Kairos — Graph-Based Persistent Memory for AI Agents

Your agents die every conversation. Kairos keeps them alive.

The persistent layer your LLMs run on top of. Memory formation, not retrieval. Background consolidation while they sleep. Conflict supersession when your mind changes. A knowledge-graph filesystem your agent walks instead of searches.

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What this is

Most AI "memory" systems are retrieval wrappers.

They store chunks. Embed text. Run cosine similarity. Return vaguely related paragraphs.

Kairos is built around a different thesis:

Memory is not retrieval. Memory is formation, consolidation, synthesis, and evolving structure.

The engine continuously transforms raw conversations into a living cognitive graph, backed by Akar (pure-Rust embedded graph database, drop-in replacement for KuzuDB):

• atomic facts,
• semantic links,
• supersession chains,
• synthesized abstractions,
• bridge memories,
• latent preference structures,
• temporal trajectories.

It does this locally. It works as a Hermes MemoryProvider adapter plugin (daemon-first). It survives across sessions.

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Architecture — Daemon-First + Hermes Adapter

Kairos runs in daemon-first mode: a single akar_server process holds the exclusive graph DB lock on vela.db (directory format). All clients — Hermes plugin, MCP server, CLI, tests — connect via TCP loopback (JSON IPC) to this daemon. The graph backend is Akar (pure Rust, import kuzu aliased to import akar via kairos/kuzu.py).

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        HERMES AGENT PROCESS                          │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │ NeuralMemoryProvider (kairos/plugin.py)                      │   │
│  │   • MemoryProvider ABC: initialize / prefetch / sync_turn     │   │
│  │   • get_tool_schemas() → mcp_schemas.ALL_TOOL_SCHEMAS         │   │
│  │   • handle_tool_call() → _HANDLERS dict → engine methods      │   │
│  │   • 3 thread pools: _recall_pool(2) / _write_pool(1) /        │   │
│  │     _dream_pool(1) — prevent graph DB ContextVar contamination │   │
│  │   • DreamLeader (kairos/dream_leader.py): single cross-proc   │   │
│  │     leader via advisory lock on vela.db.dream.leader.lock     │   │
│  └──────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│                             │ TCP loopback :<random-port> (JSON IPC)   │
└─────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    KUZU_DAEMON PROCESS (1 per DB)                    │
│  • ThreadingTCPServer on 127.0.0.1:<random-port>                    │
│  • Owns single GraphStore + exclusive file lock (vela.db.daemon.lock)│
│  • Serialised writes (GraphStore._write_lock), concurrent reads     │
│  • Idle self-shutdown after KAIROS_KUZU_DAEMON_IDLE (default 86400s)  │
│  • Ops: execute / ping / flush / shutdown / stat / export           │
│  • Announces via sidecar: vela.db.daemon.json {port, token, pid}    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
                       vela.db/ (Akar graph directory, ~46 MB)
                         ├── data.kz           (46,352 KB) — graph data
                         ├── .wal              (115 KB)    — write-ahead log
                         ├── catalog.kz        (13 KB)     — schema metadata
                         ├── metadata.kz       (22 KB)     — storage metadata
                         ├── n-*.hindex        (~20 KB ea) — vector indexes
                         ├── .lock                          — graph DB internal lock
                         └── .shadow                        — recovery shadow
                       vela.db.daemon.json     — sidecar (host, port, token, pid)
                       vela.db.daemon.lock     — OS-level exclusive lock (msvcrt.locking)
                       vela.db.daemon.log      — daemon stdout/stderr

Two Deployment Modes

Mode	Who uses it	DB lock holder	Selected by
daemon (default for Hermes)	Hermes plugin, MCP server, CLI	Shared akar_server process	KAIROS_KUZU_MODE=daemon (forced by plugin.py)
embedded (explicit opt-in)	Standalone from kairos import Kairos	The engine's own process	KAIROS_KUZU_MODE=embedded (never automatic)

Decided direction: Daemon mode is the single operational path for multi-session Hermes. Embedded remains only as explicit opt-in for tests/CI/true single-process standalone. Automatic embedded/SQLite fallbacks have been removed for the daemon/kuzudb path — failures fail loud.

Thread Pools (in Hermes plugin process)

Pool	Threads	Used by
_recall_pool	2	recall, think, reasoning, graph, health, metadata, profile(get)
_write_pool	1	remember, protect, profile(set), backup, import, sync
_dream_pool	1	dream_control, dream_config, dream_nrem/rem/insight/afe/synthesis/dae

Total: 4 threads — one per pool.

