memcite 0.8.0

Repo memory for AI agents — every memory has a source, every source gets verified.

agentic-memory (memcite)

English | 中文

pip install memcite → from agentic_memory import Memory → CLI: am

The memory governance layer for AI agents. Every memory has a source, every source gets verified — like unit tests for agent context.

Other memory tools help agents remember. memcite helps agents remember correctly — with forced citations, automatic stale detection, and CI-ready validation.

開源的 AI agent 記憶治理層。不只是記住，而是記得正確 — 強制引用、過期偵測、CI 驗證一條龍。

---

The problem

Your AI agent remembers "this project uses Jest for testing." Two weeks later, someone switches to Vitest. The agent doesn't know. It keeps writing Jest tests and breaks your CI.

This isn't hallucination — the memory was correct. It's stale memory, and it's worse than hallucination because the agent is confident about it.

The fix

memcite forces every memory to cite its source. Before using a memory, it checks: is the source still the same?

am add "Uses ruff for linting, line-length=120" --file pyproject.toml --lines 15-20
am query "linting"
# → ✓ Uses ruff for linting, line-length=120
#     pyproject.toml L15-20 [valid]

# Someone changes pyproject.toml → memcite detects it:
am validate
# → ⚠ 1 memory stale (evidence changed)

Quickstart (5 minutes)

pip install memcite
cd your-project

from agentic_memory import Memory, FileRef, ManualRef

mem = Memory(".")

# 1. Store a memory with evidence
mem.add(
    "This project uses ruff for linting with line-length=120",
    evidence=FileRef("pyproject.toml", lines=(15, 20)),
)

# 2. Store a rule with importance
mem.add(
    "Never force-push to main",
    evidence=ManualRef("team convention"),
    kind="rule",
    importance=3,
)

# 3. Query — citations are re-validated automatically
result = mem.query("What linter does this project use?")
print(result.memories[0].content)        # "ruff with line-length=120"
print(result.citations[0].status.value)  # "valid" or "stale"

# 4. Agent-ready context string (plug directly into prompts)
context = mem.search_context("coding standards", kind="rule", min_importance=2)

# 5. Track what your agent actually uses
mem.mark_adopted(result.memories[0].id, agent_name="claude")

# 6. System health
metrics = mem.eval_metrics()
print(f"Adoption rate: {metrics.adoption_rate:.0%}")

Tested on real projects

We deployed memcite across 4 projects of different types to validate the design:

Project	Type	Memories	Kind distribution	What memcite guards
mk-brain	AI knowledge pipeline	6	fact	Architecture — detect drift when code changes
momo-home-ai	Home AI assistant	8	fact	Config — found real bugs from stale settings
dl-pilot	Download manager	5	fact	Platform config and file paths
geo-checker	GEO tool	4	fact	Deployment settings

Benchmark numbers

Metric	Result
Query latency	0.077s (6 memories, SQLite FTS5)
Full validate	0.073s (6 memories)
Storage overhead	~8-10 KB per memory
Stale detection (v0.5+)	1 true positive out of 4 flagged (75% false positive elimination vs v0.4)
CJK search accuracy	100% (multi-word and single-char, with jieba tokenization)

False positive elimination

In v0.4, inserting a single line in a file caused all 4 FileRef memories pointing to that file to be flagged stale (line numbers shifted). In v0.5+, content snapshot + fuzzy relocation reduced this to 1/4 flagged — and that 1 was a genuine content change.

Known limitation

If a memory's content is wrong but the evidence file hasn't changed, memcite will report it as valid with full confidence. memcite validates that evidence hasn't drifted — it does not verify that the memory accurately describes the evidence. Content-level validation requires an optional ContentValidator (keyword overlap or LLM-based).

Use Cases

• Automating issue triaging with persistent contextual memory
• Assisting pull request review using historical code understanding
• Maintaining developer workflows through memory-aware agents
• Coordinating multi-agent maintenance tasks across repositories

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Your AI Agent                     │
│              (Claude / GPT / Cursor)                │
└──────────┬──────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
           │ query / add          │ MCP / REST / CLI
           ▼                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    memcite Core                     │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐ │
│  │  Memory    │  │ Evidence │  │ Hybrid Search    │ │
│  │  Manager   │→ │ Validator│  │ FTS5 + TF-IDF   │ │
│  └───────────┘  └────┬─────┘  └──────────────────┘ │
│                      │                              │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌────▼─────┐  ┌──────────────────┐ │
│  │ Admission │  │ Citation │  │ Adoption         │ │
│  │ Control   │  │ Store    │  │ Tracker          │ │
│  └───────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────────────┘ │
└──────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              SQLite + FTS5 (local file)             │
│                .agentic-memory.db                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
           │
     Evidence Sources
     ├── FileRef    → local files (content snapshot + line tracking)
     ├── GitCommitRef → git history
     ├── URLRef     → web pages (HTTP HEAD + content hash)
     └── ManualRef  → human notes (always trusted)

