Cortex
Cortex is a local-first MCP server that provides persistent, shared, semantically searchable memory for AI agents across all MCP clients using a single SQLite file.
README
<p align="center"> <img src="cortex.png" alt="Cortex" width="200" /> </p>
<h1 align="center">Cortex</h1>
<p align="center"> <strong>Persistent shared memory for every AI agent, across every MCP client, from one local file.</strong> </p>
<p align="center"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Python-3.11+-3776AB?logo=python&logoColor=white" alt="Python"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/FastMCP-2.0+-blueviolet?logo=fastapi&logoColor=white" alt="FastMCP"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/SQLite-FTS5%20%2B%20WAL-003B57?logo=sqlite&logoColor=white" alt="SQLite"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/fastembed-BAAI%2Fbge--small-orange?logoColor=white" alt="fastembed"> <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-22c55e" alt="MIT License"></a> </p>
The Problem
Every agent you run today has amnesia.
Claude Desktop forgets what Cursor found. Cursor does not know what Claude Code wrote yesterday. Each session starts from zero.
Cortex is the persistent nervous system that connects them all.
What is Cortex?
Cortex is a local-first MCP server that gives every AI agent a shared, semantically searchable memory layer.
- No cloud. No Docker. No API keys.
- One SQLite file at
~/.cortex/cortex.db— shared across all clients - Every memory is origin-tagged: who wrote it, from which client, with which model
- Hybrid search: BM25 keyword + cosine semantic retrieval fused with RRF
- Built-in deduplication: exact hash + near-duplicate detection (cosine ≥ 0.95)
- Soft-delete and audit trail on every write and delete
Quick Start
uvx cortex-mcp
That's it. The server starts, creates ~/.cortex/cortex.db, and is ready to accept connections from any MCP client.
Client Configuration
Claude Desktop
Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"cortex": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["cortex-mcp"]
}
}
}
Claude Code
claude mcp add cortex -- uvx cortex-mcp
Cursor / Zed / Windsurf
{
"mcpServers": {
"cortex": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["cortex-mcp"]
}
}
}
Local Development
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/cortex-mcp
cd cortex-mcp
uv sync
uv run cortex-mcp
Point any MCP client at your local clone:
{
"mcpServers": {
"cortex": {
"command": "uv",
"args": ["--directory", "/path/to/cortex-mcp", "run", "cortex-mcp"]
}
}
}
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
remember_fact |
Store a single atomic fact with automatic deduplication |
save_memory |
Compact a full session into structured, searchable memories |
recall |
Hybrid semantic + keyword search across all stored memories |
list_memories |
Chronological listing with optional filters |
forget |
Soft-delete a memory by ID (retained for audit) |
correct_memory |
Replace an incorrect memory with a corrected version |
verify_memory |
Explicitly mark a memory as verified |
get_agents |
List all agents that have written memories |
get_stats |
Operational health snapshot (counts, DB size, expiry) |
cortex_ping |
Health check — verify the server is running |
How Memory Works
Session ends
│
▼
save_memory / remember_fact
│
├── Exact dedup (SHA-256 hash)
├── Near-dedup (cosine similarity ≥ 0.95)
├── Embed (BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5, 384-dim)
└── Write to SQLite + FTS5 index
│
▼
recall(query)
│
├── FTS5 pre-filter (top 200 candidates)
├── BM25 keyword rank
├── Cosine semantic rank
└── RRF fusion → top_k results
Configuration
All settings are environment variables with the CORTEX_ prefix:
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
CORTEX_DB_PATH |
~/.cortex/cortex.db |
SQLite database path |
CORTEX_EMBED_MODEL |
BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 |
Sentence embedding model |
CORTEX_TOP_K_DEFAULT |
5 |
Default recall result count |
CORTEX_DEDUP_THRESHOLD |
0.95 |
Near-duplicate cosine threshold |
CORTEX_LOG_LEVEL |
INFO |
Log level (DEBUG/INFO/WARNING/ERROR) |
Requirements
- Python 3.11+
- uv (recommended) or pip
License
MIT
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