# Show HN: Engrim – A universal, local-first SQLite memory engine for AI CLIs > Source: > Published: 2026-09-07 04:49:36+00:00 **The Universal Cross-Model & Cross-Agent Episodic Memory Store.** A local-first, project-scoped SQLite memory engine that allows developers to freely switch between models and environments (**Google Antigravity**, **Claude Code**, **Cursor MCP**, **Windsurf**) on the **SAME** project without losing architectural decisions, user constraints, or project state. **"Why pay for 200,000 tokens of forgotten noise on every turn? The models are disposable utilities; your project's decisions are not."** As context windows scale to 1M+ tokens, developers face **attention dilution**: reasoning degrades, cost multiplies with every conversational turn, and clearing context causes total amnesia. `engrim` replaces attention dilution with **4,000 characters of curated episodic working memory**: - **Switzerland of AI Memory** : Decouples project intelligence from any single AI vendor or proprietary cloud silo. Switch from Gemini 3.8 in Antigravity to Claude 3.7 Sonnet in Claude Code to GPT-4o in Cursor mid-project — your agents pick up right where the others left off. - **Save Button for Autonomous Coding** : Externalize decisions, constraints, and state as you work. Clear your agent session freely (`/clear` ) and watch context reload intact. - **Smart, Hot Context Loading** : Combines SQLite FTS5 (bm25 keyword search) with static vector embeddings (`model2vec` ) in a zero-latency hybrid reciprocal-rank fusion engine. **Tested across 105 continuous sessions on a 50,000-line algorithmic trading system. Zero regressions across 186 unit tests, zero context amnesia across model switches.** In production testing on an active algorithmic trading codebase running real capital: - Over **153,000 tokens of work** across days of architecture, parameter tuning, and debugging was consolidated into an active memory pack under**1,000 tokens** (<1% of the context window). - That is a **99%+ cut in reloaded context cost** on every session restart. - Seamlessly switched between Google Antigravity CLI, Claude Code, and Cursor MCP on identical repos with zero model drift or architectural regression. ``` graph TD subgraph Agents ["Supported Agent Environments"] AGY["Google Antigravity
(PreInvocation & Stop Hooks)"] CLAUDE["Claude Code
(SessionStart & Stop Hooks)"] CURSOR["Cursor / Windsurf
(Model Context Protocol stdio)"] end subgraph CoreEngine ["engrim Core Engine (v1.3.0)"] ADAPTERS["Adapters & Hooks
(agy, claude, mcp)"] PROVENANCE["Agent Provenance Engine
(origin_agent tracking)"] ROUTER["Hybrid Retrieval & Minder
(bm25 lexical + vector cosine)"] end subgraph Storage ["Local-First SQLite Store (~/.engrim/memory.db)"] MEMORIES[("Curated Memories
(decisions, facts, feedback)")] FTS5["FTS5 Full-Text Search
(porter stemmer, triggers)"] VEC["Vector Embeddings
(model2vec static embeddings)"] LOG["Flight Recorder Log
(turns + action lines)"] end AGY <-->|"hook / CLI"| ADAPTERS CLAUDE <-->|"hook / CLI"| ADAPTERS CURSOR <-->|"JSON-RPC (stdio)"| ADAPTERS ADAPTERS --> PROVENANCE PROVENANCE --> ROUTER ROUTER --> MEMORIES MEMORIES --- FTS5 MEMORIES --- VEC ADAPTERS --> LOG pip install engrim ``` Run `engrim setup` without arguments. It automatically detects installed environments on your machine and configures them all: ``` engrim setup ``` - If `~/.gemini` exists$\rightarrow$ wires Antigravity lifecycle hooks, skill, and MCP server. - If `~/.claude` exists$\rightarrow$ wires Claude Code SessionStart, Stop, status line, and CLAUDE.md. - If `~/.cursor` exists$\rightarrow$ generates and merges Cursor MCP configuration. ``` engrim setup --agy ``` - Configures `~/.gemini/config/hooks.json` to execute`engrim hook --agent agy --event boot` on`PreInvocation` and`engrim hook --agent agy --event stop` on`Stop` . - Deploys the canonical Antigravity skill to `~/.gemini/config/skills/engrim/SKILL.md` . - Registers the MCP server in `~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/mcp_config.json` and`~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json` . ``` engrim setup --claude ``` - Wires `SessionStart` ,`SessionEnd` ,`Stop` , and`UserPromptSubmit` hooks in`~/.claude/settings.json` . - Configures live ambient status line in Claude Code's status bar. - Appends memory usage notes to `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` . ``` engrim setup --cursor ``` - Adds `engrim` to`~/.cursor/mcp.json` running`engrim serve --mcp` . Add `engrim` to your `~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json`: ``` { "mcpServers": { "engrim": { "command": "engrim", "args": ["serve", "--mcp"] } } } engrim setup --all ``` - Configures every supported environment in one command. *(Use `--dry-run` with any setup command to inspect changes without modifying disk).