superseded_at, superseded_by, last_accessed_at

```



**session_summaries** -- LLM-generated session summaries

```

id, memory_session_id, project, request, investigated,

learned, completed, next_steps, files_read, files_edited, notes,

remaining_items, lessons, key_decisions

```



**sdk_sessions** -- Session tracking

```

id, content_session_id, memory_session_id, project,

started_at, completed_at, status, prompt_counter

```



**user_prompts** -- User prompts captured via UserPromptSubmit hook

```

id, content_session_id, prompt_text, prompt_number

```



**session_handoffs** -- Cross-session handoff snapshots (UPSERT, max 2 per project)

```

project, type, session_id, working_on, completed, unfinished,

key_files, key_decisions, match_keywords, created_at_epoch

```



**observation_files** -- Normalized file membership for efficient file-based recall

```

obs_id, filename

```



**observation_vectors** -- TF-IDF vector embeddings for hybrid search

```

observation_id, vector (BLOB Float32Array), vocab_version, created_at_epoch

```



**vocab_state** -- Persisted TF-IDF vocabulary for stable vector indexing

```

term, term_index, idf, version, created_at_epoch

```



FTS5 indexes: `observations_fts` (title, subtitle, narrative, text, facts, concepts, lesson_learned), `session_summaries_fts`, `user_prompts_fts`



## How It Works



### Hook Pipeline



```

SessionStart

  -> Generate session ID (or save handoff snapshot on /clear)

  -> Mark stale sessions (>24h active) as abandoned

  -> Clean orphaned/stale lock files

  -> Query recent observations (24h)

  -> Inject context into CLAUDE.md + stdout



PostToolUse (every tool execution)

  -> Bash pre-filter skips noise in ~5ms (Read paths tracked to reads file)

  -> Detect Bash significance (errors, tests, builds, git, deploys)

  -> Accumulate into episode buffer

  -> Proactive file history: show past observations for edited files

  -> Flush when: buffer full (10 entries) | 5min gap | context change

  -> Collect Read file paths into episode on flush

  -> Spawn LLM episode worker for significant episodes

  -> Error-triggered recall: search memory for related past fixes



UserPromptSubmit (two parallel paths)

  -> [user-prompt-search.js] Auto-search memory via FTS5 + active file context

  -> [user-prompt-search.js] Inject relevant past observations with recency/importance weighting

  -> [user-prompt-search.js] Write injected IDs to temp file for dedup

  -> [user-prompt-search.js] L1 skill auto-load: match managed skill names in prompt

     -> Load content with portable ~ path + Read() guidance

     -> source="managed-skill|managed-agent", path="~/.claude-mem-lite/managed/..."

  -> [hook.mjs handleUserPrompt] Capture user prompt text to user_prompts table

  -> [hook.mjs handleUserPrompt] Increment session prompt counter

  -> [hook.mjs handleUserPrompt] Handoff: detect continuation intent → inject previous session context

  -> [hook.mjs handleUserPrompt] Semantic memory injection (hook-memory.mjs), deduped via temp file



Stop

  -> Flush final episode buffer

  -> Save handoff snapshot (on /exit)

  -> Mark session completed

  -> Spawn LLM summary worker (poll-based wait)

```



### Resource Registry



The resource registry (`registry.mjs`, `registry-retriever.mjs`) indexes installed skills and agents into a searchable FTS5 database. Unlike the previous proactive dispatch system, the registry is now on-demand — it's reachable via the `claude-mem-lite registry` CLI (primary path for Claude Code since v2.34.0 hides the `mem_registry` MCP tool from `tools/list`) or by direct `tools/call mem_registry` for MCP clients that know the name.



```

Registry pipeline:

  -> registry-scanner.mjs discovers skills/agents on filesystem

  -> resource-discovery.mjs handles flat dirs, plugin nesting, loose .md files

  -> registry-indexer.mjs indexes content into FTS5 with metadata

  -> registry-retriever.mjs provides BM25-ranked search with synonym expansion

  -> mem_registry MCP tool exposes search/list/stats/import/remove/reindex actions



Smart invocation (three layers):

  L1 auto-load: UserPromptSubmit matches managed skill name in prompt

     -> Loads content with path="~/.claude-mem-lite/managed/.../SKILL.md"

     -> Guides: Read("path") or mem_use(name="..."), never Skill()

