memtether

MemTether — The AI Memory Court

Your agent remembers things. Who audits what it remembers?

MemTether is a local-first memory hub for multi-client AI agents. While most memory systems compete on retrieval accuracy, MemTether competes on governance: who wrote each fact, when it took effect, what it superseded, which conflicts a human adjudicated, and a tamper-evident hash chain anyone can verify — no code, no dependencies. Retrieval is provided (SGM deterministic SQL routing + hybrid embedding), but it is not the headline: agent memory that you can audit, correct, and trust is.

Coming from mem0, Zep, or Letta? examples/mem0_migration.py shows a complete round-trip migration from a mem0 JSON export — no mem0 SDK required.

$ memtether court fact-20261007-abc
+============================================================+
| MEMTETHER MEMORY COURT - CASE FILE                          |
| 1. CONTENT    Clash proxy port is 7897                      |
| 2. TEMPORAL   valid: 10-05 → present | known: 10-05 → now   |
| 3. PROVENANCE #1 remember by=codex → #2 correct by=user     |
| 4. CONFLICTS  case #3: vs fact-...old verdict=superseded    |
| 5. INTEGRITY  chain: PASS (3 anchors, 42 entries hashed)    |
+============================================================+

TL;DR

• Your AI clients forget each other? Every agent keeps its own memory. MemTether gives them one shared, governed brain via file-level pointers — no cloud, no sync.
• Your AI writes things it should not? Every memory carries a source identity and a hash-chained audit trail. Tamper with the database and the chain detects it — run python examples/audit_chain_demo.py to see it turn red.
• Your AI changed its mind? Corrections never delete. Bi-temporal supersession keeps who-changed-what-when-why forever, queryable at any past point in time.

Run it yourself:

$ python examples/audit_chain_demo.py
写入 25 条记忆（自动生成 2 个审计锚点）...
篡改前 verify_chain: PASS {'anchors': 2, 'entries_covered': 20}
模拟攻击者直接改库...
篡改后 verify_chain: FAIL {'reason': 'chain hash mismatch'}
✅ 哈希链成功检测到篡改！

> Note: ntries_covered: 20 with 25 writes is expected — the hash chain anchors every 10 audit entries, so the last 5 writes sit in the unanchored tail until the next batch. Tampering with an *anchored* entry is what turns verification red.

Migrating from mem0

Already using mem0? examples/mem0_migration.py shows a complete round-trip: mem0 JSON export → MemTether Exchange v1 → live retrieval → back to mem0 format. No mem0 SDK required, bi-temporal fields honestly marked temporal_source="backfilled".

Performance (microbenchmark, n=200, local SQLite)

Operation	p50	p95	p99
remember (insert)	28.7ms	34.6ms	117.8ms
search (SGM entity)	33.1ms	39.5ms	41.6ms
search (keyword)	32.2ms	35.0ms	135.0ms
correct (supersede)	50.8ms	54.7ms	54.7ms

Reproduce: python _dev/benchmarks/bench_latency.py --n 200

Documentation

Under the hood: supersession chains (corrections never delete), bi-temporal timestamps (when facts were true vs when the system learned them), human-adjudicated conflict resolution, and a hash-chained audit log designed with EU AI Act Article 12 record-keeping requirements in mind (not certified compliance) record-keeping requirements.

One physical SQLite database, shared by every AI client via file-level pointers. No cloud. No API fees. No sync daemon. Greppable, git-able, yours — and auditable.

Compared to mem0 (66.6K★), Zep/Graphiti (31.5K★), and agentmemory (29.2K★): those systems either overwrite or delete old values. MemTether's supersession chain preserves the full history with source attribution and Q-Value ranking. EAF retrieval: 75.7% strict on LongMemEval 500Q (paired delta +19.4pp, McNemar p=7.8e-7).

How MemTether compares

	MemTether	memora (731★)	memtrace (486★)	icarus (290★)	mem0 (66K★)
Supersession chains (corrections don't delete)	✅ enforced	❌	❌	✅	❌ overwrite
Evidence chain (tamper-evident, browser-verifiable)	✅ court CLI + zip	❌	❌	❌	❌
Human conflict adjudication (decisions on record)	✅ conflicts CLI	❌	❌	❌	❌
Bi-temporal (valid_from ≠ recorded_at)	✅ 100% coverage on fact rows	❌	✅ on knowledge-graph edges (not per-fact rows)	❌	❌
Source attribution (who wrote it, enforced)	✅ registry + reject	❌	❌	✅ provenance	❌
Bi-temporal (per-fact rows)	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅ graph edges only
Conflict detection (rule-based + human review)	✅ candidate generator	❌	❌	❌	❌
MCP server	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
23+ client adapters	✅ auto-detect	❌	❌	❌	❌
Evaluation integrity framework	✅ 5 patterns	❌	❌	❌	❌
CI: 9 jobs / 567 tests	✅	?	?	?	✅
Language	Python	?	Rust	?	Python

'Each cell reflects the feature's presence in the project's public documentation as of 2026-10-07. MemTether's differentiator is not any single feature — it's the combination of all governance dimensions in one local-first deployment.'

