memory-journal-mcp

v6.3.0

Published

9 days ago

Project context management for AI-assisted development - Persistent knowledge graphs and intelligent context recall across fragmented AI threads

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neverinfamous

mcp context-management project-management ai-assistant knowledge-graph developer-tools git github-projects model-context-protocol persistent-memory thread-continuity semantic-search sqlite typescript

Memory Journal MCP Server

🎯 AI Context + Project Intelligence: Bridge disconnected AI sessions with persistent project memory and automatic session handoff — with full GitHub workflow integration.

GitHub • Wiki • Changelog • Release Article

🚀 Quick Deploy:

npm Package - npm install -g memory-journal-mcp
Docker Hub - Alpine-based with full semantic search

🎯 What This Does

What Sets Us Apart

61 MCP Tools · 17 Workflow Prompts · 33 Resources · 10 Tool Groups · Code Mode · GitHub Commander (Issue Triage, PR Review, Milestone Sprints, Security/Quality/Perf Audits) · GitHub Integration (Issues, PRs, Actions, Kanban, Milestones, Insights) · Team Collaboration (Shared DB, Vector Search, Cross-Project Insights)

| Feature | Description | | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Session Intelligence | Agents auto-query project history, create entries at checkpoints, and hand off context between sessions via /session-summary and team-session-summary | | GitHub Integration | 16 tools for Issues, PRs, Actions, Kanban, Milestones (%), Copilot Reviews, and 14-day Insights | | Dynamic Project Routing | Seamlessly switch contexts and access CI/Issue tracking across multiple repositories using a single server instance via PROJECT_REGISTRY | | Knowledge Graphs | 8 relationship types linking specs → implementations → tests → PRs with Mermaid visualization | | Triple Search | Full-text (FTS5), semantic (@huggingface/transformers + sqlite-vec), and date-range search | | Code Mode | Execute multi-step operations in a secure sandbox — up to 90% token savings via mj.* API | | Configurable Briefing | 12 env vars / CLI flags control memory://briefing content — entries, team, GitHub detail, skills awareness | | Reports & Analytics | Standups, retrospectives, PR summaries, digests, period analyses, and milestone tracking | | Team Collaboration | 20 tools with full parity — CRUD, vector search, relationship graphs, cross-project insights, author attribution | | Backup & Restore | One-command backup/restore with automated scheduling, retention policies, and safety-net auto-backups | | Security & Transport | OAuth 2.1 (RFC 9728/8414, JWT/JWKS, scopes), Streamable HTTP + SSE, rate limiting, CORS, SQL injection prevention, non-root Docker | | Structured Error Handling | Every tool returns {success, error, code, category, suggestion, recoverable} — agents get classification, remediation hints, and recoverability signals | | Agent Collaboration | IDE agents and Copilot share context; review findings become searchable knowledge; agents suggest reusable rules and skills (setup) | | GitHub Commander | Skills for issue triage, PR reviews, sprint milestones, and security/quality/performance audits with journal trails (docs) |

🎯 Why Memory Journal?

When managing large projects with AI assistance, you face a critical challenge:

Thread Amnesia - Each new AI conversation starts from zero, unaware of previous work
Lost Context - Decisions, implementations, and learnings scattered across disconnected threads
Repeated Work - AI suggests solutions you've already tried or abandoned
Context Overload - Manually copying project history into every new conversation

Memory Journal solves this by acting as your project's long-term memory, bridging the gap between fragmented AI sessions.

Ask Agent naturally:

"Show me my recent journal entries"
"Create a backup of my journal"
"Check the server health status"
"Find entries related to performance"

See complete examples & prompts →

flowchart TB
    subgraph Session["🤖 AI Session Start"]
        Briefing["📋 Read Briefing<br/>(memory://briefing)"]
    end

    subgraph Core["📝 Journal Operations"]
        Create["Create Entry"]
        Retrieve["Retrieve & Search"]
        Link["Link Entries"]
    end

    subgraph Search["🔍 Triple Search"]
        FTS["Full-Text"]
        Semantic["Semantic (Vector)"]
        DateRange["Date Range"]
    end

    subgraph GitHub["🐙 GitHub Integration"]
        Issues["Issues & Milestones"]
        PRs["Pull Requests"]
        Actions["GitHub Actions"]
        Kanban["Kanban Boards"]
        Insights["Repository Insights"]
    end

    subgraph Outputs["📊 Outputs"]
        Reports["Standups & Retrospectives"]
        Graphs["Knowledge Graphs"]
        Timeline["Project Timelines"]
    end

    Session --> Core
    Core --> Search
    Core <--> GitHub
    Search --> Outputs
    GitHub --> Outputs

Suggested Rule (Add to AGENTS.md, GEMINI.md, etc)

ALWAYS PERFORM AT START OF CHATS: Read memory://briefing by default and present the userMessage to the user as a formatted bullet list of key facts, including all available fields. When the user prompt or existing briefing clearly indicates a specific repository, additionally read memory://briefing/{repo} for that repo.

