swadb 0.2.0

Sovereign agent memory system: tiered knowledge, knowledge graph, MCP-native, multi-agent.

swadb

A sovereign, local-first agent memory system with tiered knowledge, an empirical knowledge graph, MCP-native agent communication, multi-agent support, markdown authoring, and external chat migration.

swadb was formerly branded AgentDB — the GitHub repository URL still reflects the old name.

Apache-2.0 License — Sultani Investments, LLC

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What It Does

swadb gives AI agents persistent, structured memory. It stores what the agent learns across conversations, organizes it into short-term, midterm, and long-term tiers, and retrieves the most relevant context when the agent needs it. The entire system lives in a single portable SQLite file.

The defining architectural principle is demand-constructed context. swadb doesn't accumulate conversation history in a growing context window and compress it when the window fills (the accumulate-and-compact model). Instead, every turn constructs a fresh, purpose-built context payload by querying the database for memories, entities, goals, and skills relevant to the current query. Nothing accumulates. Nothing gets compressed. The LLM sees exactly what the retrieval pipeline determines is relevant — scored and ranked across all three tiers, weighted by confidence, recency, and graph proximity. A conversation that runs for six hours gets the same retrieval quality on message 500 as it did on message 5.

Core Capabilities

• Tiered memory with automatic promotion, decay, vectorized consolidation, and confidence boosting
• Knowledge graph connecting memories, entities, skills, and goals through 10 typed edge types
• Multi-agent support with scoped memory access per agent and shared organizational knowledge
• 9-stage retrieval pipeline combining semantic search, BM25, graph traversal, temporal weighting, and cross-encoder reranking
• MCP server exposing 9 memory tools via stdio and SSE transports, with crash recovery
• Chat interface with streaming LLM responses, full observability sidebar, and file attachments
• Markdown authoring for direct knowledge injection via 4 document types, with YAML hardening
• Chat migration from ChatGPT, Claude, and generic JSONL exports via 5-phase pipeline
• Provider-agnostic LLM middleware with adapters for Claude, OpenAI, and local LLMs (Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio)
• DB console with AI-assisted natural language to SQL query generation
• Sleep-time reflection for idle-period consolidation, goal monitoring, graph pruning, and custom alerts (6 condition types)
• Skill execution engine with sandboxed subprocess execution and 4 execution types
• Conversation threads for named, resumable multi-session conversations
• Memory pinning for always-in-context critical knowledge
• File attachment processing for PDF, text, code, and CSV extraction
• Git-backed knowledge sync for version-controlled agent knowledge
• Workspace scanning for local file environment awareness
• Mind map visualization of the knowledge graph via Canvas 2D
• Tauri desktop shell with sidecar management, system tray, and auto-restart
• Full audit trail of every operation on every table
• Optional SQLCipher encryption at rest
• Single-file portability — copy the .db file to any machine and it works

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or later

Install

pip install swadb              # core
pip install swadb[ann]         # + hnswlib (HNSW index, recommended once memory count > ~10k)
pip install swadb[encryption]  # + sqlcipher3 (at-rest DB encryption)
pip install swadb[all]         # both extras

For development:

git clone https://github.com/gsultani1/AgentDB.git
cd AgentDB
pip install -e .[dev]   # editable install with pytest, build, twine

Initialize the Database

swadb init

This creates swadb.db in the current directory with all tables, triggers, indexes, FTS5 virtual tables, default configuration values, and a default agent.

Verify

swadb verify
swadb stats
swadb config list

Start the Server

swadb serve

The server starts on http://127.0.0.1:8420. Open that URL in a browser for the management UI.

• Management UI: http://127.0.0.1:8420/
• Operator API: http://127.0.0.1:8420/api/
• Agent API: http://127.0.0.1:8420/api/agent/
• MCP Server (SSE): http://127.0.0.1:8421/ (auto-started with the UI)

Use a Custom Database Path

swadb --db /path/to/my.db init
swadb --db /path/to/my.db serve --port 9000

Both swadb <command> (the installed console script) and python -m swadb.cli <command> (module form) work and are equivalent.