  L2 bridge: PreToolUse hook intercepts Skill("name") for managed resources

     -> Outputs content, prevents native handler failure

  L3 explicit: mem_use(name="...") loads full content with reload path

  Search: managed resources → Read(path), native plugins → Skill("full:name")

```



Composite scoring for search results: BM25 relevance (40%) + repo stars (15%) + success rate (15%) + adoption rate (10%) + freshness (10%) + exploration bonus (10%). Domain filtering ensures platform-specific resources (iOS, Go, Rust) only surface for matching projects.



### Episode Encoding



Episodes are batched related operations (edits to the same file group) that get processed by a background LLM worker:



```

Episode buffer -> Flush to JSON -> claude -p --model haiku -> Structured observation -> SQLite

```



Each observation includes type, title, narrative, concepts, facts, importance (1-3), and is automatically deduplicated via two tiers: Jaccard similarity (>70% within 5 minutes) and MinHash signatures (>80% within 7 days across sessions). If the LLM call fails, a degraded observation is saved with inferred metadata (zero data loss). Related observations are linked via `related_ids` based on FTS5 title similarity and file overlap.



## Management Commands



```bash

# Plugin install:

/plugin install claude-mem-lite       # Install / update

/plugin uninstall claude-mem-lite     # Uninstall



# git clone install:

node install.mjs install              # Install and configure

node install.mjs uninstall            # Remove (keep data)

node install.mjs uninstall --purge    # Remove and delete all data

node install.mjs status               # Show current status

node install.mjs doctor               # Diagnose issues

node install.mjs cleanup-hooks        # Remove only stale claude-mem-lite hooks from settings.json

node install.mjs update               # Force-check for updates and install them (direct install / npx mode)



# npx install:

npx claude-mem-lite                   # Install / reinstall

npx claude-mem-lite uninstall         # Remove (keep data)

npx claude-mem-lite doctor            # Diagnose issues

```



Notes:

- Plugin mode only reports available updates; it does not self-update plugin files.

  To upgrade an installed plugin to the latest published version, run **inside Claude Code**:

  ```

  /plugin marketplace update sdsrss

  /plugin install claude-mem-lite@sdsrss

  ```

  (The first command refreshes the local marketplace clone; the second reinstalls from it. Without the first command, `/plugin install` reuses the stale local clone and you stay on whichever version you originally pulled.)

- Direct install / npx mode keeps auto-update enabled and uses staged replacement with rollback on install failure.

- If you disabled the plugin but still have old mem hooks in `~/.claude/settings.json`, run `node install.mjs cleanup-hooks`.



### doctor



Checks Node.js version, dependencies, server/hook files, database integrity, FTS5 indexes, and stale processes.



### status



Shows MCP registration, hook configuration, plugin disabled state, and database stats (observation/session counts).



## Uninstall



```bash

# Plugin:

/plugin uninstall claude-mem-lite



# git clone:

cd claude-mem-lite

node install.mjs uninstall            # Keeps ~/.claude-mem-lite/ data

node install.mjs uninstall --purge    # Deletes ~/.claude-mem-lite/ and all data



# npx:

npx claude-mem-lite uninstall

npx claude-mem-lite uninstall --purge

```



Data in `~/.claude-mem-lite/` is preserved by default. Delete manually if needed:

```bash

rm -rf ~/.claude-mem-lite/

```



## Project Structure



```

claude-mem-lite/

  .claude-plugin/

    plugin.json      # Plugin manifest

    marketplace.json # Marketplace catalog

  .mcp.json          # MCP server definition (plugin root)

  hooks/

    hooks.json       # Hook definitions (plugin mode)

  commands/

    mem.md           # /mem command definition

  server.mjs           # MCP server: tool definitions, FTS5 search, database init

  server-internals.mjs # Extracted search helpers: re-ranking, PRF, concept expansion

  hook.mjs             # Claude Code hooks: episode capture, error recall, session management

  hook-llm.mjs         # Background LLM workers: episode extraction, session summaries

  hook-shared.mjs      # Shared hook infrastructure: session management, DB access, LLM calls

  hook-handoff.mjs     # Cross-session handoff: state extraction, intent detection, injection

  hook-context.mjs     # CLAUDE.md context injection and token budgeting

  hook-episode.mjs     # Episode buffer management: atomic writes, pending entry merging

  hook-memory.mjs      # Semantic memory injection on user prompt

  hook-semaphore.mjs   # LLM concurrency control: file-based semaphore for background workers

  schema.mjs           # Database schema: single source of truth for tables, migrations, FTS5

  tool-schemas.mjs     # Shared Zod schemas for MCP tool validation

  tfidf.mjs            # TF-IDF vector engine: tokenization, vocabulary building, vector computation, cosine similarity, RRF merge

  tier.mjs             # Temporal tier system: activity-based time window classification

  utils.mjs            # Re-export hub: backward-compatible surface for all utility modules

