> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mengram.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Local mode — memory in a folder > No account, no server. Your agent's memory is a folder of Markdown you own, with the same procedures-with-outcomes the cloud keeps: versions, success/fail counts, a policy gate, and a regression gate. ## What it is The folder is the memory. `mengram local` reads and writes a [memfmt](https://github.com/alibaizhanov/memfmt) tree: ``` memory/ MEMORY.md index entities/Railway.md what is true episodes/2026-07-30-deploy failed on a cold pool.md what happened, and how it turned out procedures/Deploy to Railway.md how to do it, and whether it works .mengram/config.json which model to use .mengram/quarantine.json revisions the regression gate refused ``` Git diffs it. Obsidian draws it. `memfmt validate` checks it. Nothing expires, nothing asks for a key. **Bring your own model.** Extraction (turning a conversation into facts, events and workflows) and a failure revision need an LLM: an Anthropic or OpenAI key you already have, or Ollama (8B+, 8K+ context). Everything else — search, recall, the policy gate, recording outcomes — runs with no model and no network. ## Install ```bash theme={null} pip install mengram-ai mengram local init ./memory --provider anthropic --api-key sk-ant-... # or --provider openai / ollama export MENGRAM_MEMORY_DIR=$PWD/memory ``` `init` writes the folder and `.mengram/config.json`. With no `--provider`, an `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` or `OPENAI_API_KEY` in the environment is used; with neither, the folder still works for everything but `add`. ## Use it ```bash theme={null} mengram local add "I deploy to Railway from main; last time /health was probed before the pool was up" mengram local search "railway pool" mengram local procedures mengram local feedback "Deploy to Railway" --success mengram local feedback "Deploy to Railway" --failure --step 3 --context "connection refused on /health" mengram local stat mengram local quarantine ``` A failure with `--context` asks your model what belief broke and produces the next version of the workflow — unless the fix would silently break another workflow in the folder, in which case it is quarantined for you to review instead of shipped to the agent. ## Start from your Claude Code history An empty folder takes days to fill through the hooks. Your Claude Code sessions are already on disk, so seed it from them: ```bash theme={null} mengram import claude-code --memory ./memory # 20 most recent sessions mengram import claude-code --memory ./memory --last 50 --project shop ``` Each session becomes one extraction with the folder's model, redacted for keys and tokens before it is read; nothing leaves your machine except those model calls. The import ends with what the folder now holds and the workflows it learned, with their record, and writes the map below. Imported sessions are listed in `.mengram/claude-code-imported.json`, so re-runs pick up only new ones (`--reimport` forces). ## See what it holds ```bash theme={null} mengram local map --memory ./memory --open ``` One self-contained HTML page (`memory-map.html` in the folder, or `--out`), rendered from the same Markdown files, with nothing fetched or sent. Three views, in the order you would ask: **who you are** (entities by type, with facts and relations), **what happened** (episodes on a timeline, with outcomes), **what your agent learned** (each workflow as a step chain with the per-step record, its versions with the belief that broke, and the quarantine of revisions the regression gate refused). Re-run it after an import or a `feedback`. ## Claude Code, all local ```bash theme={null} mengram hook install --memory ./memory ``` Installs the four hooks with the folder written into each command (hooks run without your shell profile, so an env var is not enough): | Hook | What it does locally | | - | - | | `SessionStart` | loads a profile of the folder — who you are, the workflows with a record | | `UserPromptSubmit` | recalls facts, events and workflows that share words with your prompt | | `Stop` | extracts the turn into the folder with your model (silent if none is configured) | | `PreToolUse` on `Bash` | the [policy gate](/claude-code#4-before-a-bash-command-the-policy-gate): a workflow-shaped command that matches an `untested` or below-the-bar workflow is turned into a confirmation prompt | ## MCP for any client ```bash theme={null} mengram server --memory ./memory ``` Five tools over stdio: `remember`, `recall`, `context_for`, `list_procedures`, `procedure_feedback` — the same surface as the [Claude connector](/claude-connector), plus feedback so an agent can record an outcome from inside its tool call. Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and any MCP client can point at it: ```json theme={null} { "mcpServers": { "mengram": { "command": "mengram", "args": ["server", "--memory", "/absolute/path/to/memory"] } } } ``` ## What a procedure file looks like ```markdown theme={null} --- memfmt_type: procedure version: 2 success_count: 0 fail_count: 0 last_failure: the connection pool was warm when /health was probed last_failed: 2026-09-04 entities: - Railway --- # Deploy to Railway (v2 · 81% expected) **When** — a change lands on main **Preconditions** - verify the pool is warm before probing /health **Last failure** — 2026-09-04: the connection pool was warm when /health was probed ## Steps 1. push to main — the webhook does the rest (4✓/0✗) 2. watch the boot log (4✓/0✗) 3. wait for the pool — pool_max reached 4. verify /health — expect 200 within 60s (3✓/1✗) ## Evolution - v1 → v2 (2026-09-04, 3✓/1✗): wait for the pool before probing ``` `81% expected` is not a ratio: v2 has no runs of its own yet, and the number is inherited from v1's record, discounted. Once v2 runs it reads `N% reliable`. The steps that the revision left alone keep their counts; the new step starts untracked. See [memfmt](https://github.com/alibaizhanov/memfmt#why-the-heading-is-not-success--total) for the rules. ## Where a folder stops being enough Search is word overlap: past a few hundred files you want embeddings. Syncing a folder between machines is a `git pull` only until two machines disagree. Extraction runs only when you call it, not from every session in the background. That is what the [cloud](/quickstart) adds — and it writes this same format, so `mengram export markdown` hands you the folder back at any time. ## Not yet Multiple users per folder, the reflection and curator agents, and deleting a file that a rename left behind. Staleness is in as of 2.36.0: `last_succeeded` is written only by a recorded success, `mengram local procedures` shows it with days ago, and the map flags a workflow unverified for 30+ days. The cloud still lacks the column. 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