Coster

Universal, offline-first context persistence layer for AI coding assistants.

Coster captures the why of your codebase — decisions, conventions, workarounds, and investigations — into a local SQLite database, then regenerates tool-specific memory files (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, …) so every AI assistant you use shares the same brain. No API keys, no cloud, no telemetry.

Why

AI assistants forget everything between sessions. Coster gives them durable, structured memory that follows your project instead of living inside one vendor's context window.

• Offline & private — everything is stored in .coster/ inside your project.
• Zero API keys — coster init detects your tool, installs hooks, syncs, and backfills memories from your git history.
• Tool-agnostic — one source of truth, exported to 9+ assistant formats.
• No native build — storage uses sql.js (WASM SQLite), so there is no node-gyp step.

Install

npm install -g coster
# or run without installing:
npx coster@latest <command>

Requires Node.js 18+.

Quick start

From the root of your project:

coster init

This will:

1. Detect which AI assistant you use (.claude/CLAUDE.md → Claude Code, AGENTS.md → OpenCode, .cursorrules → Cursor, etc.).
2. Install git hooks (post-commit / post-checkout) that capture context automatically.
3. Sync a tool-specific memory file (e.g. AGENTS.md).
4. Backfill — scan git history for cost:<category>: directives and import them as memories.

Then just work. Git commits that include a directive like:

cost:decision: We standardized on feature flags for all new endpoints

…are automatically captured into Coster on every commit.

Any other Coster command also auto-initializes the project if .coster/ is missing, so you can run a single command and have everything set up for you.

Commands

Command	Description
coster init [--auto] [--tool <id>] [--minimal]	Initialize a project. Plain init runs the full bootstrap, always keeps a portable COSTER.md, and auto-registers the MCP server. Any other command auto-initializes if .coster/ is missing.
coster setup	Interactive setup wizard.
coster note "<text>"	Quick-capture a memory from plain text (auto-categorizes).
coster capture --text "..." --category <c>	Manually capture a memory.
coster capture commit / coster capture checkout	Called automatically by git hooks. commit also auto-captures signal-rich commits (rule/config files, large/fix diffs) even without a cost: directive.
coster capture import <path> [--tool claude|opencode|auto]	Import memories from an exported agent conversation (Claude jsonl / OpenCode json / text).
coster capture pr [--limit N]	Capture memories from recently merged PRs (via your gh CLI). Enable with coster config set capture.pr.enabled true.
coster capture shell	Capture memories from the shell command log. Enable with coster hooks install --shell.
coster daemon start | stop | status [--project <path>]	File-watch daemon that auto-discovers tools, re-syncs context files on change, and runs scheduled maintenance.
coster daemon install-service | uninstall-service	Opt-in. Install an OS service (Windows task on login; launchd/systemd template elsewhere) so the daemon runs unattended. Off by default — nothing auto-starts on login.
coster lifecycle run [--dry-run] [--step archive|decay|consolidate]	Run memory maintenance: archive expired, decay stale importance, merge duplicates.
coster lifecycle status	Show active/archived counts, pending TTL expirations and near-duplicates.
coster lifecycle decay | consolidate [--dry-run]	Run a single lifecycle step.
coster lifecycle duplicates	List detected near-duplicate memory pairs (no writes).
coster lifecycle merge <a> <b>	Manually merge memory b into a.
coster archive list | restore <id> | purge <id> | purge-all	Inspect and manage soft-archived memories (restorable; purge is permanent).
coster embeddings fetch	Download the local embedding model once (requires network; runtime stays offline).
coster embeddings build	Build/update the semantic index for all memories (auto-fetches the model if missing).
coster embeddings status	Show embedding/model/index state.
coster embeddings clear	Delete all vectors (revert to keyword-only search).
coster search <query>	Search memories with hybrid keyword + semantic ranking (records access for stats).
coster list [--category <c>]	List memories.
coster show [tool]	Print the generated memory file for a tool (default: COSTER.md).
coster sync [--tool <id>] [--dry-run] [--no-discover]	Regenerate tool-specific memory files. Auto-detects and enables newly added assistant tools (pass --no-discover to disable).
coster memory add | list | show | edit | delete	CRUD on individual memories.
coster recall [<query>] [-f <file>] [-l <n>] [--json] [--no-semantic]	Recall the most relevant memories for a topic or file, ranked by decayed importance (+ optional semantic).
coster config get | set | list	Read/modify configuration.
coster status	Health summary (detected tools, memory count, unconfigured tools).
coster doctor	Full health & environment check (Node, config, DB, git hooks, MCP, discovered tools).
coster stats	Memory statistics by category and access.
coster hooks install | uninstall | list	Manage git/shell hooks. Use --shell for shell-command capture and --prepare-msg to append cost: trailers to signal-rich commits.
coster session start | end | list	Manage capture sessions (inject context on start, archive expired memories on end).
coster restore [-t <tool>]	Print memories grouped by category for a tool.
coster cleanup [--dry-run]	Archive memories expired per lifecycle TTL.
coster mcp	Start the MCP server (stdio).
coster mcp-install	Register Coster as an MCP server for detected assistants (idempotent, cross-tool).
coster mcp-remove	Remove the Coster MCP server registration.
coster completion <bash|zsh|fish|pwsh>	Print a shell completion script.
coster byebro [--yes] [--purge-global]	Remove Coster entirely from this project (.coster/, hooks, MCP, OS service, daemon) while leaving generated tool files (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, …) untouched.

