MemCtrl

Observable Memory Infrastructure for AI Agents
The only memory layer with provenance, confidence decay, and OpenTelemetry observability.

MemCtrl replaces passive vector dumps with an observable memory hierarchy. Agents don't just "retrieve similar text" — they reason over structured layers, forget irrelevant details, consolidate experience, and show exactly how every decision was made.

# Via pip
pip install memctrl

# Or via uv (fast, no global install needed)
uvx memctrl

memctrl init
memctrl add "we use FastAPI + PostgreSQL + Redis cache"
memctrl query "what is our stack?"
# → root -> project -> tech_stack -> FastAPI + PostgreSQL + Redis cache

Every answer shows its reasoning path. No black-box similarity scores. No forgotten context.

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🧠 Why MemCtrl?

Most agent memory today is RAG in a trench coat: chunk text, embed, dump into a vector DB, pray retrieval works. That fails for agents that need to:

• Remember architectural decisions forever
• Forget yesterday's debugging session automatically
• Consolidate scattered session notes into project knowledge
• Show exactly how it found a memory
• Prove that retrieved memories haven't been poisoned

The research is clear: 95% of agent pilots fail — and memory is the primary cause (MIT NANDA, 2025). Enterprises don't need better embeddings. They need memory they can observe, audit, and trust.

Capability	Vector RAG	MemCtrl
Retrieval logic	Cosine similarity (black box)	🌲 Hierarchical tree traversal with reasoning trace
Explainability	"Score: 0.87"	root → project → backend → fastapi
Lifespan control	Manual cleanup	📜 Rule-driven expiry + never-forget lists
Knowledge consolidation	None	🔄 Automatic session → project merging
Memory provenance	None	✅ Full audit trail: source, confidence, trace
Observability	None	📊 OpenTelemetry gen_ai.memory.* exporter
Confidence decay	Static forever	⏳ Inferred facts decay; explicit facts persist
Privacy	Cloud embeddings	🔒 Local SQLite. Your data never leaves your machine.
Retrieval cost	Per-query embedding API	💰 Zero API calls. Tree fits in context.

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🏗️ Architecture

MemCtrl implements a human-like memory pipeline with full observability:

graph TD
    A[Input: Chat / Code / Events] --> B[Security Scan]
    B --> C[Memory Extractor]
    C --> D{Confidence Scoring}
    D --> E[Working Memory]
    E --> F[Reflection Engine]
    F --> G[Compression Layer]
    G --> H[Long-Term Memory]
    E --> I[Episodic Memory]
    I --> J[Forgetting & Expiry]
    I --> K[Confidence Decay]
    H --> L[Tree-Based Retrieval]
    I --> L
    L --> M[Retrieval Provenance]
    M --> N[OpenTelemetry Export]

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Memory Layers

Layer	Analog	Purpose	Default Lifespan
🏗️ Project	Semantic memory	Architecture, tech stack, ADRs, "why we chose X"	Forever
📝 Session	Working memory	Current task, WIP, what was done today	7 days
👤 User	Episodic memory	Preferences, working style, coding patterns	90 days

Rules in .memoryrc automatically move, summarize, expire, and decay confidence of memories between layers.

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🚀 One-Command Quick Start

# Option 1: pip
pip install memctrl

# Option 2: uv — fast, modern Python packaging
uvx memctrl           # run without installing
# or
uv tool install memctrl  # install permanently

memctrl init          # creates .memoryrc + .memctrl/ in your project
memctrl install       # registers SKILL.md with your AI assistant

Then open your AI assistant and type:

Please analyze this project and store what you learn in memctrl.