CREATE JOURNAL ENTRIES at natural checkpoints:

After pushing to main (milestone or technical_note, tag with version)
After significant design decisions or learnings (project_decision)
After resolving non-trivial bugs (bug_fix, link to issue number)
Entries should only cover work done in present thread.

USE PROJECT AND CROSS-PROJECT INSIGHTS when appropriate:

Run get_cross_project_insights before defining major architectures, new abstractions, or starting cross-cutting work to align with broader repository patterns.
Fetch memory://github/insights or run get_repo_insights to gauge project traction, health, and recent traffic.

SUGGEST CREATING OR IMPROVING RULES AND SKILLS as you notice workflow opportunities.

Tool Filtering

[!IMPORTANT] All shortcuts and tool groups include Code Mode (mj_execute_code) by default for token-efficient operations. To exclude it, add -codemode to your filter: --tool-filter starter,-codemode

Control which tools are exposed via MEMORY_JOURNAL_MCP_TOOL_FILTER (or CLI: --tool-filter):

| Filter | Tools | Use Case | | -------------------- | ----- | ------------------------ | | full | 61 | All tools (default) | | starter | ~11 | Core + search + codemode | | essential | ~7 | Minimal footprint | | readonly | ~15 | Disable all mutations | | -github | 45 | Exclude a group | | -github,-analytics | 43 | Exclude multiple groups |

Filter Syntax: shortcut or group or tool_name (whitelist mode) · -group (disable group) · -tool (disable tool) · +tool (re-enable after group disable)

Custom Selection: List individual tool names to create your own whitelist: --tool-filter "create_entry,search_entries,semantic_search"

Groups: core, search, analytics, relationships, export, admin, github, backup, team, codemode

Complete tool filtering guide →

📋 Core Capabilities

🛠️ 61 MCP Tools (10 Groups)

| Group | Tools | Description | | --------------- | ----- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | codemode | 1 | Code Mode (sandboxed code execution) 🌟 Recommended | | core | 6 | Entry CRUD, tags, test | | search | 4 | Text search, date range, semantic, vector stats | | analytics | 2 | Statistics, cross-project insights | | relationships | 2 | Link entries, visualize graphs | | export | 1 | JSON/Markdown export | | admin | 5 | Update, delete, rebuild/add to vector index, merge tags | | github | 16 | Issues, PRs, context, Kanban, Milestones, Insights, issue lifecycle, Copilot Reviews | | backup | 4 | Backup, list, restore, cleanup | | team | 20 | CRUD, search, stats, relationships, export, backup, vector search, cross-project insights (requires TEAM_DB_PATH) |

Complete tools reference →

🎯 17 Workflow Prompts

find-related - Discover connected entries via semantic similarity
prepare-standup - Daily standup summaries
prepare-retro - Sprint retrospectives
weekly-digest - Day-by-day weekly summaries
analyze-period - Deep period analysis with insights
goal-tracker - Milestone and achievement tracking
get-context-bundle - Project context with Git/GitHub/Kanban
get-recent-entries - Formatted recent entries
project-status-summary - GitHub Project status reports
pr-summary - Pull request journal activity summary
code-review-prep - Comprehensive PR review preparation
pr-retrospective - Completed PR analysis with learnings
actions-failure-digest - CI/CD failure analysis
project-milestone-tracker - Milestone progress tracking
confirm-briefing - Acknowledge session context to user
session-summary - Create a session summary entry with accomplishments, pending items, and next-session context
team-session-summary - Create a retrospective team session summary entry securely isolated to the team database

Complete prompts guide →

📡 33 Resources (20 Static + 13 Template)

