claude-desktop-mem

Persistent memory MCP server for Claude Desktop. It stores notes, decisions, preferences, facts, tasks, and conversation summaries in a local SQLite database (~/.claude-desktop-mem/memory.db) using Node.js's built-in node:sqlite module — no native compilation required. Memories survive across sessions, are full-text searchable with porter stemming, and are automatically deduplicated by content hash. An importance score (1–10) and recency weighting determine which memories surface first.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >=22.13.0 — required for the built-in node:sqlite module
  • Check: node --version
  • Install / upgrade: nodejs.org or nvm

Quick Start

Install (recommended)

npm install -g claude-desktop-mem

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-desktop-mem": {
      "command": "claude-desktop-mem"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Install from source (for development)

git clone https://github.com/velaswami/claude-desktop-mem
cd claude-desktop-mem
npm install
npm run build

Then use "command": "node" with "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dist/index.js"] in the config instead.

Tools

mem_save

Save information to persistent memory. Duplicates are auto-detected by content hash.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | content | string | yes | — | The text to remember | | type | string (enum) | no | "note" | One of: note, decision, preference, fact, task, context, summary | | category | string | no | "general" | Freeform category label for grouping | | tags | string[] | no | [] | Additional searchable tags | | importance | number | no | 5 | Priority score 1–10 (higher surfaces first in recall) | | session_id | string | no | — | Associate this memory with a named session |

mem_search

Full-text search across memories using porter stemming and prefix matching.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | query | string | yes | — | Search terms | | limit | number | no | 10 | Max results (1–50) | | category | string | no | — | Restrict results to a specific category |

mem_recall

Browse top memories ranked by importance and recency.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | limit | number | no | 10 | Max results (1–100) | | category | string | no | — | Filter by category | | type | string (enum) | no | — | Filter by type: note, decision, preference, fact, task, context, summary | | verbose | boolean | no | false | Include timestamps and access count |

mem_forget

Delete a memory by its numeric ID (shown in mem_recall / mem_search output).

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | id | number | yes | ID of the memory to delete |

mem_status

Show memory system stats: total count, quota usage, DB size, and a snapshot of top memories. No parameters.

mem_export

Export all memories as JSON or CSV for backup or migration.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | format | string (enum) | no | "json" | json or csv |

Prompts

mem_context

Injects your top memories as context at the start of a conversation, so Claude immediately knows what you've stored.

| Argument | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | category | no | Filter to a specific category | | limit | no | Number of memories to include (default: value of CLAUDE_MEM_CTX_LIMIT) |

mem_summarize

Asks Claude to summarize the current conversation and save the key points as new memories. No arguments.

Environment Variables

| Variable | Default | Description | |----------|---------|-------------| | CLAUDE_MEM_DIR | ~/.claude-desktop-mem | Directory where memory.db is stored | | CLAUDE_MEM_MAX_TOTAL | 2000 | Maximum total memories before writes are blocked | | CLAUDE_MEM_MAX_SESSION | 200 | Maximum memories per session | | CLAUDE_MEM_MAX_MB | 100 | Maximum DB size in MB before writes are blocked | | CLAUDE_MEM_RECALL_LIMIT | 10 | Default result limit for mem_recall and mem_search | | CLAUDE_MEM_CTX_LIMIT | 5 | Default number of memories injected by mem_context |

Storage

All data lives in a single SQLite file:

~/.claude-desktop-mem/memory.db

The directory is created automatically on first run. To reset all memories, delete memory.db. To back up, copy the file or use mem_export.

Privacy

claude-desktop-mem is fully local. All memories are stored in ~/.claude-desktop-mem/memory.db on your machine. Nothing is sent to any external service. To delete everything, remove that file.

License

MIT