Anchored
Persistent cross-tool memory for AI coding agents. Local-first, single binary, zero dependencies.
[
]
Anchored gives Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Codex, VS Code Copilot, and other MCP-compatible tools one shared memory database on your machine.
- Local-first: no account, no cloud dependency, no required API key.
- One binary:
anchored is both the CLI and MCP server.
- Fast retrieval: SQLite FTS5 + local ONNX embeddings + knowledge graph.
- Safe lifecycle: memories are scored, curated, inspected, exported, forgotten, and synced with privacy filters.
For team-shared project memory, the optional self-hosted/server side lives in anchored_oss. Local Anchored remains the source of truth and the hot retrieval path.
What Anchored remembers
Anchored stores small durable memories, not raw chat dumps by default. The public categories stay intentionally simple:
| Category | Use for |
|---|
fact | Stable truths about a user, project, team, stack, API, or system. |
preference | Personal preferences, project conventions, or team rules. Preferences have user/project/team scope. |
decision | Architecture, tooling, naming, process, or product decisions. |
event | Time-bound events: deploys, meetings, incidents, releases. |
learning | Non-obvious lessons, gotchas, root causes, post-mortems. |
plan | Intent, backlog, next steps, TODOs. |
summary | Handoffs, recaps, precompact snapshots, daily/project summaries. |
Behind those categories, Anchored stores lifecycle metadata (memory_type, kind, scope, origin, importance, confidence, expires_at, context_tier, curation_status) so search, context injection, retention, curation, and remote sync make consistent decisions without making the MCP API harder for agents to use.
Core features
- Cross-tool memory — all supported agents read/write the same local memory store.
- Hybrid search — RRF fusion of BM25, local multilingual embeddings, entity detection, project boost, topic diversity, and lifecycle scoring.
- Knowledge graph — pattern-based and explicit subject/predicate/object relationships, scoped by project.
- Memory stack —
anchored_context returns identity, project stats, recent durable knowledge, and recent important session events under a tight budget.
- Curated lifecycle — default-on background curation scores recent memories in small batches and marks low-signal entries without deleting anything.
- Dream review — explicit/manual duplicate and contradiction analysis. Dedup can soft-delete; contradictions require manual review.
- Privacy-first sync — remote preview/sync block local paths, secrets, personal preferences, episodic/operational data, and low-quality memories by default.
- Sandbox and indexing tools — run code, process files, fetch docs, and index large output without flooding the model context.
- Inspection and export — inspect exact metadata, list memories, export JSON/JSONL, restore curation backups, and purge safely.
- Multi-source import — Claude Code JSONL, OpenCode SQLite, Cursor
.mdc, and DevClaw.
Install
From GitHub Releases:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jholhewres/anchored/main/install/install.sh | bash
From source:
git clone https://github.com/jholhewres/anchored.git
cd anchored
make build
sudo cp bin/anchored /usr/local/bin/
First run creates ~/.anchored/ and downloads the local embedding model when needed (~470 MB).
Setup
Claude Code plugin
The plugin is the easiest path because it installs MCP registration, slash commands, hooks, and the auto-trigger skill together:
/plugin marketplace add jholhewres/anchored
/plugin install anchored@anchored
Restart Claude Code after installation. Available slash commands include /anchored:context, /anchored:search, /anchored:save, /anchored:stats, /anchored:doctor, and /anchored:purge.
Running context-mode too? Anchored now ships its own PreToolUse routing —
it steers Read/Grep/Glob/Bash/WebFetch and subagents toward memory and the
sandbox tools, the same mechanism context-mode uses. Running both plugins
means two routing blocks competing for the model's attention, and
context-mode's redirects can shadow Anchored's. Uninstall context-mode for the
cleanest behavior — Anchored covers both the memory and the context-window
story on its own.
MCP only
claude mcp add -s user anchored anchored