Static Resources (appear in resource lists):

memory://briefing / memory://briefing/{repo} - Session initialization: compact context for AI agents (~300 tokens)
memory://instructions - Behavioral guidance: complete server instructions for AI agents
memory://recent - 10 most recent entries
memory://significant - Significant milestones and breakthroughs
memory://graph/recent - Live Mermaid diagram of recent relationships
memory://health - Server health & diagnostics
memory://graph/actions - CI/CD narrative graph
memory://actions/recent - Recent workflow runs
memory://tags - All tags with usage counts
memory://statistics - Journal statistics
memory://rules - User rules file content for agent awareness
memory://workflows - Available agent workflows summary
memory://skills - Agent skills index (names, paths, excerpts)
memory://github/status - GitHub repository status overview
memory://github/insights - Repository stars, forks, and 14-day traffic summary
memory://github/milestones - Open milestones with completion percentages
memory://team/recent - Recent team entries with author attribution
memory://team/statistics - Team entry counts, types, and author breakdown
memory://help - Tool group index with descriptions and tool counts
memory://help/gotchas - Field notes, edge cases, and critical usage patterns

Template Resources (require parameters, fetch directly by URI):

memory://github/status/{repo} - Repository status targeted by repo
memory://github/insights/{repo} - Repository insights targeted by repo
memory://github/milestones/{repo} - Open milestones targeted by repo
memory://milestones/{repo}/{number} - Milestone detail targeted by repo
memory://projects/{number}/timeline - Project activity timeline
memory://issues/{issue_number}/entries - Entries linked to issue
memory://prs/{pr_number}/entries - Entries linked to PR
memory://prs/{pr_number}/timeline - Combined PR + journal timeline
memory://kanban/{project_number} - GitHub Project Kanban board
memory://kanban/{project_number}/diagram - Kanban Mermaid visualization
memory://milestones/{number} - Milestone detail with completion progress
memory://help/{group} - Per-group tool reference with parameters and annotations

Code Mode: Maximum Efficiency

Code Mode (mj_execute_code) dramatically reduces token usage (70–90%) and is included by default in all presets.

Code executes in a sandboxed VM context with multiple layers of security. All mj.* API calls execute against the journal within the sandbox, providing:

Static code validation — blocked patterns include require(), process, eval(), and filesystem access
Rate limiting — 60 executions per minute per client
Hard timeouts — configurable execution limit (default 30s)
Full API access — all 10 tool groups are available via mj.* (e.g., mj.core.createEntry(), mj.search.searchEntries(), mj.github.getGithubIssues(), mj.analytics.getStatistics())
Strict Readonly Contract — Calling any mutation method under --tool-filter readonly safely halts the sandbox to prevent execution, returning a structured { success: false, error: "..." } response to the agent instead of a raw MCP protocol exception.

⚡ Code Mode Only (Maximum Token Savings)

Run with only Code Mode enabled — a single tool that provides access to all 61 tools' worth of capability through the mj.* API:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory-journal-mcp": {
      "command": "memory-journal-mcp",
      "args": ["--tool-filter", "codemode"]
    }
  }
}

This exposes just mj_execute_code. The agent writes JavaScript against the typed mj.* SDK — composing operations across all 10 tool groups and returning exactly the data it needs — in one execution. This mirrors the Code Mode pattern pioneered by Cloudflare for their entire API: fixed token cost regardless of how many capabilities exist.

Disabling Code Mode

If you prefer individual tool calls, exclude codemode:

{
  "args": ["--tool-filter", "starter,-codemode"]
}

🚀 Quick Start

Option 1: npm (Recommended)

npm install -g memory-journal-mcp

Option 2: From Source

git clone https://github.com/neverinfamous/memory-journal-mcp.git
cd memory-journal-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Add to MCP Config

Add this to your ~/.cursor/mcp.json, Claude Desktop config, or equivalent:

Basic Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory-journal-mcp": {
      "command": "memory-journal-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here",
        "PROJECT_REGISTRY": "{\"my-repo\":{\"path\":\"/path/to/your/git/repo\",\"project_number\":1}}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Advanced Configuration (Recommended)