Examples

# Add a memory
coster memory add -c convention -t "Use 2-space indentation" --tags style

# Search
coster search "indentation"

# Recall the most relevant memories for a topic
coster recall "how do we cache sessions" --limit 5

# Tune config
coster config set quality.minScore 6
coster config set tools.opencode.enabled false

# See what's going on
coster status
coster stats --json

Semantic search

Search is hybrid: keyword (BM25) fused with local embeddings (Reciprocal Rank Fusion), so it matches by meaning, not just substrings. Setup is one extra command after init:

coster embeddings build   # downloads a ~100MB local model once, then indexes all memories
coster search "how do we cache sessions"   # now understands "Redis", "cache", etc.

• The default model (Xenova/bge-base-en-v1.5, 768-d, runs on ONNX/WASM) is fetched once and stored under ~/.coster/models. Runtime search never touches the network.
• If the index isn't built yet, search silently falls back to keyword-only, so search always works out of the box.
• From then on, the file-watch daemon keeps the index fresh automatically (toggle with embeddings.autoBuild).
• Want a smaller/faster model? coster config set embeddings.model Xenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2 and coster config set embeddings.dim 384. Want the largest? Xenova/bge-large-en-v1.5 with embeddings.dim 1024. Then coster embeddings build.

Memory lifecycle

Coster keeps itself tidy so it never rots into stale, contradictory noise. Three automatic maintenance steps run on a schedule (inside the daemon) and on demand:

1. Archive — memories past their per-category TTL (recap 30d, investigation 90d, workaround 90d) are soft-archived: moved to a restorable archive table, not deleted. coster archive list / restore / purge manage them.
2. Decay — importance fades with age (exponential half-life, default 180d, floored at decayMinImportance 0.2) so fresh memories rank above ancient ones without vanishing.
3. Consolidate — near-duplicate memories (cosine ≥ consolidateSimilarity, default 0.92, same category among preference|convention|decision|workaround|mistake) are merged into one. Needs the semantic index (embeddings build).

coster lifecycle status        # what's pending?
coster lifecycle run --dry-run # preview counts, no writes
coster lifecycle run           # do it

Nothing starts itself on OS login. The daemon, its scheduled maintenance, and the OS boot service are all off by default and strictly opt-in:

• The in-daemon scheduler is gated by scheduler.enabled (default false). A manually started daemon only does file-watch sync until you opt in.
• coster daemon install-service is the only way to make Coster launch on login — you have to type it yourself. If you don't want that, you never get it.

coster daemon install-service  # opt in: run the daemon (archive+decay daily, consolidate weekly) on login
coster config set scheduler.enabled true   # opt in: let a running daemon schedule maintenance

Every step is safe to re-run and skips what's disabled in config (lifecycle.autoArchive, scheduler.enabled, embeddings.enabled).

Smart context injection

Instead of dumping every memory into your tool files, injection is relevance-curated by default (injection.mode: 'curated'):

• Decayed importance — every injected memory is scored with its age-decayed importance (see Memory lifecycle), so fresh, frequently-used memories surface and ancient ones fade rather than bloating the context window.
• Optional semantic focus — when an embedding model is present locally, coster recall, the MCP recall tool, and get_context --focus blend the decayed ranking with semantic similarity to the topic/file so the most topically relevant memories float up. No model? Curation silently falls back to decayed importance — still fully offline, no network, no download.
• Budget-fit — curated memories are trimmed to each tool's tokenBudget so they always fit. Legacy injection.mode: 'all' restores the old "fit-all-then-truncate" behavior.

