Persistent cross-project memory for Cursor and Claude Code — stores problem/solution pairs with semantic search
Project description
Your AI solves the same bug in a different project six months later. Writes the same boilerplate. Explains the same pattern. You already knew the answer.
longmem gives your AI a persistent memory that works across every project and every session. Before reasoning from scratch, it searches what you've already solved. After something works, it saves it. The longer you use it, the less you repeat yourself.
You describe a problem
│
▼
search_similar() ──── match found (≥85%) ────▶ cached solution + edge cases
│
no match
│
▼
AI reasons from scratch
│
"it works"
│
▼
confirm_solution() ──── saved for every future project
Why longmem
| longmem | others | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free — local Ollama embeddings | Requires API calls per session |
| Privacy | Nothing leaves your machine | Sends observations to external APIs |
| Process | Starts on demand, no daemon | Background worker + open port required |
| IDE support | Cursor + Claude Code | Primarily one IDE |
| Search | Hybrid: semantic + keyword (FTS5) | Vector-only or keyword-only |
| Teams | Export / import / shared DB path / S3 | Single-user |
| License | MIT | AGPL / proprietary |
Quickstart
1. Install
pipx install longmem
2. Setup — checks Ollama, pulls the embedding model, writes your IDE config
longmem init
3. Activate in each project — copies the rules file that tells the AI how to use memory
cd your-project
longmem install
4. Restart your IDE. Memory tools are now active on every chat.
Need Ollama? Install from ollama.com, then
ollama pull nomic-embed-text. Or use OpenAI — see Configuration.
How it works
longmem is an MCP server. Your IDE starts it on demand. Two rules drive the workflow:
Rule 1 — search first. Before the AI reasons about any bug or question, it calls search_similar. If a match is found (cosine similarity ≥ 85%), the cached solution is returned with any edge-case notes. Below the threshold, the AI solves normally.
Rule 2 — save on success. When you confirm something works, the AI calls confirm_solution. One parameter — just the solution text. Problem metadata is auto-filled from the earlier search.
The rules file (longmem.mdc for Cursor, CLAUDE.md for Claude Code) wires this up automatically. No manual prompting.
AI forgot to save? Run longmem review — an interactive CLI to save any solution in 30 seconds.
CLI
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
longmem init |
One-time setup: Ollama check, model pull, writes IDE config |
longmem install |
Copy rules into the current project |
longmem status |
Config, Ollama reachability, entry count, DB size |
longmem export [file] |
Dump all entries to JSON — backup or share |
longmem import <file> |
Load a JSON export — onboard teammates or migrate machines |
longmem review |
Manually save a solution when the AI forgot |
longmem with no arguments starts the MCP server (used by your IDE).
Configuration
Config lives at ~/.longmem/config.toml. All fields are optional — defaults work with a local Ollama instance.
Switch to OpenAI embeddings
embedder = "openai"
openai_model = "text-embedding-3-small"
openai_api_key = "sk-..." # or set OPENAI_API_KEY
Install the extra: pip install 'longmem[openai]'
Team shared database
Point every team member's config at the same path:
# NFS / shared drive
db_path = "/mnt/shared/longmem/db"
Or use cloud storage:
# S3 (uses AWS env vars)
db_uri = "s3://my-bucket/longmem"
# LanceDB Cloud
db_uri = "db://my-org/my-db"
lancedb_api_key = "ldb_..." # or set LANCEDB_API_KEY
No shared mount? Use longmem export / longmem import to distribute a snapshot.
Tuning
similarity_threshold = 0.85 # minimum score to surface a cached result (default 0.85)
duplicate_threshold = 0.95 # minimum score to block a save as a near-duplicate (default 0.95)
MCP tools
The server exposes 11 tools. The two you interact with most:
search_similar— semantic + keyword hybrid search. Returns ranked matches with similarity scores, edge cases, and akeyword_matchflag when the hit came from exact text rather than vector similarity.confirm_solution— saves a solution with one parameter. Problem metadata auto-filled from the preceding search.
Full list: save_solution, correct_solution, enrich_solution, add_edge_case, search_by_project, delete_solution, rebuild_index, list_recent, stats.
Call rebuild_index once you reach 256+ entries to compact the database and build the ANN index for faster search.
Category reference
Categories pre-filter before vector search — keeps retrieval fast at any scale.
| Category | Use for |
|---|---|
ci_cd |
GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, build failures |
containers |
Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, OOM kills |
infrastructure |
Terraform, Pulumi, CDK, IaC drift |
cloud |
AWS/GCP/Azure SDK, IAM, quota errors |
networking |
DNS, TLS, load balancers, timeouts, proxies |
observability |
Logging, metrics, tracing, Prometheus, Grafana |
auth_security |
OAuth, JWT, RBAC, secrets, CVEs |
data_pipeline |
Airflow, Prefect, Dagster, ETL, data quality |
ml_training |
GPU/CUDA, distributed training, OOM |
model_serving |
vLLM, Triton, inference latency, batching |
experiment_tracking |
MLflow, W&B, DVC, reproducibility |
llm_rag |
Chunking, embedding, retrieval, reranking |
llm_api |
Rate limits, token cost, prompt engineering |
vector_db |
Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, LanceDB |
agents |
LangChain, LlamaIndex, tool-calling, agent memory |
database |
SQL/NoSQL, migrations, slow queries |
api |
REST, GraphQL, gRPC, versioning |
async_concurrency |
Race conditions, event loops, deadlocks |
dependencies |
Version conflicts, packaging, lock files |
performance |
Profiling, memory leaks, caching |
testing |
Flaky tests, mocks, integration vs unit |
architecture |
Design patterns, service boundaries, refactoring |
other |
When nothing above fits |
Contributing
git clone https://github.com/mariia-eremina/longmem
cd longmem
uv sync --group dev
uv run pytest
Pull requests welcome — bug fixes, features, docs, tests.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Project details
Download files
Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.
Source Distribution
Built Distribution
Filter files by name, interpreter, ABI, and platform.
If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.
Copy a direct link to the current filters
File details
Details for the file longmem-0.1.2.tar.gz.
File metadata
- Download URL: longmem-0.1.2.tar.gz
- Upload date:
- Size: 27.3 kB
- Tags: Source
- Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
- Uploaded via: uv/0.7.5
File hashes
| Algorithm | Hash digest | |
|---|---|---|
| SHA256 |
e92027e3d13be4a7b3602055de1dc9d72cfcd2663ffe190a854026c9ec3a8a9a
|
|
| MD5 |
f10f449d2e4dc1dc948cf61e015a571e
|
|
| BLAKE2b-256 |
84dedcd7f8cfa1656d27c212af029aa764805e2906c324e953353e60b85d8805
|
File details
Details for the file longmem-0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl.
File metadata
- Download URL: longmem-0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl
- Upload date:
- Size: 31.7 kB
- Tags: Python 3
- Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
- Uploaded via: uv/0.7.5
File hashes
| Algorithm | Hash digest | |
|---|---|---|
| SHA256 |
cc1307c879a016f725c84dafc5feae80e02528c82bd53c91e55b9d6b216b7a4c
|
|
| MD5 |
e6c30f623ae6db46db8c8250ac767dc5
|
|
| BLAKE2b-256 |
0662105e827c4de3ce26c6be2c24414ef81c76b812d46695d300829ed6c36461
|