🐞 Ladybug Memory MCP Server

Persistent graph memory for AI agents using LadybugDB — an embedded graph database with native vector search and full-text search.

Give your AI agent memory that persists across sessions, deduplicates automatically, and models knowledge as a graph with typed relationships.

Why Ladybug Memory?

• Graph memory — memories linked via Topic nodes and relationships (RELATED_TO, SUPERSEDES) with Cypher queries
• Three-layer auto-dedup — exact hash + semantic similarity + LLM-driven consolidation
• Hybrid search — HNSW vector search + full-text search combined
• Topic auto-linking — tags become graph nodes, enabling traversal queries
• Embedded — no Docker, no server process, single database directory
• Zero config — sensible defaults, just install and run
• Importance & access tracking — memories ranked by relevance and usage

Quick Start

# Run directly with uvx (no install needed)
uvx ladybug-memory-mcp

Or install and run:

pip install ladybug-memory-mcp
ladybug-memory-mcp

MCP Configuration

Add to your MCP client config (Kiro, Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ladybug-memory": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ladybug-memory-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL": "ERROR"
      }
    }
  }
}

That's it — zero config required. All settings have sensible defaults.

Tools

Tool	Description
memory_store	Store a memory with auto-dedup and auto-link to Topic nodes
memory_search	Hybrid semantic + keyword search, ranked by relevance
memory_get	Get full untruncated content of a memory by ID
memory_update	Update content, importance, or tags of a memory
memory_delete	Delete a memory and all its relationships
memory_relate	Create RELATED_TO or SUPERSEDES relationship between memories
memory_traverse	Run read-only Cypher queries against the memory graph
memory_list	List memories filtered by recency, category, topic, or importance
memory_stats	Database statistics: counts, categories, topics, relationships
memory_consolidate	Find clusters of similar memories for review and merging

Graph Data Model

(:Memory)  — content, embedding, category, tags, importance, access_count, timestamps
(:Topic)   — auto-created from tags

(:Memory)-[:ABOUT]->(:Topic)          # memory is about a topic
(:Memory)-[:RELATED_TO]->(:Memory)    # memories are related
(:Memory)-[:SUPERSEDES]->(:Memory)    # newer memory replaces older

Example: Store and Search

# Store a memory (via MCP tool call)
memory_store(
    content="User prefers Python over Node.js for backend tools",
    category="preference",
    tags=["python", "nodejs", "backend"],
    importance=4
)

# Search memories
memory_search(query="what language does the user prefer")

# Traverse the graph
memory_traverse(
    cypher_query="MATCH (m:Memory)-[:ABOUT]->(t:Topic {name: 'python'}) RETURN m.content"
)

Example: Graph Relationships

# Link related memories
memory_relate(from_id=5, to_id=3, relationship="RELATED_TO")

# Mark a decision as superseded
memory_relate(from_id=8, to_id=2, relationship="SUPERSEDES")

# Find all memories about a topic
memory_traverse(
    cypher_query="MATCH (m:Memory)-[:ABOUT]->(t:Topic) RETURN t.name, COUNT(m) ORDER BY COUNT(m) DESC"
)

Three-Layer Deduplication

Every memory_store call runs through three dedup layers:

1. Exact hash — SHA256 of normalized content. Identical content is rejected, importance bumped.
2. Semantic similarity — If cosine similarity > 0.92 with an existing memory, merges into it (keeps longer content, merges tags, bumps importance).
3. Consolidation — Manual via memory_consolidate. Finds clusters of related memories for LLM-driven review and merging.

Categories

Category	Use for
learning	Technical knowledge, facts, how things work
preference	User preferences and choices
decision	Architecture decisions, tool choices
pattern	Recurring workflows, conventions
general	Everything else (default)

Configuration

All settings are optional — defaults work out of the box.

Environment Variable	Default	Description
MEMORY_DB_PATH	~/.agent-memory/memory.lbug	LadybugDB database path
MEMORY_DEDUP_THRESHOLD	0.92	Semantic similarity threshold for auto-dedup
MEMORY_EMBEDDING_MODEL	BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5	FastEmbed model for embeddings
MEMORY_EMBEDDING_DIM	384	Embedding dimension (must match model)
MEMORY_SEARCH_LIMIT	10	Max results from memory_search
MEMORY_LIST_LIMIT	20	Max results from memory_list
MEMORY_MAX_CONTENT	500	Content truncation length in search/list results
MEMORY_LATENCY_WARN_MS	50	Log warning when operation exceeds this (ms)

In-Memory Mode (Testing)

"env": { "MEMORY_DB_PATH": ":memory:" }

All data is ephemeral — lost on restart. Useful for testing.

Kiro Power

This server is also available as a Kiro Power with:

• Pre-configured MCP server
• Three hooks for automatic memory persistence and recall
• Steering files with setup guide and Cypher query examples

Architecture

AI Agent (Kiro, Claude, etc.)
    │
    ├─ memory_store ──→ embed content → dedup check → insert node → link topics
    ├─ memory_search ─→ embed query → HNSW vector search + FTS → rank & return
    ├─ memory_traverse → execute Cypher → return graph results
    │
    └─ LadybugDB (embedded, single directory)
        ├─ Memory nodes (content + FLOAT[384] embeddings)
        ├─ Topic nodes (auto-linked from tags)
        ├─ HNSW vector index (cosine similarity)
        ├─ FTS index (keyword search)
        └─ Graph relationships (ABOUT, RELATED_TO, SUPERSEDES)

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Dependencies installed automatically: real-ladybug, fastembed, mcp
• ~130MB disk for the embedding model (downloaded on first run)

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. See LICENSE for terms.

License

MIT