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What is OpenReflex

OpenReflex gives AI coding agents ambient project muscle memory across coding, investigation, and reasoning work. Lifecycle hooks quietly record how work actually goes, compile repeated project behaviour into reusable Reflexes, and inject only the relevant project procedure into new tasks. The model does not need to remember to call OpenReflex, and MCP diagnostics are opt-in rather than loaded into normal agent context.

You install it once and keep working normally. Core memory stays on your machine in a local SQLite database. There is no OpenReflex account or hosted service. Optional Claude token accounting uses Claude Code's local OpenTelemetry export to a loopback-only OpenReflex receiver and stores counts only.

Recording of a Claude Code session with OpenReflex: OpenReflex injects compact prior context, Claude fixes the task and runs verification, and lifecycle hooks close the outcome automatically
A recorded Claude Code session. OpenReflex injects compact relevant context before work; lifecycle hooks capture tools and verification and close the execution automatically. MCP is not required for the normal path. The step-by-step walkthrough is in docs/walkthrough.md.

Why OpenReflex

  • It learns how the project behaves. OpenReflex compiles successful work into project-scoped Reflexes such as authentication changes, Helm configuration, database migrations or CI work. Resolution combines semantic intent, task family and module/file locality, so a novel task can reuse a project procedure without repeating an earlier task.
  • It catches loops while they happen. Repeated failing commands, identical retries, stalled progress, and runaway context growth raise one alert that says whether to continue, pivot to another approach, or stop and check in with you, never a stream of nags.
  • It learns after every task. Build work closes against tests/lint/build evidence; investigations can close against cross-checked sources; reasoning-only work can complete without external tools. A simple Path check only names a better option when comparable past tasks actually support one.
  • It is private by design. Only coarse, project-relative metadata is stored. File contents, commands, tool output, and transcripts never are, and capture is off until you approve a project.

Before a task: retrieve similar experience, score candidate paths, inject context and a budget. During a task: watch every tool call, flag loops and stalls, advise continue, pivot or stop. After a task: close the outcome using evidence appropriate to the work, run a simple Path check, extract lessons. Lessons feed the Experience Graph for the next task.

Quick start

Requires Python 3.11 or newer.

pipx install openreflex            # or: uv tool install openreflex
cd your-project
openreflex install claude-code     # hooks-only ambient runtime; enables this project
OPENREFLEX / CONNECT
  agent       claude-code
  project     D:\demo\shop
  config      updated 2 files
              D:\demo\shop\.openreflex.json
              D:\demo\shop\.claude\settings.json
  memory      enabled
  storage     local

  [ok] reflex active

Then work as usual. After a few tasks:

openreflex context "fix the login redirect bug"   # preview the context a task would receive
openreflex status                                 # what has been captured and learned
openreflex doctor                                 # installation checks and recent hook errors
openreflex update --check                         # check the latest stable release

Package updates preserve local memory and project configuration. Managed pipx and uv tool installs can use openreflex update, openreflex update --reinstall, or openreflex self reinstall. To remove only the package, use openreflex self uninstall --yes; project memory is preserved. A fresh bootstrap still starts with pipx install openreflex or uv tool install openreflex because the openreflex command does not exist before installation.

Use it with your agent

OpenReflex installs per project with openreflex install <agent>, or as a plugin.

Agent Connects through Install Verified
Claude Code Plugin hooks, or project hooks claude plugin marketplace add vishnu-77/openreflex then claude plugin install openreflex@openreflex, or openreflex install claude-code Live sessions
Codex Plugin hooks, or project hooks codex plugin marketplace add vishnu-77/openreflex, or openreflex install codex, then trust the hooks once in /hooks Live sessions
Cursor Lifecycle hooks openreflex install cursor Protocol and fuzz tests
OpenCode Local lifecycle plugin openreflex install opencode Protocol and fuzz tests

With a plugin install, enable each project with openreflex approve. Per-agent guides: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode.

How it works

Hooks send lifecycle events (prompt, tool start, tool end, compaction, stop) to the OpenReflex engine, which stores them in an Experience Graph:

Task -caused-> Execution -used-> Context -used-> Experience
CandidatePath -recommended_for-> Task            Lesson -recommended_for-> Task
Execution -failed_with-> ToolCall -resolved_by-> ToolCall
Execution -caused-> Outcome -caused-> Experience -caused-> Lesson
  • Before a task: similar experiences are retrieved and OpenReflex first identifies the work mode. BUILD uses inspect-first, test-first, and incremental; INVESTIGATE uses source-first, cross-check, and broad-then-deep; THINK uses reason-first, compare-options, and evidence-first. Paths are ranked using past evidence, estimated cost, risk, uncertainty and reversibility. A compact context is injected only when relevant experience exists.
  • During a task: when a detector finds a failure loop, repeated calls, stalled progress, context growth, or work past the budget, OpenReflex estimates the marginal value of more work. The current path's success estimate is updated with each call that makes no progress or fails, and compared with the cost of the work left and with the best untried alternative. The alert ends with a recommendation to continue, pivot to another strategy, or stop and ask the user. Each problem, pivot, or stop is raised once, with a cooldown between messages.
  • After a task: lifecycle hooks close the execution automatically from work-mode-appropriate evidence; the model does not need to call OpenReflex. Explicit MCP outcome/path operations remain available only for manual or diagnostic workflows. The Path check says either better option: <path> when comparable completed tasks support it or better option: none proven. Recommendations are never presented as paths that were actually executed.

