Every Claude Code session starts from zero. You explain why you picked GraphQL, and three days later you explain it again. Worse, the MemPalace README warns that Claude Code sessions expire in 30 days unless you wire auto-save hooks. MemPalace is a local-first memory tool that stores your conversation history verbatim and lets you search it in plain language. Here is the CLI route, with the commands from the README. The short version is on the Deduped use-case page.
MemPalace stores conversation text as it was written. It does not summarize or paraphrase. The index is structured: people and projects become wings, topics become rooms, and original content lives in drawers, so you can scope a search instead of querying one flat pile. The default backend is ChromaDB, and per the README nothing leaves your machine unless you opt in.
The README recommends installing the CLI in an isolated environment, which avoids PEP 668 errors on Debian, Ubuntu and Homebrew Pythons:
uv tool install mempalace
pipx install mempalace
There is also an agent-guided route. Install the skills, then ask your coding agent to set it up:
npx skills add MemPalace/mempalace
The setup skill detects your system, installs the package, configures MCP and asks whether you want a private local palace or a shared one. Installing the skill alone does not install the CLI or MCP server, so let the agent finish the guided setup.
Point it at a project:
mempalace init ~/projects/myapp
mempalace mine ~/projects/myapp
Then mine your Claude Code transcripts:
mempalace mine ~/.claude/projects/ --mode convos
Use --wing to scope each project to its own wing, so a search about one app does not pull in another.
Ask the question you keep re-explaining:
mempalace search "why did we switch to GraphQL"
You get the original conversation back, not a summary of it. To start a new session with context loaded, run:
mempalace wake-up
To check how well organized the palace is, run the read-only audit:
mempalace audit
A search tool only helps if the agent runs it. A prompt you can put in your first message or in CLAUDE.md:
Before answering any question about past decisions in this repo, run mempalace search with the question and quote the matching original text. Do not delete or move any transcript files.
For other ways to give Claude Code memory, compare with claude-mem, which summarizes instead of storing verbatim, or the Deduped page on Docker MCP memory for Claude Code.
If your sessions keep losing context, this is a 20 minute fix: install, mine, search, and add one line to your rules file.
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