bm — Git-backed Memory CLI for Agents

bm manages persistent memory for AI agents across ephemeral VMs. Memories are stored as files in Git repos (GitHub / GitLab), and bm handles the git plumbing — clone, sync, and scope management. Agents read/write memory files directly using their own tools.

Install

npx bm --help

Quick Start

# 1. Add a memory scope (bind token via env var name)
npx bm config add-scope my-notes \
  --repo github.com/your-org/agent-memory \
  --token-env MY_GITHUB_TOKEN \
  --description "My personal notes" \
  --access readwrite

# 2. Set the token
export MY_GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxx

# 3. Clone the repo
npx bm memory init

# 4. Agent reads/writes files at the local path...

# 5. Push changes back
npx bm memory sync

Concepts

Scope

A scope is a logical name that maps to a git repo. Each agent can have multiple scopes pointing to different repos.

npx bm config add-scope my-notes \
  --repo github.com/org/my-memory \
  --token-env BM_TOKEN_NOTES \
  --description "Personal research notes" \
  --access readwrite

Multi-Repo Architecture

Different scopes can point to different repos. Permissions are controlled by Git provider tokens — not by bm. Each scope binds to its own token via --token-env, enabling per-repo permission control.

# Director agent setup:
# Read-write token for personal repo
npx bm config add-scope director \
  --repo github.com/org/director-memory \
  --token-env BM_TOKEN_DIRECTOR \
  --description "Director personal research" \
  --access readwrite

# Read-only token for team repos
npx bm config add-scope team1 \
  --repo github.com/org/team1-memory \
  --token-env BM_TOKEN_TEAMS \
  --description "Team 1 memory" \
  --access readonly

npx bm config add-scope team2 \
  --repo github.com/org/team2-memory \
  --token-env BM_TOKEN_TEAMS \
  --description "Team 2 memory" \
  --access readonly

Create separate GitHub Fine-grained PATs with different permissions:

• BM_TOKEN_DIRECTOR → Contents: Read and write (only director-memory repo)
• BM_TOKEN_TEAMS → Contents: Read-only (only team1-memory + team2-memory repos)

This way, even if a user modifies the config, they can't write to repos their token doesn't allow.

Config

Base Path

All bm data lives under a single base directory:

~/.botrun/bm/              ← default base path
├── config.json            ← scope definitions
└── data/
    ├── my-notes/          ← git clone of my-notes scope
    ├── team1/             ← git clone of team1 scope
    └── team2/             ← git clone of team2 scope

Override with CLI option or environment variable:

npx bm --bm-path /tmp/test-bm memory init    # CLI option (highest priority)
BM_PATH=/custom/path npx bm memory init       # environment variable

Priority: --bm-path > BM_PATH > ~/.botrun/bm/

Config File

Located at <BM_PATH>/config.json (default: ~/.botrun/bm/config.json).

Override config path independently with: BM_CONFIG=/path/to/config.json

{
  "scopes": {
    "my-notes": {
      "repo": "github.com/org/member1-memory",
      "token_env": "BM_TOKEN_NOTES",
      "description": "Personal research notes",
      "access": "readwrite"
    },
    "team1": {
      "repo": "github.com/org/team1-memory",
      "branch": "dev",
      "token_env": "BM_TOKEN_TEAMS",
      "description": "Team 1 memory",
      "access": "readonly"
    }
  }
}

| Field | Required | Description | |-------|----------|-------------| | repo | yes | Git repo URL (without https://) | | branch | no | Git branch to use. Omit = repo default branch | | token_env | no | Env var name for this scope's token (for per-repo permission control) | | description | no | Description for agent context | | access | no | Access hint for agent: readwrite or readonly (default: readwrite) | | provider | no | github or gitlab. Auto-detected from URL |

Config Commands

npx bm config add-scope <name> --repo <url> [--branch <branch>] [--token-env <envVar>] [--description <text>] [--access <mode>]
npx bm config remove-scope <name>
npx bm config show

Environment Variables

| Variable | Purpose | |----------|---------| | BM_PATH | Base directory for all bm data (default: ~/.botrun/bm) | | BM_CONFIG | Config file path (overrides <BM_PATH>/config.json) |

Each scope's token is configured via --token-env, which points to an environment variable name. There are no global token variables — every scope must declare its own.

Memory Commands

npx bm memory init

Clones all configured scope repos to <BM_PATH>/data/<scope-name>/. If already cloned, pulls latest.

{
  "scopes": {
    "my-notes": { "local": "/root/.botrun/bm/data/my-notes" },
    "team1": { "local": "/root/.botrun/bm/data/team1" }
  }
}

npx bm memory scopes

Lists all scopes with their repo, description, access, and local filesystem path.

{
  "scopes": {
    "my-notes": {
      "repo": "github.com/org/member1-memory",
      "description": "Personal research notes",
      "access": "readwrite",
      "local": "/root/.botrun/bm/data/my-notes"
    },
    "team1": {
      "repo": "github.com/org/team1-memory",
      "description": "Team 1 memory",
      "access": "readonly",
      "local": "/root/.botrun/bm/data/team1"
    }
  }
}

npx bm memory sync

Commits and pushes all changed memory files back to remote repos.

{
  "synced": ["my-notes"],
  "skipped": ["team1"]
}

JSON Output

All commands output structured JSON, including --help:

npx bm --help
npx bm config --help
npx bm memory --help

Agent Lifecycle

VM starts
  → npx bm memory init          # clone repos to <BM_PATH>/data/
  → agent reads/writes files     # using native tools (Read, Write, grep)
  → npx bm memory sync          # push changes
VM destroyed

Development

npm install
npm test        # 41 tests

License

MIT