The daemon also prints a one-line 💡 recall hint when you edit a file (proactive recall), pointing you at the most relevant existing memory — it never rewrites your tool files on its own.

coster recall "configure the build cache" --limit 5   # focused recall
coster recall -f src/build.ts                          # recall by file path
coster config set injection.semanticWeight 0.5
coster config set injection.mode all                   # legacy behavior

Removing Coster (byebro)

coster byebro fully decommission Coster from a project: it stops the daemon, removes the OS service, uninstalls git/shell hooks and the MCP registration, and deletes .coster/ (including the memory DB and vectors). The generated assistant tool files (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, COSTER.md, …) are left exactly as they were — your project keeps working with the context already written. Add --purge-global to also delete the globally cached embedding model (~/.coster/models).

coster byebro --yes          # remove Coster, keep your tool files
coster byebro --yes --purge-global

Supported tools & setup

Coster exports a managed block into each tool's memory file. Your own content in those files is preserved — Coster only owns the region between <!-- COSTER:START --> and <!-- COSTER:END --> markers, and re-writes only that region on every sync.

Tool	File written
Claude Code	CLAUDE.md
OpenCode	AGENTS.md
Cursor	.cursorrules
GitHub Copilot	.github/copilot-instructions.md
Windsurf	.windsurf/rules/coster.md
Codex	.codex/memory.md
Cline	.clinerules
Continue	.continue/rules/coster.md
Kiro	.kiro/steering/coster.md
Coster (portable)	COSTER.md

Enabling the MCP server (recommended)

The MCP server lets an assistant read and write memories directly. The easiest way is to let Coster register itself — coster init does this automatically, or run it any time with:

coster mcp-install

This writes an idempotent coster entry into the standard .mcp.json (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Cline, Windsurf, Codex) and, if present, merges into opencode.jsonc. Run coster mcp-remove to clean up. The registered server uses npx -y coster mcp.

To register manually instead, add the entry yourself:

Claude Code — .mcp.json (project) or ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coster": {
      "command": "coster",
      "args": ["mcp", "--project", "."]
    }
  }
}

OpenCode — ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "coster": {
      "command": "coster",
      "args": ["mcp", "--project", "."]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code / Cline / Continue / Windsurf / Codex / Kiro — use the same shape in their respective mcp.json / MCP settings file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coster": { "command": "coster", "args": ["mcp", "--project", "."] }
  }
}

Requires Coster on your PATH (npm install -g coster). The --project flag defaults to the current directory when omitted.

The cost: directive

Capture structured memory from commit messages without leaving your editor. The format is:

cost:<category>: <content>

• category — one of preference, convention, decision, investigation, workaround, recap, mistake.

Examples:

cost:decision: We standardized on feature flags for all new endpoints
cost:convention: All dates are stored as UTC ISO-8601 strings
cost:workaround: The staging API requires a trailing slash or it 500s

Every commit that includes a directive is captured by the post-commit hook (stored with importance 0.8).

Memory categories

preference · convention · decision · investigation · workaround · recap · mistake

Memories carry an importance (0–1), tags, a source (manual, git-hook, shell-hook, auto), and access counters used by coster stats.

How it works

git commit ─▶ post-commit hook ─▶ coster capture commit
                                        │
          coster capture (manual) ──────┤
                                        ▼
                              ┌──────────────────────┐
                              │  .coster/coster.db   │  (sql.js / WASM SQLite)
                              └──────────────────────┘
                                        │
                              coster sync ─▶ AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules …
                                        │
                              injected into your assistant's context

Configuration

Configuration lives in .coster/config.json. Key paths:

• quality.minScore — minimum quality-gate score to keep a memory.
• tools.<name>.enabled — toggle export for a specific assistant.
• tools.<name>.exportPath — where the generated file is written.
• lifecycle.* — TTLs and auto-archive behavior: recapTTL, investigationTTL, workaroundTTL, autoArchive, decayHalfLifeDays, decayMinImportance, consolidateSimilarity.
• scheduler.* — in-daemon maintenance cadence (off by default; opt in with config set scheduler.enabled true): enabled, decayEveryHours, archiveEveryHours, consolidateEveryHours.
• injection.* — smart context injection: mode (curated default, or all), useSemantic (blend semantic ranking when a model is present), semanticWeight (0–1 blend factor, default 0.4), maxMemories (curate cap per file, default 200), proactive (print a 💡 recall hint on file edits via the daemon, default true).

FAQ

Does Coster send my code anywhere? No. All storage is local (sql.js WASM SQLite inside .coster/). There is no network call unless you explicitly connect the MCP server to an assistant.

Will sync overwrite my AGENTS.md? No. Coster only writes the region between its <!-- COSTER:START --> / <!-- COSTER:END --> markers. Anything you write outside that block is preserved.

Do I need to be on a specific OS? No. Coster runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The git hooks are POSIX sh scripts that Git runs natively on all three.

Why do I need a global install for hooks? Git hooks invoke coster by name, so it must be on your PATH. Use npm install -g coster, or run npx coster@latest for one-off commands.

How do I disable a tool's export? coster config set tools.<name>.enabled false, then coster sync.

Development

npm install
npm run build      # tsup → dist/
npm test           # vitest
npx tsc --noEmit   # typecheck

License

MIT — see LICENSE.