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Project Structure

AgentDB/
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt                    # Python deps: sentence-transformers, numpy, mcp
├── package.json                        # Tauri CLI config
├── swadb/                              # Python backend (23 modules, 14,000+ lines)
│   ├── __init__.py                     # Package init, version
│   ├── schema.py                       # Table DDL, triggers, indexes, FTS5
│   ├── database.py                     # Connection management, init, SQLCipher support
│   ├── crud.py                         # CRUD operations for all tables
│   ├── embeddings.py                   # Sentence-transformers, cosine similarity, BM25
│   ├── context.py                      # 9-stage retrieval pipeline with cross-encoder
│   ├── middleware.py                   # LLM adapters, provider resolution chain
│   ├── consolidation.py               # Vectorized clustering, promotion, decay, confidence boosting
│   ├── sleep.py                        # Sleep-time reflection: goals, pruning, alerts
│   ├── skill_executor.py              # Sandboxed skill execution engine (4 types)
│   ├── markdown_parser.py             # Markdown authoring: 4 doc types, YAML hardening
│   ├── migration.py                   # Chat import: ChatGPT, Claude, JSONL
│   ├── file_processor.py             # PDF/text/code/CSV extraction for file attachments
│   ├── git_sync.py                    # Git knowledge repository sync
│   ├── workspace_scanner.py           # Workspace file scanning and embedding
│   ├── mcp_server.py                  # FastMCP server (9 tools, SSE+stdio, crash recovery)
│   ├── scheduler.py                   # Interval-based task runner
│   ├── server.py                      # HTTP server with 100+ API endpoints
│   ├── cli.py                         # Command-line interface
│   └── static/                        # Management UI
│       ├── index.html                 # SPA shell
│       ├── css/
│       │   └── main.css               # Responsive styling with CSS custom properties
│       └── js/
│           ├── app.js                 # Router, sidebar, core UI logic
│           └── views/                 # View modules (18 views)
│               ├── dashboard.js       # Stats overview
│               ├── chat.js            # Streaming LLM chat with observability
│               ├── memories.js        # Memory browser with pinning
│               ├── mindmap.js         # Canvas-based knowledge graph
│               ├── editor.js          # Markdown authoring editor
│               ├── skills.js          # Skill management and execution
│               ├── import.js          # Chat migration wizard
│               ├── dbconsole.js       # AI-assisted SQL console
│               ├── mcp.js             # MCP server status and tools
│               ├── scheduler.js       # Scheduled task management
│               ├── settings.js        # Full configuration UI
│               ├── connect.js         # Entities and goals management
│               ├── notifications.js   # Notification queue browser
│               ├── feedback.js        # Feedback review and processing
│               ├── audit.js           # Audit log viewer
│               ├── threads.js         # Conversation threads
│               ├── channels.js        # External channel management
│               └── tasks.js           # Autonomous task monitoring
├── src-tauri/                          # Tauri desktop shell (Rust)
│   ├── Cargo.toml                     # Rust dependencies
│   ├── src/main.rs                    # Sidecar spawning, health monitoring, tray
│   ├── tauri.conf.json                # App config, CSP, window settings
│   ├── icons/                         # App icons
│   └── capabilities/                  # Tauri capability definitions
└── docs/
    ├── QUICKSTART.md                  # 5-minute getting started tutorial
    ├── ARCHITECTURE.md                # System architecture deep dive
    ├── API_REFERENCE.md               # Full API endpoint reference (100+ endpoints)
    ├── SCHEMA_REFERENCE.md            # Database schema details (30+ tables)
    └── DEVELOPMENT.md                 # Development setup and contribution guide

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Running Tests

pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
python -m pytest tests/ -v

Fast unit + integration suite (~45s on a laptop). The default config skips the embedding-model warmup test (-m "not slow") and auto-skips encryption tests if sqlcipher3 isn't installed. To run the full suite including those:

python -m pytest tests/ -v -m ""

The suite is organized to catch the "broken handler shape" bug class — every CRUD function with a non-trivial signature has a dedicated test in tests/test_crud_signatures.py. Add one when you ship a new endpoint.

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CLI Reference

All commands accept --db <path> to specify the database file. Default is swadb.db.

Command	Description
init	Create a new database with full schema
init --force	Overwrite an existing database
verify	Check that all tables exist
stats	Show row counts for all tables
config list	List all configuration values
config get <key>	Get a single config value
config set <key> <value>	Set a config value
memory add <content>	Add a short-term memory
memory add <content> --source markdown_authored	Add with specific source
memory add <content> --no-embedding	Skip embedding generation
memory list short|mid|long	List memories from a tier
memory search <query> --tier short|mid|long	Semantic search
entity list	List all entities
entity list --type person	Filter by entity type
session start	Start a new session
session end <id>	End a session
serve	Start the HTTP server
serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000	Custom bind address
mcp	Start the MCP server (stdio mode)

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Database Schema

Tables organized into five groups:

Memory Tables — short_term_memory, midterm_memory, long_term_memory All three carry an agent_id column for multi-agent scoping. Short-term entries have TTL-based expiration. Midterm entries have confidence scores and decay weights. Long-term entries require high confidence and are validated periodically.