Showcasing the full power of the server, including Multi-Project Routing, Team Collaboration, Copilot awareness, and Context Injections.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory-journal-mcp": {
      "command": "memory-journal-mcp",
      "env": {
        "DB_PATH": "/path/to/your/memory_journal.db",
        "TEAM_DB_PATH": "/path/to/shared/team.db",
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here",
        "PROJECT_REGISTRY": "{\"my-repo\":{\"path\":\"/path/to/repo\",\"project_number\":1},\"other-repo\":{\"path\":\"/path/to/other\",\"project_number\":5}}",
        "AUTO_REBUILD_INDEX": "true",
        "MEMORY_JOURNAL_MCP_TOOL_FILTER": "codemode",
        "BRIEFING_ENTRY_COUNT": "3",
        "BRIEFING_INCLUDE_TEAM": "true",
        "BRIEFING_ISSUE_COUNT": "1",
        "BRIEFING_PR_COUNT": "1",
        "BRIEFING_PR_STATUS": "true",
        "BRIEFING_WORKFLOW_COUNT": "1",
        "BRIEFING_WORKFLOW_STATUS": "true",
        "BRIEFING_COPILOT_REVIEWS": "true",
        "RULES_FILE_PATH": "/path/to/your/RULES.md",
        "SKILLS_DIR_PATH": "/path/to/your/skills",
        "MEMORY_JOURNAL_WORKFLOW_SUMMARY": "/deploy: prod deployment | /audit: security scan"
      }
    }
  }
}

Variants (modify the config above):

| Variant | Change | | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Minimal (no GitHub) | Remove the env block entirely | | npx (no install) | Replace "command" with "npx" and add "args": ["-y", "memory-journal-mcp"] | | From source | Replace "command" with "node" and add "args": ["dist/cli.js"] | | Code Mode only | Add "args": ["--tool-filter", "codemode"] (single tool, all capabilities) | | Docker | Replace "command" with "docker" and use run -i --rm -v ./data:/app/data writenotenow/memory-journal-mcp:latest as args | | Team collaboration | Add "TEAM_DB_PATH": "./team.db" to env |

Restart your MCP client and start journaling!

Option 3: HTTP/SSE Transport (Remote Access)

For remote access or web-based clients, run the server in HTTP mode:

memory-journal-mcp --transport http --port 3000

To bind to all interfaces (required for containers):

memory-journal-mcp --transport http --port 3000 --server-host 0.0.0.0

Endpoints:

| Endpoint | Description | Mode | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | -------- | | GET / | Server info and available endpoints | Both | | POST /mcp | JSON-RPC requests (initialize, tools/call, etc.) | Both | | GET /mcp | SSE stream for server-to-client notifications | Stateful | | DELETE /mcp | Session termination | Stateful | | GET /sse | Legacy SSE connection (MCP 2024-11-05) | Stateful | | POST /messages | Legacy SSE message endpoint | Stateful | | GET /health | Health check ({ status, timestamp }) | Both | | GET /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource | RFC 9728 Protected Resource Metadata | Both |

Session Management: The server uses stateful sessions by default. Include the mcp-session-id header (returned from initialization) in subsequent requests.

OAuth 2.1 — RFC 9728/8414, JWT/JWKS, granular scopes (opt-in via --oauth-enabled)
7 Security Headers — CSP, HSTS (opt-in), X-Frame-Options, and more
Rate Limiting — 100 req/min per IP · CORS — configurable multi-origin (exact-match) · 1MB body limit
Server Timeouts — Request (120s), keep-alive (65s), headers (66s) · 404 handler · Cross-protocol guard
Build Provenance · SBOM · Supply Chain Attestations · Non-root execution

Example with curl:

Initialize session (returns mcp-session-id header):

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-03-26","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0"}}}'

List tools (with session):

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "mcp-session-id: YOUR_SESSION_ID" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

Stateless Mode (Serverless)

For serverless deployments (Lambda, Workers, Vercel), use stateless mode:

memory-journal-mcp --transport http --port 3000 --stateless

| Mode | Progress Notifications | Legacy SSE | Serverless | | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------- | ---------- | | Stateful (default) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Complex | | Stateless (--stateless) | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Native |

Automated Scheduling (HTTP Only)

When running in HTTP/SSE mode, enable periodic maintenance jobs with CLI flags. These jobs run in-process on setInterval — no external cron needed.

Note: These flags are ignored for stdio transport because stdio sessions are short-lived (tied to your IDE session). For stdio, use OS-level scheduling (Task Scheduler, cron) or run the backup/cleanup tools manually.

memory-journal-mcp --transport http --port 3000 \
  --backup-interval 60 --keep-backups 10 \
  --vacuum-interval 1440 \
  --rebuild-index-interval 720

| Flag | Default | Description | | -------------------------------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | --backup-interval <min> | 0 (off) | Create timestamped database backups and prune old ones automatically | | --keep-backups <count> | 5 | Max backups retained during automated cleanup | | --vacuum-interval <min> | 0 (off) | Run PRAGMA optimize and flush database to disk | | --rebuild-index-interval <min> | 0 (off) | Full vector index rebuild to maintain semantic search quality |

Each job is error-isolated — a failure in one job won't affect the others. Scheduler status (last run, result, next run) is visible via memory://health.