  nlp.mjs              # FTS5 query building: synonym expansion, CJK bigrams, sanitization

  scoring-sql.mjs      # BM25 weight constants and type-differentiated decay half-lives

  stop-words.mjs       # Shared base stop-word set for all NLP/search modules

  synonyms.mjs         # Unified synonym source: SYNONYM_MAP (bidirectional) + DISPATCH_SYNONYMS

  project-utils.mjs    # Shared project name resolution with in-process cache

  secret-scrub.mjs     # API key, token, PEM, and credential pattern redaction

  format-utils.mjs     # String formatting: truncate, typeIcon, date/time/week formatting

  hash-utils.mjs       # MinHash signatures, Jaccard similarity for dedup

  bash-utils.mjs       # Bash output significance detection: errors, tests, builds, deploys

  # Resource registry

  registry.mjs         # Resource registry DB: schema, CRUD, FTS5, invocation tracking

  registry-retriever.mjs # FTS5 retrieval with synonym expansion and composite scoring

  registry-indexer.mjs # Resource indexing pipeline

  registry-scanner.mjs # Filesystem scanner: reads content + hashes, delegates discovery

  resource-discovery.mjs # Shared discovery layer: flat dirs, plugin nesting, loose .md files

  haiku-client.mjs     # Unified Haiku LLM wrapper: direct API or CLI fallback

  # Install & config

  install.mjs          # CLI installer: setup, uninstall, status, doctor (npx/git clone mode)

  skill.md             # MCP skill definition (npx/git clone mode)

  package.json         # Dependencies and metadata

  scripts/

    setup.sh           # Setup hook: npm install + migration (hidden dir + old dir)

    post-tool-use.sh   # Bash pre-filter: skips noise in ~5ms, tracks Read paths

    user-prompt-search.js # UserPromptSubmit hook: auto-search memory + L1 skill auto-load

    pre-skill-bridge.js  # PreToolUse hook: L2 skill bridge for managed resources

    pre-tool-recall.js   # PreToolUse hook: file lesson recall before Edit/Write

    prompt-search-utils.mjs # Shared logic: skip patterns, intent detection, name matching

    convert-commands.mjs # Converts command .md → SKILL.md in managed plugins

    index-managed.mjs  # Offline indexer for managed resources

  # Test & benchmark (dev only)

  tests/               # Unit, property, integration, contract, E2E, pipeline tests

  benchmark/           # BM25 search quality benchmarks + CI gate

```



## Search Quality



Benchmarked on 200 observations across 30 queries (standard + hard-negative categories):



| Metric | Score |

|--------|-------|

| Recall@10 | 0.88 |

| Precision@10 | 0.96 |

| nDCG@10 | 0.95 |

| MRR@10 | 0.95 |

| P95 search latency | 0.15ms |



The benchmark suite runs as a CI gate (`npm run benchmark:gate`) to prevent search quality regressions.



## Development



```bash

npm run lint              # ESLint static analysis

npm test                  # Run full test suite (vitest)

npm run test:smoke        # Run 5 core smoke tests

npm run test:coverage     # Run tests with V8 coverage (≥75% lines/functions, ≥65% branches)

npm run benchmark         # Run full search quality benchmark

npm run benchmark:gate    # CI gate: fails if metrics regress beyond 5% tolerance

```



## Environment Variables



| Variable | Description | Default |

|----------|-------------|---------|

| `CLAUDE_MEM_DIR` | Custom data directory. All databases, runtime files, and managed resources are stored here. | `~/.claude-mem-lite/` |

| `CLAUDE_MEM_MODEL` | LLM model for background calls (episode extraction, session summaries). Accepts `haiku` or `sonnet`. | `haiku` |

| `CLAUDE_MEM_DEBUG` | Enable debug logging (`1` to enable). | _(disabled)_ |

| `MEM_QUIET_HOOKS` | Low-noise hooks. `1` drops the `File Lessons` / `Key Context` sections from SessionStart injection, the lesson suffix from `[mem] Related memories`, and the `WHEN TO USE` / `Decision rules` blocks from MCP server instructions. IDs and the `Recent` table still surface so `mem_get(ids=[…])` remains reachable. Intended for users running the invited-memory adopt path or who otherwise want minimal auto-injection. | _(disabled)_ |

| `MEM_NO_ADOPT_HINT` | Silences the one-line "Invited-memory 未启用：`claude-mem-lite adopt`…" hint that SessionStart appends when the current project hasn't been adopted. The hint self-clears once `adopt` runs; set this env to suppress it without adopting. | _(disabled)_ |



## License



MIT