* When multiple agents collaborate on a single codebase, provenance matters. `engrim` records the origin of every memory entry with the `origin_agent` field: - Allowed values: `antigravity` ,`claude-code` ,`cursor` ,`cli` , or`user` . - Automatically populated based on the active hook, MCP client, or CLI session. - Subtly surfaced in `engrim context` and`engrim list` : ``` 🧠 engrim · memory restored for this project — you don't have to re-explain · /workspace 18 of 54 curated records loaded (~3850 chars) · the rest one `recall` away [DECISION] - #961 [DECISION] (via Antigravity): Inverted stop loss matrix for high volatility (risk, execution) - #942 [DECISION] (via Claude Code): Switched primary database from MongoDB to PostgreSQL (db, schema) - #910 [DECISION] (via Cursor): Standardized on Pydantic v2 schemas across API boundaries (api, types) ``` Existing databases are non-destructively migrated on first access via `ALTER TABLE memories ADD COLUMN origin_agent TEXT`. Launch the zero-dependency, JSON-RPC 2.0 stdio MCP server: ``` engrim serve --mcp # or: engrim mcp ``` `stdout` is strictly reserved for JSON-RPC messages, redirecting all diagnostic logs to `stderr`. | Tool | Signature | Purpose | |---|---|---| | `engrim_recall` | `(query: str, project: str = "auto", k: int = 5, type: str = None)` | Hybrid (keyword + semantic) search over project memory. | | `engrim_add` | `(type: str, summary: str, detail: str = None, tags: list[str] = [])` | Write a durable memory record persisted across sessions. | | `engrim_context` | `(project: str = "auto", budget: int = 4000)` | Retrieve the session-boot memory pack within a character budget. | | `engrim_review` | `(project: str = "auto")` | Check uncaptured decisions from transcript logs before clearing. | | Command | Usage | Description | |---|---|---| | `engrim add` | `engrim add -t decision -s "..." [--origin-agent agy]` | Insert memory record (types: `decision` ,`fact` ,`feedback` ,`state` ,`user` ,`reference` ). | | `engrim recall` | `engrim recall -q "database"` | Ranked hybrid recall for the project ( `--log` searches raw turns). | | `engrim context` | `engrim context [-b 4000]` | Priority-ordered, budget-capped session-boot pack. | | `engrim hook` | `engrim hook --agent agy --event boot` | Agent lifecycle hook runner for Antigravity and Claude Code. | | `engrim setup` | `engrim setup [--agy\|--claude\|--cursor\|--all]` | Universal multi-agent environment configuration. | | `engrim serve` | `engrim serve --mcp` | Start stdio MCP server for agent integrations. | | `engrim review` | `engrim review` | "Safe to clear" coverage check: scans logs for uncurated decisions. | | `engrim list` | `engrim list [-k 20]` | List recent memories for the current project. | | `engrim supersede` | `engrim supersede --id 12 --status superseded` | Mark a record superseded without erasing history. | | `engrim sync` | `engrim sync [DIR]` | Mirror markdown memories into the store (idempotent seed-once). | 1. **Capture as you work** : Whenever a major decision or architectural rule is made, run`engrim add` or invoke`engrim_add` via your agent. 2. **Use `resume-pointer`** : Before ending a session or clearing, add a record tagged`resume-pointer` describing the immediate next task. The newest pointer is pinned under`[▶ RESUME HERE]` at the top of the next session's boot pack. 3. **Verify with `engrim review`** : Check that all recent decisions are captured. 4. **Clear freely (`/clear`)** : The session window is wiped clean;` engrim` automatically re-injects the active memory pack on the next prompt or invocation. - **100% Local & Offline** : All memory records and logs reside in a local SQLite file (`~/.engrim/memory.db` ). No telemetry, no cloud sync, no tracking. - **Model Storage** : Uses`model2vec` for local static embeddings (~30ms load time, no GPU required, runs on CPU). Can run pure-lexical (`ENGRIM_EMBED=off` ) for zero extra dependencies. - **POSIX File Permissions** : Databases are created with restricted owner-only permissions (`0600` ). - **Git Protection** :`*.db` is gitignored by default; your memories never accidentally commit to version control. MIT © 2026 Tim Gordon.