OpenVault

Local-first agent memory via MCP. Works with Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Cline — anything that speaks MCP.

Zero API keys. Zero cloud. Zero telemetry. Your memories stay on your machine.

Quick Start

npm install -g openvault
openvault init
openvault serve

Integration

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openvault": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "openvault", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add openvault -- npx -y openvault serve

MCP Tools

Tool	Description
vault_search	Search memories with hybrid BM25 + semantic search
vault_write	Store a memory (fact, decision, lesson, preference, entity, event)
vault_forget	Delete a memory by search match
vault_status	Vault stats: total memories, categories, last write
vault_context	Auto-surface relevant context for current project

How It Works

• Storage: Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Human-readable, git-friendly.
• Search: Hybrid BM25 + semantic embeddings with Reciprocal Rank Fusion.
• Embeddings: Local via all-MiniLM-L6-v2. No GPU, no API keys.
• Transport: stdio (default) or streamable-http.

CLI

openvault init                          # Initialize vault (~/.openvault)
openvault serve                         # Start MCP server (stdio)
openvault serve --http --port 3333      # HTTP transport
openvault search "deployment decisions" # Search from terminal
openvault write "Use Railway" --category decision
openvault status                        # Show vault stats

Why OpenVault?

Feature	OpenVault	mem0	Zep
Local-first	yes	no (cloud)	no (cloud)
No API keys	yes	no	no
Human-readable	yes (markdown)	no	no
Git-friendly	yes	no	no
MCP native	yes	no	no
Free	yes	freemium	paid

License

MIT