Shodh-Memory fixes this. It's persistent memory that actually learns — memories you use often become easier to find, old irrelevant context fades automatically, and recalling one thing brings back related things. Works for chat agents (MCP/HTTP), robots (Zenoh/ROS2), and edge devices. No API keys. No cloud. No external databases. No LLM in the loop. One binary.
Why Not Just Use mem0 / Cognee / Zep?
Cognitive memory for AI agents — semantic search, Hebbian learning, knowledge graphs.
SHODH_API_URL, SHODH_API_KEY, SHODH_USER_ID
Zuletzt geprüft
2026-11-10
Sterne
—
Tools
—
Uptime
—
Shodh
mem0
Cognee
Zep
LLM calls to store a memory
0
2+ per add
3+ per cognify
2+ per episode
External services needed
None
OpenAI + vector DB
OpenAI + Neo4j + vector DB
OpenAI + Neo4j
Time to store a memory
55ms
~20 seconds
seconds
seconds
Learns from usage
Yes (Hebbian)
No
No
No
Forgets irrelevant data
Yes (decay)
No
No
Temporal only
Runs fully offline
Yes
No
No
No
Robotics / ROS2 native
Yes (Zenoh)
No
No
No
Binary size
~17MB
pip install + API keys
pip install + API keys + Neo4j
Cloud only
Every other memory system delegates intelligence to LLM API calls — that's why they're slow, expensive, and can't work offline.
No LLM in the Loop
Storing a memory makes zero LLM calls. Recalling makes zero LLM calls. Entity extraction, relation typing, knowledge-graph construction, causal tracing, ranking, decay, consolidation — all of it runs locally as algorithms, not API round-trips:
Local embeddings — MiniLM (22MB, INT8) via ONNX Runtime, on-device semantic search
Local reranking — a cross-encoder (ms-marco-MiniLM-L6, 23 MB int8, ONNX) reads the query and each of the top 30 candidates together, where the embedder sees them apart. On by default in the server: +16.5pp precision@1 and +8.7pp recall@10 on LoCoMo (1,531 held-out questions). It is a 22M-parameter ranking model, not an LLM, and it runs on CPU
Local NER — GLiNER bi-edge-v2 span typer (ONNX, schema-driven: 141 fine / 18 coarse entity types), auto-downloaded on first run from the pinned release, with a rule-based fallback
Typed relation extraction without an LLM — directed lexical cues + exemplar-matched semantic typing build a typed knowledge graph (LocatedIn, WorksAt, Causes…) from plain text
Causal lineage — "what was the root cause of X?" is answered by walking typed causal edges backward through the graph, not by asking a model
What that buys you: fully offline operation, millisecond latency instead of multi-second API calls, zero inference cost at any scale, deterministic, testable behavior, and data that never leaves the machine. Your agent's LLM does the reasoning — its memory doesn't need one.
Get Started
Unified CLI
# Download from GitHub Releases (or brew tap varun29ankuS/shodh-memory && brew install shodh-memory)
shodh init # First-time setup — creates config, generates API key, downloads AI model
shodh server # Start the memory server on :3030
shodh setup-hooks # Print instructions to set up Claude Code hooks
shodh tui # Launch the TUI dashboard
shodh status # Check server health
shodh doctor # Diagnose issues
One binary, all functionality. No Docker, no API keys, no external dependencies.
Claude Code
# 1. Add the MCP server (auto-downloads the backend binary)
claude mcp add shodh-memory -- npx -y @shodh/memory-mcp
# 2. Enable automatic memory capture (optional but recommended)
npx @shodh/memory-mcp setup-hooks
Step 1 gives Claude persistent memory tools. Step 2 installs Claude Code hooks that automatically capture context from every session — memories surface without you having to ask.
# 1. Start the server
docker run -d -p 3030:3030 -v shodh-data:/data varunshodh/shodh-memory
# 2. Add to Claude Code
claude mcp add shodh-memory -- npx -y @shodh/memory-mcp
For local use, no API key is needed — one is generated automatically. For remote servers, add "env": { "SHODH_API_KEY": "your-key" }.
Python
pip install shodh-memory
from shodh_memory import Memory
memory = Memory(storage_path="./my_data")
memory.remember("User prefers dark mode", memory_type="Decision")
results = memory.recall("user preferences", limit=5)
Rust
[dependencies]
shodh-memory = "0.1"
use shodh_memory::{MemorySystem, MemoryConfig};
let memory = MemorySystem::new(MemoryConfig::default())?;
memory.remember("user-1", "User prefers dark mode", MemoryType::Decision, vec![])?;
let results = memory.recall("user-1", "user preferences", 5)?;
Docker
docker run -d -p 3030:3030 -v shodh-data:/data varunshodh/shodh-memory
What It Does
You use a memory often → it becomes easier to find (Hebbian learning)
You stop using a memory → it fades over time (activation decay)
You recall one memory → related memories surface too (spreading activation)
A connection is used → it becomes permanent (long-term potentiation)
Under the hood, memories flow through three tiers:
Semantic search, reranking off (SHODH_CE_RERANK=0)
34-58ms
Cross-encoder rerank of the top 30 (server default)
+156ms p50, +216ms p95 end to end (76→232 p50, 79→295 p95; int8, release build, CI runner, 100-query LoCoMo gate). The cross-encoder itself is ~190ms mean per query, 83% of query time
Tag search
~1ms
Entity lookup
763ns
Graph traversal (3-hop)
30µs
Single binary. No GPU required. Content-hash dedup ensures identical memories are never stored twice.
