Basic Memory: Markdown notes that you and your agent share

Many memory servers keep everything in a database you can’t see or edit; if the agent remembers something wrong, you have to ask it to fix itself. Basic Memory goes the other way. Each memory is a Markdown file on your disk, so you can open the agent’s notes in any editor or Obsidian and change them, and the agent can search the notes you write. Observations and [[wikilinks]] inside the notes become a knowledge graph the agent can walk for context.

What it does

• Note tools: write_note, read_note, edit_note, move_note and delete_note; write_note guards against accidental overwrites.
• Search and navigation: search_notes does semantic and hybrid search with optional cross-encoder reranking, build_context follows memory:// URLs through linked notes, and recent_activity shows what changed.
• Projects: one install can hold several memory projects, say work and personal.
• Annotated tools: every tool carries MCP read-only, destructive and idempotent hints, so agents can pick tools without trial and error.

Who it’s for

• People who already keep notes in Obsidian or plain text and want Claude or Codex to read and extend them.
• Developers and consultants juggling several projects who are tired of re-briefing the agent every session.

Setup

The local version needs Python and uv. Keep --prerelease=allow; the current release depends on a FastMCP pre-release:

uv tool install basic-memory --prerelease=allow
claude mcp add basic-memory -- uvx --prerelease=allow basic-memory mcp

The README has matching snippets for Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code.

Our take

About 4,100 stars as of 2026-10-06. It solves the same problem as the official Memory server and Hindsight, but puts human readability first: the data is plain text you can sync and back up with Git or Syncthing and take with you to other tools. That matters if you need to audit what the agent actually remembered. Three caveats. The agent can delete and move notes. The top of the README is mostly a pitch for the $15/month cloud version; the local version is free with the same features, minus built-in sync. And the license is AGPL-3.0, so offering a modified version as a network service means publishing your changes.