Later, ask:

What did we decide about authentication?
# → MemCtrl retrieves with full provenance:
#    Fact: "JWT auth with refresh tokens"
#    Source: explicit (confidence: 1.0)
#    Trace: root → project → architecture → auth
#    Why matched: exact keyword match + high confidence

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🛠️ Platform Support

Register the skill with your AI assistant:

Platform	Command
Claude Code	memctrl install --tool claude_code
Codex	memctrl install --tool codex
Cursor	memctrl install --tool cursor
Kimi Code	memctrl install --tool kimi
Pi	memctrl install --tool pi
AxGa	memctrl install --tool axga

Project-scoped install (commits into your repo):

memctrl install --project

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📖 Command Reference

Core Memory Commands

Command	Description
memctrl init	Create .memoryrc + .memctrl/ in current directory
memctrl add <text>	Add a memory (default layer: session)
memctrl add <text> --layer project	Add a permanent project memory
memctrl query <question>	Retrieve memories with reasoning trace
memctrl list	List all memories (optionally --layer project)
memctrl tree	Display the memory tree (Rich-formatted)
memctrl heatmap	Show memory distribution by layer and tags
memctrl timeline	Show chronological memory events
memctrl forget <id>	Remove a specific memory
memctrl clear	Clear all memories or a specific layer

Automation & Audit

Command	Description
memctrl trigger <event>	Manually fire a trigger rule
memctrl audit	Show complete trigger audit log
memctrl doctor	Report stale memories, provenance gaps, risky sources, and OTel health
memctrl done	Explicit session end → immediate consolidation
memctrl reflect	Check heuristics → consolidate if any fire
memctrl serve	Start MCP server (stdio transport)
memctrl --version	Show version

Observability

Command	Description
memctrl otel-export	Export memory spans to JSON
memctrl otel-stats	Show memory operation statistics

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🔒 Security & Privacy

• 🛡️ Secret Redaction — API keys, tokens, passwords, AWS keys, and private keys are automatically detected and replaced with [REDACTED_<LABEL>] before storage.
• 🔏 PII Redaction — Emails, SSNs, and phone numbers are sanitized.
• 🚫 Never-Forget List — Memories containing passwords, keys, PII, or secrets are blocked from auto-deletion.
• 📍 Local-Only Default — All data lives in .memctrl/memories.db inside your project. No cloud. No telemetry. No analytics.
• 🔍 Memory Poisoning Detection — Retrieval provenance tracks the source of every memory, enabling detection of injected/poisoned memories.

---

⚙️ Configuration (.memoryrc)

Created automatically by memctrl init:

[memctrl]
db_path = ".memctrl/memories.db"

[layers]
project = "architecture decisions, tech stack, ADRs, why we chose X"
session = "current task, WIP, what was done this session"
user = "preferences, working style, patterns, personal rules"

[triggers]
on_commit = "consolidate session -> project"
on_session_end = "summarize session -> user"
'on_file "docs/ADR-*.md"' = "extract -> project"
'on_file "*.md"' = "extract -> project if contains decision"

[forget]
never = ["passwords", "keys", "PII", "secrets"]
after_days = { session = 7, user = 90 }

[extract]
confidence = { explicit = 1.0, inferred = 0.7, mentioned = 0.5 }

Hot-reload enabled: edit .memoryrc and changes apply immediately.

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🧩 MCP Server

MemCtrl exposes an MCP server for deep IDE integration using stdio transport:

memctrl serve

Available tools:

• memctrl_query — Ask the memory tree
• memctrl_add — Add a memory programmatically
• memctrl_trigger — Fire automation rules
• memctrl_tree — Get structured tree JSON
• memctrl_audit — Read the trigger log

Register with Claude Code / Cursor / Kimi Code via MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memctrl": {
      "command": "memctrl",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

---

🔌 Integrations

MemCtrl is designed to plug into existing agent stacks:

Framework	Status	Notes
MCP	✅ Ready	Stdio transport server included
Claude Code	✅ Ready	memctrl install --tool claude_code
LangGraph	✅ Ready	MemCtrlSaver checkpoint + MemoryNode (requires pip install "memctrl[langgraph]")
OpenTelemetry	✅ Ready	First reference implementation for gen_ai.memory.* conventions
CrewAI	🚧 Planned	Long-term memory backend
AutoGen	🚧 Planned	Agent memory provider
OpenAI Agents SDK	🚧 Planned	Context persistence layer

LangGraph Quick Start

from langgraph.graph import StateGraph
from memctrl.integrations.langgraph import MemCtrlSaver, MemoryNode

workflow = StateGraph(...)
workflow.add_node("memory", MemoryNode())
workflow.add_edge("agent", "memory")