The reranker numbers are an order of magnitude, not a promise: on identical code, runner speed moved the gate's p50 by up to 2.3× between runs (140 to 544ms). The gate now runs with per-stage timing on (SHODH_STAGE_TIMING=1, STAGE_TIMING rows in its recall-eval.log), which is how the cost above is attributed to the cross-encoder rather than to the runner.
51 MCP Tools
Full list of tools available to Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients:
Shodh-Memory isn't just for chat agents. It's persistent memory for robots — Spot, drones, humanoids, any system running ROS2 or Zenoh. No cloud, survives power cycles, learns from rewards, speaks Zenoh natively.
# Enable Zenoh transport (compile with --features zenoh)
SHODH_ZENOH_ENABLED=true SHODH_ZENOH_LISTEN=tcp/0.0.0.0:7447 shodh server
# ROS2 robots connect via zenoh-bridge-ros2dds or rmw_zenoh — zero code changes
ros2 run zenoh_bridge_ros2dds zenoh_bridge_ros2dds
Works with ROS2 Kilted (rmw_zenoh), PX4 drones, Boston Dynamics Spot, humanoids — anything that speaks Zenoh or ROS2 DDS.
Platform Support
Linux x86_64 · Linux ARM64 · macOS Apple Silicon · macOS Intel · Windows x86_64
Production Deployment
SHODH_ENV=production # Production mode
SHODH_API_KEYS=key1,key2,key3 # Comma-separated API keys
SHODH_HOST=127.0.0.1 # Bind address (default: localhost)
SHODH_PORT=3030 # Port (default: 3030)
SHODH_MEMORY_PATH=/var/lib/shodh # Data directory
# SHODH_IPC_ENABLED=false # Local IPC is enabled by default; false disables it
# SHODH_IPC_ENDPOINT=/private/path/shodh-memory.sock # Optional platform-specific override
# SHODH_IPC_REQUIRED=true # Fail closed instead of falling back to HTTP
SHODH_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=60 # Request timeout in seconds
SHODH_MAX_CONCURRENT=200 # Max concurrent requests
SHODH_ROCKSDB_BLOCK_CACHE_MB=256 # Shared RocksDB block cache (MiB)
SHODH_CE_RERANK=1 # Cross-encoder reranking (server default: on; 0 disables, e.g. for latency-bound robots)
SHODH_CE_DEPTH=30 # Candidates the cross-encoder rescores (latency scales with this)
# SHODH_CE_MODEL_PATH=/models/ce # Reranker assets; default: fetched on first start into the cache dir
# SHODH_OFFLINE=true # Never download models; a missing reranker means unreranked recall
SHODH_CORS_ORIGINS=https://app.example.com
The server enables authenticated local IPC by default and keeps HTTP available.
Native shodh serve prefers the platform-default IPC endpoint and falls back to
SHODH_API_URL unless fail-closed mode is enabled; the TypeScript MCP client uses IPC only when
SHODH_IPC_ENDPOINT is set. See the local IPC architecture
for platform defaults, security properties, and limitations.
[1] Cowan, N. (2010). The Magical Mystery Four. Current Directions in Psychological Science. [2] Magee & Grienberger (2020). Synaptic Plasticity Forms and Functions. Annual Review of Neuroscience. [3] Subramanya et al. (2019). DiskANN. NeurIPS 2019.
License
Apache 2.0
Keywords: LLM-free memory · no LLM in the loop · local-first AI memory · offline agent memory · persistent memory for AI agents · long-term memory for LLM agents · MCP memory server · Claude Code memory · knowledge graph memory · hybrid vector + graph search · causal lineage · Hebbian learning · memory decay · edge AI memory · robotics memory · ROS2 / Zenoh robot memory · air-gapped RAG alternative
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FAQ
Fragen
Wie installiere ich Shodh Memory?
Kopieren Sie auf dieser Seite die stdio-Konfiguration für Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code oder VS Code. Sie nutzt die Installation des Herausgebers, keinen PlugMCP-Proxy.
Benötigt Shodh Memory einen API-Schlüssel?
Der Herausgeber nennt diese Umgebungsvariablen: SHODH_API_URL, SHODH_API_KEY, SHODH_USER_ID.
Welchen Transport verwendet Shodh Memory?
Shodh Memory läuft lokal über stdio.
Wann wurde Shodh Memory zuletzt geprüft?
Zuletzt geprüft: 2026-11-10. Cognitive memory for AI agents — semantic search, Hebbian learning, knowledge graphs.