Example Workflow

1. Agent receives a new issue or task
2. Retrieves historical context from memory (with citation validation)
3. Analyzes related code and past decisions — stale memories are flagged
4. Suggests resolution or PR changes based on verified context
5. Updates memory with new findings, citing the source files

Try it yourself — the interactive demo walks through this flow in 5 seconds:

python examples/demo.py

Design Principles

1. No Evidence, No Memory — add() without a citation raises an error
2. Validate Before Use — query() re-checks citations by default
3. Decay What's Stale — confidence drops when evidence changes; invalid memories are deprioritized

Evidence Types

Type	What it tracks	Validation method
FileRef	File path + line range + content snapshot	Content match + fuzzy relocation when lines shift
GitCommitRef	Commit SHA + file	Verify commit exists in history
URLRef	Web URL	HTTP HEAD reachability check
ManualRef	Human-provided note	No auto-validation (always trusted)

Features

Core

• Repo-scoped — each repository gets its own memory namespace
• Local-first — SQLite storage, no external services required
• Citation-backed — every memory traces back to a verifiable source
• Auto-validation — stale evidence is detected before it misleads your agent
• Confidence scoring — memories with invalid citations get deprioritized
• Content snapshot + fuzzy relocation — when lines shift, memcite finds where the content moved

Agentic

• Memory classification — fact, rule, antipattern, preference, decision
• Importance scoring — 0-3 priority, query results sorted by importance
• TTL / expiration — ephemeral memories auto-expire
• Deduplication — identical content detected by hash
• Conflict detection — warns when new memories contradict existing ones
• Adoption tracking — mark_adopted() to measure which memories agents actually use

Infrastructure

• Retrieval logging — every query logged with IDs, count, latency
• Eval metrics — adoption rate, query stats, health indicators
• Compact — clean up expired memories in batch
• CLI — am add, am query, am validate, am status, am list
• MCP Server — 10 tools for Claude Code / Cursor
• REST API — FastAPI with OpenAPI docs

Installation

pip install memcite

With extras:

pip install memcite[mcp]        # MCP server for Claude Code
pip install memcite[api]        # REST API server (FastAPI)
pip install memcite[langchain]  # LangChain retriever integration
pip install memcite[cjk]        # Chinese/Japanese/Korean tokenization

CLI

# Add memories with evidence
am add "Uses pytest for testing" --file tests/conftest.py --lines 1-10
am add "No force push to main" --note "team rule" --kind rule --importance 3
am add "Sprint ends Friday" --note "standup" --ttl 604800  # 1 week

# Query with filters
am query "test framework"
am query "coding rules" --kind rule --min-importance 2

# Validate + CI integration
am validate                # check all citations
am validate --exit-code    # exits non-zero if any stale/invalid (for CI)

# Watch git commits for memory-worthy changes
am watch                   # analyze last 5 commits
am watch --commits 10      # analyze last 10 commits
am watch --auto            # auto-add suggested memories

# Housekeeping
am status
am list
am delete <memory-id>

MCP Server (Claude Code / Cursor / etc.)

memcite includes a built-in MCP server that runs locally on your machine — no cloud service, no API key, no deployment needed.

Setup: add this to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agentic-memory": {
      "command": "am-mcp",
      "args": ["--repo", "/path/to/your/project"]
    }
  }
}

Or use: am claude-setup (auto-generates .mcp.json + memory protocol in CLAUDE.md)

10 MCP tools available:

Tool	Description
memory_add	Add a memory with evidence, kind, importance, TTL
memory_query	Search with filters + automatic citation validation
memory_search_context	Formatted context block for agent prompts
memory_adopt	Mark a memory as actually used by the agent
memory_validate	Re-check all evidence citations
memory_compact	Remove expired memories
memory_metrics	Query count, adoption rate, health stats
memory_status	Summary of valid/stale/invalid counts
memory_list	List all stored memories
memory_delete	Delete a specific memory

CI Integration (GitHub Action)

Add memory linting to your CI pipeline — catch stale agent context before it ships:

# .github/workflows/memory-lint.yml
name: Memory Lint
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  memory-lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: MakiDevelop/agentic-memory@main
        with:
          command: "validate --exit-code"

This fails the build if any memory has stale or invalid citations — like a linter, but for agent context.

REST API

am-server --repo /path/to/repo --port 8080

OpenAPI docs at http://localhost:8080/docs.