Knowledge Infrastructure — agents, skills, skill_implementations, relations, entities, goals, tags, tag_assignments The agents table registers every agent that uses the system. The relations table is a polymorphic knowledge graph connecting any row in any table to any other row. skills are domain-agnostic capabilities discovered by semantic similarity at inference time. skill_implementations stores versioned executable code per skill.

Workspace Awareness — workspaces, workspace_files Anchors the agent's understanding of local file environments.

Operational Support — sessions, meta_config, llm_providers, contradictions, audit_log, feedback, context_snapshots, notification_queue, scheduled_tasks Sessions group interactions. Config is stored in-database for portability. The llm_providers table is the canonical source for LLM configuration (flat meta_config LLM keys are synced for backward compatibility but deprecated). Every write operation is logged to the immutable audit log. The notification queue holds proactive alerts. Scheduled tasks power interval-based automation.

Performance — views, embeddings_cache Named graph projections for the mind map. Precomputed similarity scores.

All referential integrity for polymorphic associations is enforced through SQLite triggers, not application code. Cascade deletes clean up relations, tags, and feedback when content rows are removed. FTS5 virtual tables (short_term_memory_fts, midterm_memory_fts, long_term_memory_fts) enable BM25 keyword search.

---

MCP Server

swadb exposes its memory system as MCP tools via FastMCP, supporting both stdio and SSE transports.

Tools exposed:

Tool	Description
retrieve_context	Semantic context retrieval for a query
ingest_memory	Store an observation as short-term memory
search_memories	Semantic search across memory tiers
list_memories	List memories from a specific tier
create_entity	Add a node to the knowledge graph
list_entities	Browse entities by type
check_goals	Find active goals relevant to context
get_health	Health status check
run_consolidation	Trigger memory consolidation cycle

Run via CLI:

# stdio mode (for MCP clients like Claude Desktop)
swadb mcp

# SSE mode (auto-started with the HTTP server on port 8421)
swadb serve

Configuration (in meta_config):

Key	Default	Description
mcp_enabled	true	Enable/disable MCP server
mcp_transport	sse	Transport mode: stdio or sse
mcp_port	8421	SSE server port

---

Configuration

System configuration lives in the meta_config table inside the database. LLM provider configuration lives in the llm_providers table (the row with is_default = 1 is used by the middleware). Key settings:

Key	Default	Description
embedding_model	all-MiniLM-L6-v2	Local embedding model (384 dimensions)
consolidation_interval_seconds	300	How often consolidation runs
promotion_confidence_threshold	0.8	Minimum confidence for midterm→long promotion
clustering_similarity_threshold	0.85	Cosine similarity threshold for clustering
stm_default_ttl_seconds	3600	Default TTL for short-term memories
decay_rate_multiplier	1.0	Controls how fast midterm memories decay
markdown_inbox_path	(empty)	Directory to watch for markdown files
markdown_watch_enabled	false	Enable/disable the file watcher
bm25_enabled	true	Enable BM25 keyword search in retrieval
graph_traversal_enabled	true	Enable graph traversal in retrieval
temporal_boost_enabled	true	Enable recency weighting in retrieval
reranker_enabled	false	Enable cross-encoder reranking
sleep_idle_threshold_seconds	300	Idle time before sleep processing activates
sleep_reflection_enabled	true	Enable sleep-time reflection
scheduler_enabled	true	Enable scheduled task runner
db_console_write_enabled	false	Allow write queries in the DB console
encryption_enabled	false	SQLCipher encryption at rest

Set any value via CLI:

swadb config set embedding_model all-MiniLM-L6-v2
swadb config set consolidation_interval_seconds 600

Or via the Settings page in the management UI. LLM providers are managed through the provider management interface in Settings, not through flat config keys.

---

Markdown Authoring

Create agent knowledge by writing markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Four document types:

Memory — Direct knowledge injection into long-term memory at confidence 1.0:

---
type: memory
category: fact
tags: [hardware, pricing]
entities: [Orgill, Whitten Hardware]
---

Orgill offers 60-day net terms on hardware orders over $500.

Instruction — Behavioral directives injected into every conversation:

---
type: instruction
priority: high
tags: [behavior]
---

Always respond in a direct, no-fluff style. Never hedge.