GitHub Integration Configuration

The GitHub tools (get_github_issues, get_github_prs, etc.) auto-detect the repository from your git context when GITHUB_REPO_PATH is configured (shown in the Quick Start config above).

| Environment Variable | --------------------------------- | DB_PATH | TEAM_DB_PATH | TEAM_AUTHOR | GITHUB_TOKEN | GITHUB_REPO_PATH | DEFAULT_PROJECT_NUMBER | PROJECT_REGISTRY | AUTO_REBUILD_INDEX | MCP_HOST | MCP_AUTH_TOKEN | MCP_CORS_ORIGIN | MCP_RATE_LIMIT_MAX | LOG_LEVEL | MCP_ENABLE_HSTS | OAUTH_ENABLED | OAUTH_ISSUER | OAUTH_AUDIENCE | OAUTH_JWKS_URI | BRIEFING_ENTRY_COUNT | BRIEFING_INCLUDE_TEAM | BRIEFING_ISSUE_COUNT | BRIEFING_PR_COUNT | BRIEFING_PR_STATUS | BRIEFING_WORKFLOW_COUNT | BRIEFING_WORKFLOW_STATUS | BRIEFING_COPILOT_REVIEWS | RULES_FILE_PATH | SKILLS_DIR_PATH | MEMORY_JOURNAL_WORKFLOW | INSTRUCTION_LEVEL | PROJECT_LINT_CMD | PROJECT_TYPECHECK_CMD | PROJECT_BUILD_CMD | PROJECT_TEST_CMD | PROJECT_E2E_CMD | PROJECT_PACKAGE_MANAGER | PROJECT_HAS_DOCKERFILE | COMMANDER_HITL_FILE_THRESHOLD | COMMANDER_SECURITY_TOOLS | COMMANDER_BRANCH_PREFIX | Description | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Database file location (CLI: --db; default: ./memory_journal.db) | | Team database file location (CLI: --team-db) | | Override author name for team entries (default: git config user.name) | | GitHub personal access token for API access | | Path to the git repository for auto-detecting owner/repo | | Default GitHub Project number for auto-assignment when creating issues | | JSON map of repos to { path, project_number } for multi-project auto-detection and routing | | Set to true to rebuild vector index on server startup | | Server bind host (0.0.0.0 for containers, default: localhost) | | Bearer token for HTTP transport authentication (CLI: --auth-token) | | Allowed CORS origins for HTTP transport, comma-separated (default: *) | | Max requests per minute per client IP, HTTP only (default: 100) | | Log verbosity: error, warn, info, debug (default: info; CLI: --log-level) | | Enable HSTS security header on HTTP responses (CLI: --enable-hsts; default: false) | | Set to true to enable OAuth 2.1 authentication (HTTP only) | | OAuth issuer URL (e.g., https://auth.example.com/realms/mcp) | | Expected JWT audience claim | | JWKS endpoint for token signature verification | | Journal entries in briefing (CLI: --briefing-entries; default: 3) | | Include team DB entries in briefing (true/false; default: false) | | Issues to list in briefing; 0 = count only (default: 0) | | PRs to list in briefing; 0 = count only (default: 0) | | Show PR status breakdown (open/merged/closed; default: false) | | Workflow runs to list in briefing; 0 = status only (default: 0) | | Show workflow status breakdown in briefing (default: false) | | Aggregate Copilot review state in briefing (default: false) | | Path to user rules file for agent awareness (CLI: --rules-file) | | Path to skills directory for agent awareness (CLI: --skills-dir) | _SUMMARY | Free-text workflow summary for memory://workflows (CLI: --workflow-summary) | | Briefing depth: essential, standard, full (CLI: --instruction-level; default: standard) | | Project lint command for GitHub Commander validation gates (default: npm run lint) | | Project typecheck command (default: npm run typecheck; empty = skip) | | Project build command (default: npm run build; empty = skip) | | Project test command (default: npm run test) | | Project E2E test command (default: empty = skip) | | Package manager override: npm, yarn, pnpm, bun (default: auto-detect from lockfile) | | Enable Docker audit steps (default: auto-detect) | | Human-in-the-loop checkpoint if changes touch > N files (default: 10) | | Override security tool auto-detection (comma-separated; default: auto-detect) | | Branch naming prefix for PRs (default: fix) |

Multi-Project Workflows: For agents to seamlessly support multiple projects, provide PROJECT_REGISTRY and omit GITHUB_REPO_PATH.

