mcp-memory/README.md

mcp-memory

A high-performance, persistent Knowledge Graph and Context daemon for Antigravity, implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP). `

Overview

mcp-memory acts as the persistent "brain" for the agy CLI agents. It tracks entities, relations, background tasks, engineering debt, and architectural decisions across sessions. ` To eliminate heavy Cross-OS I/O penalties when using WSL and Windows simultaneously, mcp-memory operates using a Dual-Transport Leader/Stub Architecture:

• The Server (mcp-memory-server): Runs natively on the Windows host. It binds to .0.0.0:3000, serving standard stdio to the primary Windows agy instance while simultaneously hosting an Axum HTTP server for secondary clients.
• The Stub (mcp-memory-stub): An ultra-lightweight proxy binary. WSL agy instances run this native Linux stub, which transparently pipes stdio JSON-RPC traffic over the network to the Windows HTTP server (http://127.0.0.1:3000), completely bypassing WSL NTFS mounts. It features full MPSC queue buffering and a WebSocket reconnect handshake (notifications/tools/list_changed) so that tools automatically refresh seamlessly without disconnecting the CLI if the background server restarts. `

Quick Start & Usage

1. Windows Installation (The Server & Stub)

To enforce strict process safety and eliminate file locks on Windows, the build, deploy, and execution lifecycle are entirely decoupled in the justfile.

The Golden Rule: You must gracefully stop the server before deploying a new binary. Deploy recipes only copy files; they do not kill processes.

The easiest way to manage this end-to-end (Stop -> Build -> Deploy -> Start) is using the chaining commands: ``powershell

For the main server:

just all-server-win

For the lightweight stubs/nvim servers:

just all-stub-win just all-nvim-win ``

If you want to perform these steps manually, you must follow this exact order to avoid NTFS locks: powershell just stop # 1. Gracefully shut down the background server (TCP 3000) just build-win # 2. Compile the binaries just deploy-win # 3. Move the executables into ~/.local/bin/ just start # 4. Spawns the daemon completely detached in the background just verify # 5. Hits the /ping endpoint to ensure liveness

Step 1: To bypass Antigravity's lazy-loading and ensure the server is instantly available for WSL, configure your PowerShell profile to auto-start the background server when you open a terminal: ``powershell

Add this to your PowerShell profile (ensuring it only fires on initial load, not background threads):

if ($host.Name -eq 'ConsoleHost' -and -not (Get-Process mcp-memory-server -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Users\reazul.ashraf.local\bin\mcp-memory-server.exe" -WindowStyle Hidden -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue } ``

Shutting Down & Managing: If you need to stop, start, or restart the background daemon, NEVER use brute-force OS kill commands (e.g., Stop-Process, pkill). ALWAYS use the justfile wrappers, which trigger a graceful /shutdown over HTTP: powershell just start just stop just restart Alternatively, you can gracefully shut down the server by invoking the executable with the --exit flag (mcp-memory-server.exe --exit) or hitting the HTTP endpoint (POST http://127.0.0.1:3000/shutdown). **Step 2:** Update your Windows ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json to point the CLI to the ultra-lightweight stub (since the server is already running in the background):json { "mcpServers": { "memory": { "command": "C:\Users\reazul.ashraf\.local\bin\mcp-memory-stub.exe", "args": [] } } }

2. WSL / Linux Installation (The Stub)

Compile the ultra-lightweight stub as a native Linux binary directly from WSL (we do not use zigbuild):

just deploy-stub-wsl

Update your WSL ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json:json { "mcpServers": { "memory": { "command": "/home/riz/.local/bin/mcp-memory-stub", "args": [ "--target", "http://127.0.0.1:3000", "--wake-cmd", "powershell.exe -NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -Command "Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Users\reazul.ashraf\.local\bin\mcp-memory-server.exe' -WindowStyle Hidden"" ] } } } *Note: The --wake-cmd ensures that if you start WSL while Windows is completely asleep, the Linux stub will use WSL interop to silently spin up the Windows daemon in the background before connecting.*

Push Safety Gates

The daemon also operates as a global safety gate for Git. Before pushing code, run: ash mcp-memory gate verify This queries the daemon (via HTTP) to confirm if pre-push validation (like running tests via PrePushAuditor) has been cleared by the agent. `

Brain Monitor Dashboard

The server hosts a live, real-time SPA dashboard called the Brain Monitor.

To view the dashboard, simply navigate to the root endpoint in your browser while the server is running: http://127.0.0.1:3000/

Dashboard Features:

• Interactive Knowledge Graph: A full physics-simulated network graph with node-type coloring, a drag-to-pan canvas, and an interactive Inspector Panel. Click any node to instantly view its stored observations.
• Actionable Kanban Board: Visually track all active agent Tasks. You can click 'Complete' directly from the UI to trigger a POST /api/tasks/{id}/complete REST call back to the daemon without needing the CLI.
• 📋 Inspect Clipboard (Image Capture): Visually review OS-level clipboard images directly in the browser via the new /api/clipboard/capture endpoint, allowing the agent to dynamically 'see' screenshot errors or UI wireframes.
• Sticky Notes & Search: Browse your ephemeral notes and utilize the integrated fuzzy-search bar to locate graph entities instantly.
• Native Dark Mode: Fully styled for modern development environments.