Cache

diskcache-only (Redis removed per architectural decision):

Domain	TTL	Contents
recall	300s	Recall result cache
dream	3600s	Dream queue + status
session	3600s	Session buffers

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Quick Start

Via Hermes (Recommended)

# 1. Install Kairos package
pip install -e .

# 2. Deploy Hermes adapter plugin (one-time)
.\tools\deploy-kairos-provider.ps1

# 3. Configure Hermes
hermes memory setup kairos
# → prompts: db_path (default: ~/.kairos/engine/vela.db)
# → prompts: embedding_backend (auto/hash/tfidf/sentence-transformers)

# 4. Verify
hermes config get memory
# → provider: kairos
hermes kairos status
# → Backend: akar, Memories: 2895, Connections: 21, ...

Standalone (Single-Process)

# Explicit embedded mode (opt-in)
KAIROS_KUZU_MODE=embedded python -c "
from kairos import Kairos
mem = Kairos()
mem.remember('The user has a dog named Lou')
results = mem.recall('What pet does the user have?')
mem.think(results[0].id)
"

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Features

🧠 Core Memory

Function	Description
remember()	Store a fact with embedding + auto-connection to related memories
recall()	Multi-channel recall (semantic, graph, temporal, FTS)
think()	Spreading activation — explore connected memories
graph()	Connection graph summary

🌙 Dream Engine (Background Consolidation)

Runs in the leader session's _dream_pool; auto-triggers on idle/new-memory thresholds (idle=300s, memory_threshold=50 — source: dream_engine.py).

Phase	What it does	Notes / caveats
NREM	Replay & strengthen active edges, prune weak (<0.05)	Batch writes chunked (see §9.1)
Supersedes	Directed "older→newer" edge for value-changed facts	Only pairs with numeric tokens and differing tokens and cosine ≥ 0.85 (hardcoded, dream_engine.py:1310). Does not dedup exact duplicates.
REM	Bridge discovery for isolated memories	Up to max_isolated
Insight	Louvain community detection → derived:cluster nodes
AFE	Atomic Fact Extraction: Stage A/B = regex (afe.py), Stage C = LLM user-state (KAIROS_AFE_LLM_FALLBACK=1)	Stage A/B have no LLM prompt; fragment quality governed by regex filters
Synthesis	Stage S crystallization, grouped by source memory	LLM mode via KAIROS_SYNTHESIS_LLM=1
DAE	Graph-weighted second embedding recompute	Every N NREM cycles; batch chunked

🔧 Tools (MemoryProvider)

Kairos registers 38+ tools via Hermes MemoryProvider: kairos_remember, kairos_recall, kairos_think, kairos_graph, kairos_reasoning, kairos_profile, kairos_dream_*, metadata catalog tools, and more.

📊 Metadata Catalog

Semantic search over database schemas, tables, columns, and business terms — imported from BigQuery, SQL databases, or YAML definitions.

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Dream Engine Auto-Trigger

Dream daemon runs automatically as background thread in the leader session. Auto-trigger based on:

• idle_threshold — seconds without activity before trigger (default: 300, from dream_engine.py)
• memory_threshold — new memories before trigger (default: 50, from dream_engine.py)

Configure via kairos_dream_config():

kairos_dream_config(action="set", idle_threshold=7200, memory_threshold=10)

No cron job, no SSE server, no external process. Single daemon holds the lock; all sessions share it.

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Storage Backends

Backend	Type	Status
Akar	Embedded graph (pure Rust; import kuzu → import akar)	The only backend — graph + vector index

SQLite and PostgreSQL/Supabase were removed (2026-08-21). In daemon mode, graph DB failure fails loud — no silent fallback to an empty store.

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Project Structure

kairos/
├── kairos/                        # Python package utama
│   ├── plugin.py                  # NeuralMemoryProvider — Hermes adapter (daemon mode)
│   ├── __init__.py                # Re-export ringan (Kairos, Memory, NeuralMemoryProvider)
│   ├── engine.py                  # Kairos API — unified entry point
│   ├── cache.py                  # Cache via diskcache (Redis dihapus — diskcache only)
│   ├── disk_fallback.py           # DiskCacheDomain wrapper
│   ├── mcp_schemas.py             # Tool schemas — single source of truth
│   ├── kuzu_client.py             # KuzuClientStore + daemon IPC (daemon mode)
│   ├── kuzu_ipc.py                # JSON framing (u32-LE length prefix)
│   ├── kuzu.py                    # Shim: `import kuzu` → `import akar`
│   ├── akar_store.py              # GraphStore (Akar) embedded mode
│   ├── dream_engine.py            # 7-phase dream consolidation
│   ├── dream_akar_store.py        # Akar dream backend
│   ├── dream_leader.py            # Cross-process leader election (advisory lock)
│   ├── config.py                  # Config helpers
│   ├── afe.py                     # Atomic Fact Extraction
│   ├── dae.py                     # Dream-Augmented Embeddings
│   ├── synthesis.py               # LLM synthesis (reasoning)
│   ├── profile_extractor.py       # User profile management
│   ├── sync_store.py              # Cross-backend sync
│   ├── embed_provider.py          # Embedding backends
│   └── ...                        # Other support files
├── hermes-plugin/                 # Hermes skin plugin (TUI display) — NOT memory provider
│   ├── __init__.py                # import + register dari kairos.plugin
│   ├── plugin.yaml                # Plugin manifest (name: kairos)
│   └── neural_skin.yaml           # Hermes UI skin
├── docs/                          # Documentation
│   ├── ARCHITECTURE.md            # Canonical architecture (this is the source of truth)
│   └── references/                # Historical/reference notes
├── tools/
│   ├── deploy-kairos-provider.ps1 # One-command Hermes adapter deployment
│   └── kairos_doctor.py           # Read-only triage: sidecar, daemon, locks, backups
├── tests/
│   └── test_suite.py              # Test suite
└── pyproject.toml                 # Package metadata + dependencies

