Projectmem

What is AI coding memory?

AI coding memory is a persistent record of what happened while building a project — the issues hit, the approaches attempted, the fixes that worked and the decisions made — stored so an AI coding agent can read it at the start of a new session. Without it every session begins from zero.

projectmem is an open-source agent memory layer built for that job. It is local-first: memory lives in a plain .projectmem/ directory inside your repository, with no cloud, no account and no telemetry. A native MCP server exposes 15 tools to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Antigravity and Codex, so your agent reads memory and logs its work on its own.

Unlike chat-history memory tools, projectmem stores typed events — issues, attempts, fixes, decisions, notes — which is what makes the one thing no other tool does possible: a pre-commit warning that fires before you repeat an approach that already failed.

pip install projectmem
cd your-project && pjm init

🎬 Watch the demo

📚 Docs

The Problem

Every new AI session starts from zero. Claude, Cursor, Aider — they all forget yesterday's decisions, repeat failed debugging attempts, and burn millions of tokens reconstructing context from raw source files.

The model isn't the problem. The architecture is. Stateless models need a memory cortex.

The Solution

projectmem is the local-first memory + judgment layer that sits above your AI tools. It captures every failed attempt, decision, and gotcha — then injects that experience back into future AI sessions. Git tracks what changed. projectmem tracks why it changed, what was tried, and what failed.

Install

pip install projectmem
cd your-project
pjm init

That's it. pjm init installs three git hooks (pre-commit warnings, post-commit classification, post-merge tracking), auto-starts a real-time file watcher, inherits cross-project memory if available, and creates .projectmem/. Capture is active from minute one.

The canonical command is projectmem. A pjm alias is installed for speed.

✨ New in 0.2.0 — the workspace release

0.1.6 made one project's memory something you could watch. 0.2.0 lifts that to your whole workspace — and closes the gap between what happened (memory) and what your code is (structure).

• 🌐 Global dashboard — pjm dashboard is one page over every project you've pjm init-ed: total issues captured, fixes confirmed, dead-ends prevented, tokens saved, a grade per project, and a "needs attention" list. Click any card to open that repo's own dashboard, generated fresh. It's a global view, not a global store — each repo's .projectmem/ is aggregated at read time and never leaves its folder. Default is serverless (a static snapshot); add --serve for a tiny, ephemeral live server where the Refresh button re-reads your files — no background daemon, Ctrl+C stops it.
• 🧬 Structure & relations — pjm map --build (run automatically at pjm init) walks your codebase and, for Python, resolves imports into a real dependency graph. The Project Map's Graph and Flow views now render actual files and the import edges between them. The cache (structure.json) is derived from code, gitignored, and never committed — code is only ever read.
• 🔥 Failure heat on structure (the combo) — the one view a pure code-grapher can't draw and a pure memory tool can't either: files with repeated failed attempts glow red, laid directly over the real import graph. Structure comes from the code, heat comes from your memory, and they meet only in the renderer.
• 🗂️ plan.md — a new editable intent file: ideas and plans, what you mean to do — deliberately not the event log. events.jsonl → summary.md records what happened; plan.md records what you intend. The AI reads it at session start and edits it directly; a plan never becomes an event. pjm plan / pjm plan "idea" / MCP get_plan().

Everything stays 100% local — the global dashboard is a read-time aggregate, never a central honeypot of your code's history.

The visualization suite (shipped in 0.1.6)

Your project's memory is also something you can watch — and share.

• 🎬 Showoff — a dashboard tab with three animated story scenes, all rendered from your real event log: Story Replay (watch your project's history build itself, node by node), Orbit (files orbit the project, events orbit their file), and Universe (your project as a rotating galaxy — every bright star is a real issue, attempt, fix, or decision; click one for its full details).
• ⏺ Built-in recorder — hit REC (10–60 s) and Showoff downloads a .webm clip of the animation, rendered 100% locally with a "made with projectmem" badge. Your debugging story, ready for a tweet or a standup.
• 🗺️ Flow — the Project Map's default view: a layered flowchart reading PROJECT → DIRECTORIES → FILES → WHAT HAPPENED → MEMORY. Files with repeated failures glow red along their path, every file shows its outcome chips, and everything flows into the events.jsonl cylinder. Tree and Graph views are one click away.
• 🧵 Time Spine — the Timeline's default view: a real-time axis you scroll, with problems branching left (issues, failed attempts) and knowledge branching right (fixes, decisions, notes). Hover any card and its whole issue thread lights up. The classic list remains as "Details".

Why You'll Love It

• Pre-Commit Warnings — pjm precheck warns you before you commit if you're about to repeat a failed approach, modify a high-churn file, or touch an unresolved issue. No other AI tool does this — it requires the memory layer underneath. The warning now lists the dead ends themselves ("What already failed here: ✗ tried CSS contain:layout"), and pjm precheck --snooze 2h silences it politely — the snooze is itself logged, so even the silence is audited.
• Stale-Memory Detection (new in 0.1.4) — other memory tools silently decay or delete old memories; projectmem never deletes. Every decision that cites a file is cross-checked against that file's git history — when the file has moved on, the memory is flagged ("predates 7 commits to auth.py — confirm or supersede") and a human decides. Retire it cleanly with pjm decision "new way" --supersedes <id>: the old event stays in the log, tagged, forever.
• Session-Start Briefing (new in 0.1.4) — pjm brief answers "where was I?" in one screen: active warnings, possibly-stale memories, open issues, recent decisions, stack gotchas, and your prevention score with a week-over-week delta.
• Memory for agents without MCP (new in 0.1.4) — pjm export --claude-md compiles live decisions, gotchas, and a "Do NOT retry — these already failed" list into a marked block in CLAUDE.md (or .cursorrules). Copilot, plain Claude, any agent that reads the file inherits your project's judgment.
• Smart Context Injection — pjm wrap claude (or cursor/aider) injects a token-budgeted memory block into your AI before the session opens. Your AI starts experienced, not blank.
• Provable ROI Score — pjm score outputs a letter grade (A+ → F) backed by concrete numbers — debugging hours saved, tokens prevented, dollars protected. CI-friendly JSON output and shields.io badge for your README.
• Cross-Project Memory — Lessons learned in one repo follow yo

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