attention-matters
A geometric memory engine built on the S³ hypersphere. Memories aren't retrieved, they're surfaced through quaternion drift, phasor interference, and Kuramoto phase coupling across dual manifolds.
Every query reshapes the manifold. Every recall changes what gets recalled next. The geometry does the thinking.
Origins
The mathematical framework: quaternion geometry on S³, golden-angle phasors, IDF-weighted drift, Kuramoto phase coupling across dual manifolds - was created by Smaxforn (@smaxforn). His original implementation was DAE v0.7.2: a zero-dependency Node.js engine that fit the entire geometric memory system in 984 lines of pure math, with WebGPU compute shaders for batch SLERP and interference. He open-sourced three repositories in February 2026 - dae-stand-alone, dae-openclaw, and DAE-moltbook - then disappeared from the internet. His GitHub account no longer exists.
This Rust workspace is a faithful port of his mathematics, maintaining numerical compatibility with the v0.7.2 wire format so that state files from the original implementation (including Echo, a Claude instance with 27,712 occurrences of geometric memory) can be imported directly.
The math is old. The synthesis is his. For the full mathematical narrative, see MANIFOLD.md.
How it works
Query: "quaternion drift"
│
▼
┌─ activate ──── drift ──── interfere ──── couple ──── surface ──── compose ─-┐
│ │
│ Words activate Occurrences Conscious & Phases Score, │
│ on the manifold SLERP toward subconscious synchronize rank, │
│ with IDF weights each other phasors via Kuramoto return │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Words live as points on a 4D unit sphere. When a query activates them, they drift toward each other along geodesics. Interference between conscious and subconscious manifolds determines what surfaces. Phase coupling synchronizes related memories over time. The system has genuine history. It learns from being used.
Two conservation laws keep it grounded: total mass M=1 (finite attention budget) and coupling constants K_CON + K_SUB = 1 (zero-sum attention between manifolds). Every constant derives from φ and π.
Install
npx -y attention-matters # CLI
npx -y attention-matters serve # MCP server
Or build from source:
cargo install --path crates/am-cli
MCP server
Runs as a Model Context Protocol server, giving AI agents persistent geometric memory across sessions.
am serve
Tools: am_query, am_query_index, am_retrieve, am_buffer, am_ingest, am_salient, am_feedback, am_activate_response, am_batch_query, am_export, am_import, am_stats
CLI
am query "what did we decide about the API" # recall from memory
am ingest document.md # add to the manifold
am stats # system state
am inspect neighborhoods --limit 5 # peek at the geometry
am export > state.json # portable state
am import < state.json # restore
am sync # sync session transcripts
Architecture
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-──-──┐
│ DAESystem │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────-──────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Conscious │ │ Subconscious │ │
│ │ Episode │ │ Episodes (N) │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ Neighborhoods │ │ Neighborhoods │ │
│ │ → Occurrences │ │ → Occurrences │ │
│ └────────┬───────────┘ └─────────────┬─────────────┘ │
│ │ │ │
│ └───── phasor interference ─────────┘ │
│ │
│ QueryEngine: activate → drift → interfere → couple → surface │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────--──┘
Three crates, clean separation:
The math
All constants derive from φ (golden ratio) and π.
The system has two conservation laws:
- M = 1 - total mass is conserved. Attention is a finite resource.
- K_CON + K_SUB = 1 - coupling between manifolds is zero-sum.
Development
Rust 2024 edition. just as task runner.
just check # clippy (warnings = errors)
just build # cargo build --workspace
just test # nextest + doctests
just fmt # rustfmt
License
MIT