Artifact bundle with per-question records.

mcp-name: io.github.lanbass869-cell/memtether

Project page · Install · Docs · Reproduce · 中文文档

Install · Usage · Why MemTether · Benchmarks · Architecture · Security · FAQ

• Reproduce MemTether - Every claim has a command
• Founding 10 Challenge - 10 spots, 14 days, honest outcomes
• Docs (zh) - Reproduce / Challenge in Chinese

Quick Start

pip install memtether -i https://pypi.org/simple/
memtether init    # creates DB + connects all detected AI clients

That's it. MemTether detects Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, Gemini CLI and 18 more clients on your machine, writes MCP config, and verifies.

China users: if pip install memtether fails with No matching distribution, the Tsinghua mirror may lag behind PyPI. Use: pip install memtether -i https://pypi.org/simple/

# One client at a time
memtether setup claude-code
memtether setup cursor
memtether setup gemini-cli    # run `memtether setup list` for all 23

# With semantic search (local embedding, no cloud):
pip install "memtether[vector]"          # 1. deps (chromadb, onnxruntime)
memtether download-models                # 2. weights (bge-m3-int8 ~560MB, or --profile bge-small-zh ~46MB)
python -m memsearch --rebuild            # 3. build the vector index
# Skip any of these and search gracefully degrades to keyword + BM25.

# With REST API server + web dashboard
pip install "memtether[server]"
memtether dashboard

# Docker
docker-compose up

> **Security note**: the REST API is unauthenticated unless you set MEMTETHER_API_KEY. Only expose port 8080 to trusted networks — on a shared machine, set the key in .env before docker-compose up.
> **`memtether init` caveat**: auto-detection works for clients in standard install paths. Clients in custom locations may be missed or falsely reported — use `memtether connect verify` to confirm, and see docs/ADAPTERS.md for manual MCP config.

Why MemTether

The one thing no other memory system does: corrections don't delete

# Monday: Claude Code writes
$ memtether remember "Deploy to port 8080" --source claude-code

# Wednesday: you correct it via Cursor
$ memtether correct fact-xxx "Deploy to port 9090" --reason "port changed"

# Friday: another agent searches
$ memtether search "deploy port" --list
  1. [fact] Deploy to port 9090 (active)          ← current truth
     Old "port 8080" is superseded, not deleted.
     Full chain: memtether timeline fact-xxx

Every memory has valid_from / valid_to (business time) + recorded_at / invalidated_at (system time). You can query "what did the system know on Tuesday?"

How it's different

Architecture

Claude Code ────┐                  ┌──── Cursor
                │   symlink /      │
Codex ──────────┤   junction       ├──── Windsurf
                │                  │
Gemini CLI ─────┤                  ├─── WorkBuddy
                └───────┬──────────┘
                        │
                        ▼
              ┌──────────────────┐
              │   memory.db      │  ← One physical SQLite
              │   (WAL mode)     │
              ├──────────────────┤
              │ FTS5 trigram     │  ← BM25 full-text
              │ ChromaDB + bge-m3│  ← Semantic (optional)
              │ RRF fusion       │  ← Multi-path merge
              │ 4-factor rerank  │  ← Z-score + sigmoid
              │ Supersession     │  ← Never delete
              │ Bi-temporal      │  ← T-axis + T'-axis
              │ Q-Value          │  ← Usage-based ranking
              │ Hubguard         │  ← Concurrent write lock
              │ Poisoning guard  │  ← OWASP LLM defense
              └──────────────────┘

Connect Your Clients

# All detected clients (recommended)
memtether init

# One at a time
memtether setup claude-code
memtether setup cursor
memtether setup windsurf
memtether setup codex

Supported (23): Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Zed, JetBrains, Cline, Roo Code, Kilo Code, Continue, Cody, Amazon Q, Gemini CLI, Neovim, Codex CLI, WorkBuddy (CN + Intl), CodeBuddy, ZCode, DSH, OpenClaw, Agents-Neutral

