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RTFM

Retrieve The Forgotten Memory

The open retrieval layer for AI agents

Index your entire project — code, docs, legal, research, data — and serve your AI agent exactly the context it needs.

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Why?

Your AI agent is blind. It greps through thousands of files, loses context every session, hallucinates modules that don't exist. The fix isn't a smarter model — it's smarter retrieval.

Augment, Sourcegraph, and Cursor index code. RTFM indexes everything.

pip install rtfm-ai[mcp] && cd your-project && rtfm init

30 seconds. Claude Code now searches your indexed knowledge base before grepping.

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Features

Search & Retrieval

• FTS5 full-text search — instant, zero-config, works out of the box
• Semantic search — optional embeddings (FastEmbed/ONNX, no GPU needed)
• Metadata-first — search returns file paths + scores (~300 tokens), not content dumps
• Progressive disclosure — the agent reads only what it needs via Read(file_path)

Indexing

• 10 parsers built-in — Markdown, Python (AST), LaTeX, YAML, JSON, Shell, PDF, XML, HTML, plain text
• Extensible — add any format in ~50 lines of Python
• Incremental sync — only re-indexes what changed
• Auto-sync — hooks keep the index fresh every prompt, zero manual work

Integration

• MCP server — works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, any MCP client
• CLI — rtfm search, rtfm sync, rtfm status, ...
• Python API — Library, SearchResults, custom parsers
• Non-invasive — doesn't touch your code, doesn't replace your workflow tools

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Quick Start

Install

pip install rtfm-ai[mcp]

Initialize in your project

cd /path/to/your-project
rtfm init

This creates .rtfm/library.db, registers the MCP server, injects search instructions into CLAUDE.md, and installs auto-sync hooks. Done.

Then say to Claude Code: "Search for authentication flow" — it uses rtfm_search instead of grepping.

Optional extras

pip install rtfm-ai[embeddings]  # Semantic search (FastEmbed ONNX)
pip install rtfm-ai[pdf]         # PDF parsing (pdftext + marker)
pip install rtfm-ai[mcp,embeddings,pdf]  # Everything

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MCP Tools

Tool	What it does
rtfm_search	Search the index (FTS, semantic, or hybrid)
rtfm_context	Get relevant context for a subject (metadata-only)
rtfm_expand	Show all chunks of a source with full content
rtfm_discover	Fast project structure scan (~1s, no indexing needed)
rtfm_books	List indexed documents
rtfm_stats	Library statistics
rtfm_sync	Sync a directory (incremental)
rtfm_ingest	Ingest a single file
rtfm_tags	List all tags
rtfm_tag_chunks	Add tags to specific chunks
rtfm_remove	Remove a file from the index

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The Parser Architecture

This is what makes RTFM different. Need to index a format nobody supports?

from rtfm.parsers.base import BaseParser, ParserRegistry
from rtfm.core.models import Chunk

@ParserRegistry.register
class FHIRParser(BaseParser):
    """Parse HL7 FHIR medical records."""
    extensions = ['.fhir.json']
    name = "fhir"

    def parse(self, path, metadata=None):
        data = json.loads(path.read_text())
        for entry in data.get('entry', []):
            resource = entry.get('resource', {})
            yield Chunk(
                id=resource.get('id', str(uuid4())),
                content=json.dumps(resource, indent=2),
                book_title=f"FHIR {resource.get('resourceType', 'Unknown')}",
                book_slug=resource.get('id', 'unknown'),
                page_start=1,
                page_end=1,
            )

50 lines. Now your medical AI agent understands FHIR records.

Built-in parsers

Parser	Extensions	Strategy
Markdown	.md	Split by headers, YAML frontmatter extraction
Python	.py	AST-based: each class/function = 1 chunk
LaTeX	.tex	Split by \section, \chapter, etc.
YAML	.yaml, .yml	Split by top-level keys
JSON	.json	Split by top-level keys or array elements
Shell	.sh, .bash, .zsh	Function-aware chunking
PDF	.pdf	Page-based (pip install rtfm-ai[pdf])
Legifrance XML	.xml	French legal codes (LEGI format)
BOFiP HTML	.html	French tax doctrine
Plain text	.js, .ts, .rs, .go, ...	Line-boundary chunks (~500 chars)

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How It Compares

	RTFM	Augment CE	Sourcegraph	Code-Index-MCP
Code indexing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Docs, specs, markdown	Yes	Partial	No	Limited
Legal / regulatory	Yes	No	No	No
Research (LaTeX, PDF)	Yes	No	No	No
Custom parsers	Yes (50 lines)	No	No	No
MCP native	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open source	MIT	No	Partial	Yes
Dependencies	SQLite (built-in)	Cloud service	Enterprise server	Varies
Price	Free	$20-200/mo	$$$/mo	Free

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Use Cases

RTFM works anywhere your project isn't just code:

• LegalTech — Code + tax law + regulatory specs. Ships with Legifrance XML and BOFiP parsers.
• Research — Code + LaTeX papers + datasets. Ships with LaTeX and PDF parsers.
• FinTech — Code + financial regulations + XBRL reports. Write an XBRL parser in 50 lines.
• HealthTech — Code + medical records (HL7/FHIR) + clinical guidelines.
• Any regulated industry — If your project mixes code with domain documents, RTFM is for you.

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CLI Reference

# Search (auto-detects .rtfm/ database)
rtfm search "authentication flow"
rtfm search "article 39" --corpus cgi --limit 5

# Sync
rtfm sync                              # All registered sources
rtfm sync /path/to/docs --corpus docs  # Specific directory
rtfm sync . --force                    # Force re-index

# Source management
rtfm add /path/to/docs --corpus docs --extensions md,pdf
rtfm sources

# Status & info
rtfm status
rtfm books
rtfm tags

# Semantic search (requires embeddings)
rtfm embed                                      # Generate embeddings (one-time)
rtfm semantic-search "tax deductions" --hybrid   # Hybrid FTS + semantic

# MCP server
rtfm serve

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Python API

from rtfm import Library

lib = Library("my_library.db")

# Index
stats = lib.ingest("documents/article.md", corpus="docs")
result = lib.sync(".", corpus="my-project")  # SyncResult(+3 ~1 -0 =42)

# Search
results = lib.search("depreciation", limit=10, corpus="cgi")
results = lib.hybrid_search("amortissement fiscal", limit=10)

# Export for LLM
prompt_context = results.to_prompt(max_chars=8000)

lib.close()

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Works With Your Workflow Tools

RTFM isn't a task manager. It's a knowledge layer.

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  GSD / Taskmaster / Claude Flow │  <- Workflow
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│              RTFM               │  <- Knowledge
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│          Claude Code            │  <- Execution
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Without RTFM, your workflow tool orchestrates an agent that hallucinates. With RTFM, your agent knows what it's building on.

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Contributing

Adding a parser is the easiest way to contribute — and the most impactful. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Found a bug? Have an idea? Open an issue.

License

MIT — use it, fork it, extend it, ship it.

Author

Romain Peyrichou — @roomi-fields

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Augment indexes your code. RTFM indexes everything.

Star on GitHub if this saves your agent from hallucinating!

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