Every recommendation is stored as a decision snapshot with a Reflex Score (0-100): how strong the recommendation is, which is separate from the estimated chance that the task succeeds. openreflex why explains the latest decision and openreflex trace shows the timeline. In Claude Code, a short recap appears when a task starts, when OpenReflex recommends a pivot or stop or detects trouble, and when the task completes.

Set optional limits for every task with OPENREFLEX_BUDGET, for example calls=40,minutes=20,tokens=60000. Routing, scoring, budget and recap settings come from a versioned policy: the packaged defaults, overridden by ~/.openreflex/config.toml and then by .openreflex.toml in the project.

Normal work does not load OpenReflex MCP tools. If you explicitly want model-facing introspection for a project, enable it with openreflex diagnostics enable <agent>. Disable it again with openreflex diagnostics disable <agent>. The standalone MCP Registry package remains available for users who deliberately install OpenReflex as an MCP server.

The optional MCP diagnostics/admin tools
Tool What it does
get_execution_context Plan a task: similar past tasks, the suggested strategy with alternatives, a budget, likely files, lessons. Optional max_tool_calls, max_minutes, max_context_tokens.
check_progress Whether more work on the current path is worth it: continue, pivot or stop.
choose_path Declare the strategy being followed when it differs from the suggestion.
record_outcome Record a confirmed outcome (tests/builds, cross-checked research, user confirmation, or failure) and learn from it.
explain_decision Why the latest recommendation was made: Reflex Score, signals, confidence, next-best route.
get_execution_trace The decision timeline of the most recent task.
get_reflex_score The latest Reflex Score and its components as JSON.
search_experience Past tasks in the project by description similarity, with their lessons.
explain_node One Experience Graph node and its relations.
get_project_insights What has been recorded, reused and learned in the project.
approve_project Enable capture, only when the user explicitly asks.
forget_experience Delete one past task's memory, only when the user explicitly asks.

CLI

Command Purpose
install <agent> [--dry-run] Install the hooks-only ambient runtime and enable the project
diagnostics enable/disable <agent> Explicitly opt in/out of model-facing MCP diagnostics
uninstall <agent> [--dry-run] Remove OpenReflex's integration entries; captured memory is kept
update [--check] [--reinstall] Check or update a managed pipx/uv-tool installation; optionally force a reinstall
self reinstall Repair/reinstall the managed OpenReflex package while preserving memory/config
self uninstall --yes Remove only the managed OpenReflex package; memory/config remain on disk
approve / revoke Enable or disable capture for the current project
context "<task>" Preview the Execution Context a task would receive
status [--json] What has been captured, reused, learned, and how model-token usage compares
why / trace Explain the latest recommendation, or show the decision timeline
doctor Installation, project resolution, and recent hook activity checks
forget --yes Delete the project's data
tokens enable / tokens status / tokens disable Opt in to local Claude Code token accounting, inspect it, or remove OpenReflex-owned telemetry settings
benchmark Run the simulated benchmark
hook <agent> <event> Used by ambient agent integrations
mcp Run the optional diagnostics/admin MCP server explicitly

Privacy

Stored Never stored
Tool name and a coarse category (read, edit, search, test, ...) File contents
A fingerprint of the arguments Command text
Project-relative file paths Tool output
Pass or fail, duration, output size Transcripts and model output
Optional model-token counts, model/source label, estimated cost Prompt/response/tool contents from Claude telemetry
A masked one-line error signature Paths outside the project
The prompt as a task description (up to 1,000 characters, secrets redacted) Anything sent to an OpenReflex-hosted service: there is none

Data lives in ~/.openreflex/projects/<hash>/experience.sqlite3. Set OPENREFLEX_HOME to move it, OPENREFLEX_DISABLE=1 to turn capture off everywhere, openreflex forget --yes to delete a project's data, or ask your agent to forget_experience a single task.

Research

OpenReflex is also a research project in budget-aware execution: instead of treating success as a yes or no, it studies how agents choose execution paths, spend tool calls, model tokens and context, respond to uncertainty, and whether past work makes similar future work cheaper without reducing outcome quality. The loop is experience retrieval, evidence-aware path selection, budget-aware execution, work-mode-specific completion and plain-language path comparison. The Researcher view on the site explains the idea, lets you step through one reflex forming in the graph, and places it next to related work.

Community & Contributing

  • Issues and ideas: GitHub Issues

  • Support the project: Buy me a coffee

  • Develop locally:

    git clone https://github.com/vishnu-77/openreflex && cd openreflex
    pip install -e ".[dev]"
    pytest && ruff check src tests scripts
    
Contributors

OpenReflex is listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.vishnu-77/openreflex and on Glama:

OpenReflex MCP server: quality and maintenance score on Glama

License

OpenReflex is released under the MIT License.

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