---

Hermes Adapter Plugin

The memory provider adapter lives at $HERMES_HOME/plugins/kairos/ (NOT under plugins/memory/):

$HERMES_HOME/plugins/kairos/
├── __init__.py          # Thin entry: from kairos.plugin import NeuralMemoryProvider; register()
├── plugin.yaml          # Metadata + pip_dependencies: [kairos-memory]
└── cli.py               # CLI: hermes kairos status|stats|dream

Deployment

# One-command deploy (installs package, creates adapter, cleans legacy)
.\tools\deploy-kairos-provider.ps1

CLI Commands

hermes kairos status          # Engine summary (backend, memories, connections, embedding, dream phase)
hermes kairos stats [--pretty|--no-pretty]  # Full JSON engine stats
hermes kairos dream status|pause|resume|force-nrem|force-rem  # Dream Engine control

All CLI commands use daemon RPC (via kuzu_ipc) — they never spawn an engine or touch the DB directly.

Desktop UI Config

Kairos appears in Hermes Desktop → Settings → Memory Provider with fields:

• db_path (text, default: ~/.kairos/engine/vela.db)
• embedding_backend (select: auto, hash, tfidf, sentence-transformers)

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MCP Server (stdio)

Separate stdio MCP server at kairos_mcp_stdio.py — runs as independent process, also uses daemon mode:

# kairos_mcp_stdio.py initialize():
os.environ["KAIROS_KUZU_MODE"] = "daemon"
os.environ["KAIROS_NO_FALLBACK"] = "1"

Tools exposed: kairos_remember, kairos_recall, kairos_think, kairos_graph, kairos_reasoning, kairos_profile, kairos_dream_*, metadata catalog tools.

Backup: Supabase/Postgres sync removed (2026-08-21). For version-safe backup use kairos_backup_local (daemon EXPORT DATABASE op) — see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md §8.

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Observability & Troubleshooting

Health Check

# Via tool (plugin)
kairos_health
# → {status, backend, memories, connections, embedding_dim, storage: {daemon_pid, sidecar_age, ...}}

# Via CLI (daemon RPC)
hermes kairos stats

Daemon Status

# Cek proses daemon
Get-CimInstance Win32_Process -Filter "Name LIKE 'akar_server%'"

# Cek sidecar
Get-Content "$env:USERPROFILE\.kairos\engine\vela.db.daemon.json" | ConvertFrom-Json

# Cek log daemon
Get-Content "$env:USERPROFILE\.kairos\engine\vela.db.daemon.log" -Tail 50

Doctor Script (Comprehensive Triage)

python tools/kairos_doctor.py
# → healthy  OR  "1 issue(s) found: UNREACHABLE/STALE/LOCK_HELD"

Checks: sidecar liveness, daemon reachability, spawn/leader locks, backup freshness.

Common Issues

Symptom	Cause	Fix
memories: 0 but DB 40MB	graph DB version mismatch	Use logical export/import; check kairos_doctor.py
Could not set lock on file	Stale lock / zombie daemon	Remove-Item vela.db.daemon.lock -Force; kill zombie python; restart
hermes kairos status → 0 memories	DB path not configured correctly	Check ~/.hermes/config.yaml → memory.kairos.db_path
Dream not running	Leader election stuck	Check vela.db.dream.leader.lock; kairos_dream_control resume

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License

Business Source License 1.1 — View License

• Non-commercial use: free
• Commercial use: requires a paid license
• After 2030-01-01: automatically converts to Apache 2.0

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Forks & Attribution

Kairos was forked from Mazemaker and evolved independently with:

• Akar (pure Rust) as the primary backend (embedded, no Docker)
• Complete Dream Backend for all store types
• Daemon-first architecture — single akar_server holds exclusive lock
• Hermes MemoryProvider adapter plugin (thin, imports from package)
• Auto-trigger dream daemon (no cron job)
• Storage hardening: bounded retries, no silent fallbacks, backup-as-daemon-op, WAL crash fix, observability (stat op, kairos_health storage section, kairos_doctor)
• Cleaned architecture, no license gates

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