Dynamic Context Resolution & Auto-Detection

When executing GitHub tools (issues, PRs, context, etc.), the server resolves repository context in this order:

Dynamic Project Routing: If the agent passes a repo string that matches a key in your PROJECT_REGISTRY, the server dynamically mounts the physical directory mapped to that project. It executes git commands locally and automatically infers the owner.
Explicit Override: If the agent provides both owner and repo explicitly, those values override auto-detection for API calls.
Missing Context: Without PROJECT_REGISTRY or explicit parameters, the server blocks execution and returns {requiresUserInput: true} to prompt the agent.

Automatic Project Routing (Kanban / Issues)

When opening an issue or viewing/moving a Kanban card, the server needs a GitHub Project number. It determines this via:

Exploring the raw project_number argument passed by the agent.
Checking if the repo string precisely matches an entry in your PROJECT_REGISTRY, seamlessly mapping it to its pre-configured project_number.
Falling back to the globally defined DEFAULT_PROJECT_NUMBER if set.

🔐 OAuth 2.1 Authentication

For production deployments, enable OAuth 2.1 authentication on the HTTP transport:

| Component | Status | Description | | --------------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------ | | Protected Resource Metadata | ✅ | RFC 9728 /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource | | Auth Server Discovery | ✅ | RFC 8414 metadata discovery with caching | | Token Validation | ✅ | JWT validation with JWKS support | | Scope Enforcement | ✅ | Granular read, write, admin scopes | | HTTP Transport | ✅ | Streamable HTTP with OAuth middleware |

Supported Scopes:

| Scope | Tool Groups | | ------- | ------------------------------------------------- | | read | core, search, analytics, relationships, export | | write | github, team (+ all read groups) | | admin | admin, backup, codemode (+ all write/read groups) |

Quick Start:

memory-journal-mcp --transport http --port 3000 \
  --oauth-enabled \
  --oauth-issuer https://auth.example.com/realms/mcp \
  --oauth-audience memory-journal-mcp \
  --oauth-jwks-uri https://auth.example.com/realms/mcp/protocol/openid-connect/certs

Or via environment variables:

export OAUTH_ENABLED=true
export OAUTH_ISSUER=https://auth.example.com/realms/mcp
export OAUTH_AUDIENCE=memory-journal-mcp
memory-journal-mcp --transport http --port 3000

Note: OAuth is opt-in. When not enabled, the server falls back to simple token authentication via MCP_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable, or runs without authentication.

🔄 Session Management

Session start → agent reads memory://briefing (or memory://briefing/{repo}) and shows project context
Session summary → use /session-summary to capture progress and next-session context
Next session's briefing includes the previous summary — context flows seamlessly

🔧 Configuration

GitHub Integration (Optional)

export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_token"              # For Projects/Issues/PRs

Scopes: repo, project, read:org (org-level project discovery only)

GitHub Management Capabilities

Memory Journal provides a hybrid approach to GitHub management:

| Capability Source | Purpose | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | MCP Server | Specialized features: Kanban visualization, Milestones, journal linking, project timelines | | Agent (gh CLI) | Full GitHub mutations: create/close issues, create/merge PRs, manage releases |

MCP Server Tools (Read + Kanban + Milestones + Issue Lifecycle):

get_github_issues / get_github_issue - Query issues
get_github_prs / get_github_pr - Query pull requests
get_github_context - Full repository context
get_kanban_board / move_kanban_item - Kanban management
get_github_milestones / get_github_milestone - Milestone tracking with completion %
create_github_milestone / update_github_milestone / delete_github_milestone - Milestone CRUD
get_repo_insights - Repository traffic & analytics (stars, clones, views, referrers, popular paths)
create_github_issue_with_entry / close_github_issue_with_entry - Issue lifecycle with journal linking

Why this design? The MCP server focuses on value-added features that integrate journal entries with GitHub (Kanban views, Milestones, timeline resources, context linking). Standard GitHub mutations (create/close issues, merge PRs, manage releases) are handled directly by agents via gh CLI.