Rich Clipboard Tools

The memory server provides powerful, cross-OS native clipboard capabilities allowing the agent to inject and extract rich data. Because of the Leader/Stub architecture, all operations map directly to the Windows Host OS clipboard, regardless of whether the agent is running in Windows or WSL Ubuntu:

• Text & HTML: Read and write plain text or rich HTML formatting (using clipboard-win).
• File Drops (CF_HDROP): Read absolute file paths that were copied in Windows Explorer, or place file paths into the clipboard so the user can easily Ctrl+V them into IDEs or Explorer. (Note: Linux paths must be translated to \wsl.localhost... UNC paths first).
• Images: Read screenshots, and write generated images directly into the clipboard (using rboard).

You can also programmatically query the live backing APIs: curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/ping curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/stats curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/graph curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/tasks

Further Reading

For a deep dive into the architecture, the Redb LSM-tree embedded database, tantivy indexing, and the HTTP SSE event loop, consult the design.md file in this repository.

Neovim Integration

The linux-nvim and win-nvim MCP servers provide direct Msgpack-RPC communication with Neovim. For this to work flawlessly across multiple Neovim instances (even split across Windows and WSL), you must load the provided gemini-integration.lua file in your Neovim init.lua: lua dofile("C:/Users/reazul.ashraf/workspace/rust/mcp-memory/gemini-integration.lua")

The "Last Focused Wins" Architecture

When you use the gemini-integration.lua script, Neovim acts as an active telemetry broadcaster. Whenever you alt-tab into a Neovim window (FocusGained) or switch files (BufEnter):

1. Fallback Sync: Neovim instantly writes its unique Session ID (Named Pipe / Unix Socket) to ~/.gemini/active_nvim.txt.
2. WebSocket Telemetry: Neovim pushes a JSON payload containing the active filename, cursor row, and column via a connectionless UDP datagram to the Rust server's port 3002 listener.
3. UI Broadcast: The Rust server updates the global state and broadcasts this over WebSockets (/ws) so that the Brain Monitor Dashboard can animate your active file live in the UI!

Interactive UDP UI (New)

The UI script (gemini-ui.lua) provides a deeply integrated, non-blocking pair-programming experience using zero-latency UDP:

• Interactive Prompts: The agent can trigger native vim.ui.select or vim.ui.input dialogs in your editor. Your responses are instantly routed back to the agent via UDP.
• Smart Context (<leader>ai): Highlighting code and pressing <leader>ai will package your prompt, file, and exact cursor/selection coordinates into a UDP packet and send it directly to the agent without spawning any subprocesses.
• Ghost Text Diffs (Non-Destructive Review): Instead of modifying your buffers directly, the agent uses extmarks to overlay proposed code changes as grayed-out "Ghost Text".
  • Press <leader>aa (Agent Accept) to apply the change and notify the agent.
  • Press <leader>ar (Agent Reject) to dismiss the change and notify the agent.

Neovim MCP Tools

The LLM agent interacts with your active Neovim session using a dedicated set of MCP tools. (Note: /nvim/telemetry is strictly a one-way webhook for Neovim; the LLM uses the tools below to interact).

• vim_goto_line: Open files and jump cursors directly from the LLM.
• vim_set_diagnostics: Push inline code review warnings as virtual text.
• vim_get_active_buffer: Read live, unsaved buffer contents.
• vim_get_cursor: Fetch precise line/column coordinates.
• vim_get_visual_selection: Read highlighted code blocks.

Enhanced Developer Tools

• AST Skeleton Extractor ( ead_file_skeleton): Uses ree-sitter to parse large code files (Rust, Python, TS/JS) and return an AST structural outline containing only Imports, Structs, Enums, Traits, and Functions, massively saving LLM tokens.
• Git Context (get_active_worktree_context): Uses native git2 C-bindings to retrieve the active branch, modified files, and a truncated local patch diff without shell parsing overhead.
• Rolling Log Watcher: Background background polling endpoints (watch_process_logs / get_recent_logs) to instantly debug daemon crashes.
• Clipboard Watch Mode ( oggle_clipboard_watch_mode): Background daemon thread that auto-ingests your Ctrl+C clipboard activity directly into Knowledge Graph StickyNotes while you debug.
• Ghost Text Previews ( vim_set_preview): Pushes proposed LLM code diffs directly into Neovim buffers as ephemeral virtual text.
• Prompting Guide & Effective Discourse: Learn how to phrase prompts to get the most out of the agent and memory server.

T2R & Token Efficiency Enhancements (V2)

• AST Node Replacer ( eplace_ast_node): Uses ree-sitter to deterministically edit functions and structs without relying on exact line numbers or regex matching, ensuring zero syntax breaking edits.
• Semantic Code Search (semantic_code_search): Integrates local vector embeddings to execute conceptual code searches instead of blind grep regexes, preventing hallucinated token consumption.
• Interactive Terminal Integrations ( vim_send_to_terminal): Proxies shell execution into visible Neovim splits so human operators can watch agents compile code, debug output, and intervene interactively.
• Bird's Eye Architecture View ( ead_directory_architecture): Generates a high-level summary of workspace directories using heuristic analysis to prevent LLMs from wasting tokens on reading dozens of files while exploring new repos.