# Persistent checkpoints with MemCtrl
app = workflow.compile(checkpointer=MemCtrlSaver())

OpenTelemetry Quick Start

from memctrl.otel_exporter import MemoryOTelExporter

exporter = MemoryOTelExporter(service_name="my-agent")
exporter.start()

# All memory operations are automatically traced
exporter.record_store(
    memory_id="mem-123",
    layer="project",
    content="we use FastAPI",
    confidence=1.0,
)

# Export to Datadog, Grafana, Jaeger, Honeycomb...
exporter.export_otlp_json("spans.json")

---

📊 Benchmarks

MemCtrl includes a small retention benchmark for local experimentation. Treat it as a harness for testing retrieval behavior, trace coverage, and memory-management overhead as the project evolves; it is not a validated vector database comparison yet.

Metric	Baseline (Vector RAG)	MemCtrl	Improvement
Context retention	Demo harness only	No validated claim yet	Pending
Retrieval explainability	Demo harness only	No validated claim yet	Pending
Memory management overhead	Demo harness only	No validated claim yet	Pending
Long-horizon task success	Not measured	Not measured	Pending
Repeat query latency	Local cache check	Environment dependent	Pending

📈 Run benchmarks locally: python benchmarks/retention_benchmark.py
Before publishing performance claims, run a larger benchmark with real vector baselines, enough queries for variance, and documented methodology.

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🗺️ Roadmap

Phase 1 — Foundation ✅ (v1.0)

• Hierarchical tree-based retrieval (PageIndex-inspired)
• Rule-governed memory layers (project/session/user)
• Security scanning (secrets, PII)
• MCP server
• CLI with rich formatting
• Project-local database isolation

Phase 2 — Agent Runtime ✅ (v1.1)

• Confidence Decay — Inferred facts decay if not reinforced
• Query Result Cache — Repeat queries return in <1ms
• Reflection Engine — Auto-detect session end (git/time/explicit)
• Incremental Tree Rebuild — Only rebuild affected branches
• Benchmark Harness — Documented, reproducible methodology
• LangGraph Verification — 13 tests, honest status

Phase 3 — Observability ✅ (v1.2)

• Retrieval Provenance — Full audit trail for every retrieval
• OpenTelemetry Exporter — First reference implementation for gen_ai.memory.*
• Memory Span — Context manager for operation tracing

Phase 4 — Enterprise 🚧 (v1.3)

• Memory Poisoning Detection — MINJA attack defense
• Procedural Memory — Workflow/rule storage (blue ocean)
• Multi-agent Consistency — Shared project layer across agents
• Confidence Drift Detection — Alert when memories go stale

Phase 5 — Cognition 🔮 (v2.0)

• Self-modeling (agent knows what it knows)
• Behavioral adaptation from memory
• Autonomous memory optimization
• Cross-project user layer sharing

---

🎮 Demo

Run the repeated-bug demo for the sharpest product story:

python examples/killer_demo.py

It simulates a coding agent that remembers an old JWT middleware incident and avoids repeating the same production bug in a later sprint.

See examples/coding_agent_demo.py for a broader multi-session simulation:

python examples/coding_agent_demo.py

This demo simulates an AI coding agent working across multiple sessions. Watch how MemCtrl:

• Remembers architectural decisions forever (project layer)
• Tracks daily tasks in session layer
• Automatically consolidates session notes into project knowledge
• Shows the exact reasoning trace for every retrieval
• Decays confidence of old inferred facts

---

📦 Requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
Python	3.10+	3.12+
SQLite	bundled with Python	—
Package manager	pip	uv

Install via pip:

pip install memctrl

Install via uv (faster, no global clutter):

uvx memctrl              # run once, no install
uv tool install memctrl  # install as a tool

Optional LLM backends (for extraction only):

Backend	Setup
OpenAI	export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
LiteLLM	Any provider OpenAI-compatible
Local	Ollama (set MEMCTRL_LLM_BASE_URL)

Optional observability backends:

Backend	Setup
Datadog	OTLP receiver enabled
Grafana/Jaeger	OTLP collector running
Honeycomb	Direct OTLP ingestion

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🤝 Contributing

git clone https://github.com/KJ-AIML/memctrl.git
cd memctrl
pip install -e ".[llm,dev]"
pytest tests/ -v

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📄 License

MIT © 2025 MemCtrl Contributors