Hybrid Search

When initialized with an embedding provider, queries combine FTS5 full-text search with vector similarity:

from agentic_memory import Memory, TFIDFEmbedding, FileRef

mem = Memory("./my-project", embedding=TFIDFEmbedding())
mem.add("Uses ruff for code formatting", evidence=FileRef("pyproject.toml", lines=(1, 5)))

# Finds the memory even though "linting" != "formatting"
result = mem.query("What linter does this project use?")

Default weights: FTS5 (0.65) + Vector (0.35). Customize per query:

result = mem.query("linting", fts_weight=0.5, vector_weight=0.5)

LangChain Integration

Use memcite as a LangChain retriever — every document comes with citation metadata:

from agentic_memory.bridges.langchain import MemciteRetriever

retriever = MemciteRetriever(repo_path="./my-project")
docs = retriever.invoke("What linter does this project use?")

for doc in docs:
    print(doc.page_content)
    print(f"  status: {doc.metadata['validation_status']}")
    print(f"  evidence: {doc.metadata['evidence']}")

Admission Control

Filter out low-value memories before they're stored:

from agentic_memory import Memory, HeuristicAdmissionController, ManualRef

mem = Memory("./my-project", admission=HeuristicAdmissionController())
mem.add("ok", evidence=ManualRef("chat"))  # raises ValueError — too vague

Scope

This project focuses on the memory and context layer for AI-assisted maintenance. It does not aim to replace existing CI/CD platforms, code hosting, or agent frameworks — it plugs into them as the memory substrate.

Roadmap

• Core SDK — add / query / validate with citation enforcement
• CLI tool
• MCP Server — 10 tools for Claude Code and other MCP clients
• Admission control — heuristic + LLM-based scoring
• Hybrid search — FTS5 + TF-IDF vector fusion
• REST API server — FastAPI with OpenAPI docs
• Agentic features — kind, importance, TTL, dedup, conflict detection
• Adoption tracking — measure which memories agents actually use
• GitHub Action — CI memory linting with am validate --exit-code
• Path traversal protection — repo-scoped file access enforcement
• Git Watch Mode — am watch analyzes commits and suggests memories
• LangChain integration — MemciteRetriever with citation metadata
• LlamaIndex integration
• Web dashboard

Compared to

	mem0	Zep	LangMem	memcite
Vector search	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Forced citations	No	No	No	Yes
Source validation	No	No	No	Yes
Staleness detection	No	No	No	Yes
Repo-scoped	No	No	No	Yes
Memory classification	No	No	No	Yes
Conflict detection	No	No	No	Yes
Adoption tracking	No	No	No	Yes
Self-hosted	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Built with

This project was built using a four-in-one AI collaboration model:

• Maki — Product direction, architecture decisions, testing, final review
• Claude (Opus 4.6) — Implementation, code review, documentation
• Codex (o4-mini) — Engineering review, bug detection, test validation
• Gemini (2.5 Pro) — Architecture analysis, strategy, gap analysis

License

MIT

---

中文

問題

你的 AI agent 記住了「這個專案用 Jest 測試」。兩週後有人換成 Vitest，agent 不知道，繼續寫 Jest 測試，CI 直接炸掉。

這不是幻覺 — 記憶曾經是對的。這是過期記憶（stale memory），比幻覺更危險，因為 agent 對它深信不疑。

解法

memcite 強制每條記憶都要引用來源。使用記憶前會先檢查：來源還是一樣的嗎？

am add "使用 ruff 做 linting, line-length=120" --file pyproject.toml --lines 15-20
am query "linting"
# → ✓ 使用 ruff 做 linting, line-length=120
#     pyproject.toml L15-20 [valid]

# 有人改了 pyproject.toml → memcite 偵測到：
am validate
# → ⚠ 1 條記憶過期（證據已變更）

快速開始（5 分鐘）

pip install memcite
cd your-project

from agentic_memory import Memory, FileRef, ManualRef

mem = Memory(".")