Memory Operations

memtether remember "User prefers dark theme" --source claude-code
memtether search "theme" --layer L0    # First sentence only
memtether search "theme" --layer L1    # First 3 sentences
memtether search "theme"               # Full content (L2, default)
memtether profile --subject user       # What we know about this user
memtether correct <uid> "Updated"      # Supersede, never delete
memtether retire <uid> --reason "..."  # Retire (content preserved)
memtether provenance <uid>             # Full audit trail for one fact
memtether conflicts --stats            # Review conflict candidates
memtether court --verify               # Verify the audit hash chain
memtether stats
memtether export-md --out ./backup     # Export as markdown
memtether backup                       # Point-in-time DB backup
memtether reconcile --dry-run          # SQLite <-> vector drift report
memtether import-docs ./docs           # Cold-start from a directory
memtether remember-batch mems.json     # Batch write from JSON
memtether demo                         # Generate a synthetic demo DB (no real data)
memtether dashboard                    # Web UI

Run memtether --help for the full list (20 subcommands).

The same operations work via MCP — your AI agent can govern memory directly:

# Via MCP: correct_memory / retire_memory / pin_memory / as_of_query / timeline / profile
# Your agent calls these tools — no CLI needed:

# Agent corrects a fact (supersedes old, creates new)
→ correct_memory(old_uid="fact-xxx", new_content="Deploy to 9090", reason="port changed")

# Agent queries what the system knew last Tuesday
→ as_of_query(at="2026-10-15", kind="known")

# Agent walks the full audit chain
→ timeline(uid="fact-xxx")

# Agent asks "what do we already know about this user?"
→ profile(subject="user")          # deterministic, no LLM, fully traceable

The same operations are available via MCP (correct_memory, retire_memory, pin_memory, as_of_query, timeline, profile) — agents can govern memory without CLI.

Layered recall (L0 / L1 / L2)

Every search can return the same hit at three depths, so an agent scans cheap one-liners first and only pays for full text on the hits it actually wants:

memtether search "deploy port" --layer L0   # first sentence only (~1 line)
memtether search "deploy port" --layer L1   # first 3 sentences
memtether search "deploy port"              # L2 = full text (default)

Measured on a 2,200-fact production DB (limit=5): L0 costs 10% of L2's characters, L1 44%. The split is a pure deterministic function — no LLM, no hallucination, and L2 is byte-identical to the pre-layer behaviour.

Deterministic user profile

memtether profile --subject user           # human-readable
memtether profile --subject user --json    # machine-readable

Aggregates everything known about one subject (counts by type/source, time span, high-confidence facts, an L0 digest you can paste straight into a system prompt). Unlike supermemory's get_profile or honcho's get_representation, this runs zero LLM calls — the same DB always yields the same profile, and every line traces back to a uid.

memtether export-md --out ./backup     # Export as markdown
memtether dashboard                    # Web UI

Benchmarks

Security

• Poisoning defense: memtether_guard detects prompt injection, code execution, sensitive info (OWASP LLM01/02/06), 12 rules
• Input validation: content ≤10K, type whitelist, source format, confidence range, scope whitelist
• Scope isolation: shared / private / restricted
• Concurrency: Hubguard file lock + atomic write (WAL mode)
• SQL: All parameterized. No f-string SQL

Why not just markdown files?

Agents work well with markdown, and memtether export-md gives you that. But raw markdown files can't answer "who wrote this, when was it true, what did it replace?" — and they can't enforce source attribution or detect tampering.

Export to markdown anytime — but keep the governed database as the source of truth.

Known Limitations

1. tether_connect detect may falsely report "not connected" for same-source-different-path configs
2. DSH deep customizations (cordis.patch.yml) cannot be safely rewritten — use plan to preview
3. Semantic search requires optional deps (chromadb, onnxruntime) — without them, degrades to keyword search
4. Windows-first. macOS/Linux should work but not fully tested
5. Exchange adapters for mem0/zep are experimental — they require the corresponding library installed

REST API

memtether dashboard   # starts server + opens browser
# or: uvicorn api_server:app --port 8820

14 endpoints: / /health /remember /search /stats /correct /retire /list /timeline/{uid} /absorb /qvalue /dashboard /court/verify /court/{uid}

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Apache-2.0

If MemTether helps you, please give it a ⭐ on GitHub — it helps other agents find it.

Troubleshooting

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for planned work and explicit non-goals.