Complete GitHub integration guide →

🏗️ Architecture

Data Flow

flowchart TB
    AI["🤖 AI Agent<br/>(Cursor, Windsurf, Claude)"]

    subgraph MCP["Memory Journal MCP Server"]
        Tools["🛠️ 61 Tools"]
        Resources["📡 33 Resources"]
        Prompts["💬 17 Prompts"]
    end

    subgraph Storage["Persistence Layer"]
        SQLite[("💾 SQLite<br/>Entries, Tags, Relationships")]
        Vector[("🔍 Vector Index<br/>Semantic Embeddings")]
        Backups["📦 Backups"]
    end

    subgraph External["External Integrations"]
        GitHub["🐙 GitHub API<br/>Issues, PRs, Actions"]
        Kanban["📋 Projects v2<br/>Kanban Boards"]
    end

    AI <-->|"MCP Protocol"| MCP
    Tools --> Storage
    Tools --> External
    Resources --> Storage
    Resources --> External

Stack

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MCP Server Layer (TypeScript)                               │
│  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ Tools (61)      │  │ Resources (33)  │  │ Prompts (17)│  │
│  │ with Annotations│  │ with Annotations│  │             │  │
│  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Native SQLite Engine                                        │
│  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ better-sqlite3  │  │ sqlite-vec      │  │ transformers│  │
│  │ (High-Perf I/O) │  │ (Vector Index)  │  │ (Embeddings)│  │
│  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SQLite Database with Hybrid Search                          │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│  │ entries + tags + relationships + embeddings + backups   ││
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🔧 Technical Highlights

Performance & Portability

TypeScript + Native SQLite - High-performance better-sqlite3 with synchronous I/O
sqlite-vec - Vector similarity search via SQLite extension
@huggingface/transformers - ML embeddings in JavaScript
Lazy loading - ML models load on first use, not startup

Performance Benchmarks

Memory Journal is designed for extremely low overhead during AI task execution. We include a vitest bench suite to maintain these baseline guarantees:

Database Reads: Operations execute in fractions of a millisecond. calculateImportance is ~13x faster than retrieving 50 recent entries.
Vector Search Engine: Both search (~220 ops/sec) and indexing (~1600+ ops/sec) are high-throughput via sqlite-vec with SQL-native KNN queries.
Core MCP Routines: getTools uses cached O(1) dispatch (~4800x faster than get_recent_entries). create_entry and search_entries execute through the full MCP layer with sub-millisecond overhead.

To run the benchmarking suite locally:

npm run bench

Testing

Extensively tested across two frameworks:

| Suite | Command | Covers | | ------------------------- | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Vitest (unit/integration) | npm test | Database, tools, resources, handlers, security, GitHub, vector search, codemode | | Playwright (e2e) | npm run test:e2e | HTTP/SSE transport, auth, sessions, CORS, security headers, scheduler |

npm test          # Unit + integration tests
npm run test:e2e  # End-to-end HTTP/SSE transport tests

Security

Deterministic error handling - Every tool returns structured {success, error, code, category, suggestion, recoverable} responses with actionable context — no raw exceptions, no silent failures, no misleading messages
Local-first - All data stored locally, no external API calls (except optional GitHub)
Input validation - Zod schemas, content size limits, SQL injection prevention
Path traversal protection - Backup filenames validated
MCP 2025-03-26 annotations - Behavioral hints (readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, etc.)
HTTP transport hardening - 7 security headers, configurable multi-origin CORS, 1MB body limit, built-in rate limiting (100 req/min), server timeouts, HSTS (opt-in), 30-min session timeout, 404 handler, cross-protocol guard
Token scrubbing - GitHub tokens and credentials automatically redacted from error logs

Data & Privacy

Single SQLite file - You own your data
Portable - Move your .db file anywhere
Soft delete - Entries can be recovered
Auto-backup on restore - Never lose data accidentally

📚 Documentation & Resources

GitHub Wiki - Complete documentation
Copilot Setup Guide - Cross-agent memory bridge between IDE agents and GitHub Copilot
Docker Hub - Container images
npm Package - Node.js distribution
Issues - Bug reports & feature requests

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

Built by developers, for developers. PRs welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Migrating from v2.x? Your existing database is fully compatible. The TypeScript version uses the same schema and data format.