# 1. 儲存記憶並附上證據
mem.add(
    "本專案使用 ruff 做 linting, line-length=120",
    evidence=FileRef("pyproject.toml", lines=(15, 20)),
)

# 2. 儲存規則並設定重要度
mem.add(
    "禁止 force-push 到 main",
    evidence=ManualRef("團隊慣例"),
    kind="rule",
    importance=3,
)

# 3. 查詢 — 引用自動重新驗證
result = mem.query("這個專案用什麼 linter？")
print(result.memories[0].content)        # "ruff with line-length=120"
print(result.citations[0].status.value)  # "valid" 或 "stale"

# 4. Agent-ready 的上下文字串（直接塞進 prompt）
context = mem.search_context("coding standards", kind="rule", min_importance=2)

# 5. 追蹤 agent 實際使用了哪些記憶
mem.mark_adopted(result.memories[0].id, agent_name="claude")

# 6. 系統健康度
metrics = mem.eval_metrics()
print(f"採用率: {metrics.adoption_rate:.0%}")

使用場景

• 自動化 Issue 分流 — 透過持久化的上下文記憶
• 輔助 PR Review — 利用歷史程式碼理解
• 維護開發流程 — 透過具備記憶的 agent
• 跨 Repo 多 Agent 協作 — 協調維護任務

架構

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   你的 AI Agent                     │
│              (Claude / GPT / Cursor)                │
└──────────┬──────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
           │ query / add          │ MCP / REST / CLI
           ▼                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    memcite 核心                     │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐ │
│  │  Memory    │  │ Evidence │  │ Hybrid Search    │ │
│  │  Manager   │→ │ Validator│  │ FTS5 + TF-IDF   │ │
│  └───────────┘  └────┬─────┘  └──────────────────┘ │
│                      │                              │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌────▼─────┐  ┌──────────────────┐ │
│  │ Admission │  │ Citation │  │ Adoption         │ │
│  │ Control   │  │ Store    │  │ Tracker          │ │
│  └───────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────────────┘ │
└──────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              SQLite + FTS5（本地檔案）                │
│                .agentic-memory.db                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
           │
     證據來源
     ├── FileRef       → 本地檔案（內容快照 + 行號追蹤）
     ├── GitCommitRef  → git 歷史
     ├── URLRef        → 網頁（HTTP HEAD + 內容雜湊）
     └── ManualRef     → 人工備註（永遠信任）

範例流程

1. Agent 收到新的 issue 或任務
2. 從記憶中取得歷史上下文（引用同步驗證）
3. 分析相關程式碼與過去的決策 — 過期記憶會被標記
4. 基於已驗證的上下文，建議修復方案或 PR 變更
5. 將新發現寫入記憶，引用來源檔案

自己試試看 — 互動 demo 5 秒跑完整個流程：

python examples/demo.py

設計原則

1. 沒有證據就沒有記憶 — add() 不附引用會直接報錯
2. 使用前先驗證 — query() 預設會重新檢查引用
3. 過期就衰減 — 證據變更時信心分數下降，無效記憶被降權

證據類型

類型	追蹤什麼	驗證方式
FileRef	檔案路徑 + 行範圍 + 內容快照	內容比對 + 行號偏移時模糊重定位
GitCommitRef	Commit SHA + 檔案	驗證 commit 是否存在於歷史
URLRef	網頁 URL	HTTP HEAD 檢查 + 內容雜湊
ManualRef	人工備註	不自動驗證（永遠信任）

功能

核心

• Repo 範圍 — 每個 repo 有獨立的記憶命名空間
• 本地優先 — SQLite 儲存，不需要外部服務
• 引用驅動 — 每條記憶都可追溯到可驗證的來源
• 自動驗證 — 在 agent 被誤導前偵測過期證據
• 信心評分 — 引用失效的記憶會被降權
• 內容快照 + 模糊重定位 — 行號偏移時自動找到內容搬到哪裡

Agentic

• 記憶分類 — fact、rule、antipattern、preference、decision
• 重要度評分 — 0-3 優先級，查詢結果依重要度排序
• TTL / 過期 — 臨時記憶自動過期
• 去重 — 靠雜湊偵測重複內容
• 衝突偵測 — 新記憶與既有記憶矛盾時發出警告
• 採用追蹤 — mark_adopted() 測量 agent 實際用了哪些記憶

基礎設施

• 查詢日誌 — 每次查詢記錄 ID、數量、延遲
• 評估指標 — 採用率、查詢統計、健康度指標
• 壓縮 — 批次清理過期記憶
• CLI — am add、am query、am validate、am status、am list
• MCP Server — 10 個工具，支援 Claude Code / Cursor
• REST API — FastAPI + OpenAPI 文件
• GitHub Action — CI 記憶品質檢查，過期引用直接擋 PR
• 路徑安全 — repo 邊界強制檢查，防止路徑穿越

與其他方案比較

	mem0	Zep	LangMem	memcite
向量搜尋	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
強制引用	No	No	No	Yes
來源驗證	No	No	No	Yes
過期偵測	No	No	No	Yes
Repo 範圍	No	No	No	Yes
記憶分類	No	No	No	Yes
衝突偵測	No	No	No	Yes
採用追蹤	No	No	No	Yes
自架部署	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

授權

MIT