Skill — Capability definitions with executable code:

---
type: skill
execution_type: code_procedure
language: python
dependencies: [requests]
---

# API Health Check

Check if an API endpoint is responding.

```python
def execute(url):
    import requests
    r = requests.get(url, timeout=10)
    return {"status": r.status_code, "ok": r.ok}
```

Knowledge — Long-form documents chunked on headings:

---
type: knowledge
title: Vendor SOP
tags: [sop, operations]
entities: [Whitten Hardware]
---

## Ordering Process

Place orders through the portal by Wednesday for Friday delivery.

## Returns

Returns accepted within 30 days with original invoice.

Submit via the Markdown Editor in the UI, the /api/markdown/submit endpoint, or by dropping .md files into the configured inbox directory.

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Management UI

The browser-based management UI at http://127.0.0.1:8420/ provides 18 views:

View	Description
Dashboard	Stats overview with memory counts, entity totals, and system health
Chat	Streaming LLM conversation interface with full observability sidebar
Memories	Browse, search, and inspect memories across all three tiers with pinning
Mind Map	Interactive canvas-based knowledge graph visualization
Markdown Editor	Author and submit knowledge documents (4 types)
Skills	Manage and execute capabilities with logging
Chat Import	Migration wizard for ChatGPT, Claude, and JSONL exports
DB Console	AI-assisted natural language to SQL query interface
MCP	MCP server status, tools, and crash recovery state
Scheduler	Manage interval-based automated tasks
Settings	LLM providers, retrieval tuning, encryption, alerts, and system config
Connect	Entities, goals, and knowledge graph management
Notifications	Proactive alert queue with priority filtering
Feedback	Review endorsements, corrections, and annotations
Audit Log	Immutable record of all database operations
Threads	Named, resumable conversation threads
Channels	External messaging channel configuration
Tasks	Autonomous task monitoring and management

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Deployment Models

Headless mode (available now): Run the Python backend standalone. The HTTP server, agent API, MCP server, and management UI are available on localhost. Suitable for servers, edge devices, and environments without a GUI.

Desktop mode: Tauri 2.x shell bundles the Python backend as a sidecar, manages process lifecycle, provides system tray integration with health monitoring, and auto-restarts on failure. The Tauri shell is implemented with sidecar spawning, health monitoring, system tray, and auto-restart.

Both modes use the identical .db file. A database created in one mode works in the other.

---

Implementation Status

Phase	Status	Scope
1. Foundation	Complete	Schema (30+ tables + FTS5), triggers, CRUD, embeddings, CLI
2. Agent Communication & MCP	Complete	MCP server (SSE+stdio), REST agent API, 9-stage retrieval, middleware
3. Consolidation Engine	Complete	Vectorized clustering, confidence boosting, promotion, decay, contradiction detection
4. Markdown Authoring	Complete	4 doc types, YAML hardening, chunking, deduplication, file watcher
5. Migration Pipeline	Complete	ChatGPT, Claude, JSONL parsers, 5-phase pipeline
6. User Interface	Complete	18-view modular SPA with chat, mind map, DB console, threads
7. Performance Engineering	Complete	Vectorized clustering, cross-encoder reranker, graph pruning optimization, MCP crash recovery
8. Tauri Shell	Implemented	Sidecar spawning, health monitoring, system tray, auto-restart
9. Sleep-Time Processing	Complete	Idle detection, goal monitoring, graph pruning, custom alerts (6 types)
10. Additional Features	Complete	Skill execution, file attachments, git sync, workspace scanning, threads, memory pinning

---

Technology Stack

Component	Technology
Database	SQLite 3 with WAL mode, FTS5, optional SQLCipher encryption
Backend	Python 3.10+ (no web framework — built on http.server)
Embeddings	sentence-transformers >= 3.0 / all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (384 dimensions, local)
Vector math	numpy >= 1.24
MCP	FastMCP (mcp >= 1.0.0) with stdio and SSE transports
UI	Modular SPA — HTML + CSS + vanilla ES6 JavaScript (18 view modules)
Desktop shell	Tauri 2.x (Rust core, native webview, sidecar management)

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Documentation

Detailed documentation is in the docs/ directory:

• QUICKSTART.md — Build a persistent agent personality in 5 minutes
• ARCHITECTURE.md — System layers, module map, data flows, and design principles
• API_REFERENCE.md — Full HTTP endpoint reference (100+ endpoints)
• SCHEMA_REFERENCE.md — Database table definitions (30+ tables)
• DEVELOPMENT.md — Development setup, MCP integration, and contribution guide

Package-user documentation (installation, configuration, HTTP API, MCP, CLI, extras, troubleshooting) is in api_documentation/.

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License

Apache-2.0 — Sultani Investments, LLC.