openmymemo

# OpenMyMemo Your AI memory as a plain folder on your own computer. See exactly what models remember about you; let Claude, Codex, Cursor or any MCP app share it, so what you tell one the others know too, and see every change they make, with one click to undo. If an account gets banned, a vendor shuts down or you switch models, your memory comes with you. > v0.2. Product design and status: [docs/product-design.md](./docs/product-design.md). The folder format, for any tool that wants to read or write it: [docs/MEMORY_FORMAT.md](./docs/MEMORY_FORMAT.md). <picture> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="docs/images/panel-memories-dark.png"> <img alt="The OpenMyMemo panel: memories grouped by topic, each showing where it came from, and a note that AI apps made changes to review" src="docs/images/panel-memories-light.png"> </picture> ## Why I built this My OpenAI account was banned on October 2, 2026, with no warning and no specific explanation. I had used ChatGPT since it launched in late 2022, and its year-end recap put me in the top 1% of users. I appealed and never got a reply. Nearly four years of conversations, and everything ChatGPT had learned about me, went with the account. I had thought of that memory as mine. It wasn't. It lived on OpenAI's servers, in an account they could close at any time, and when they did, the memory went with it, with no one to ask for it back. OpenMyMemo is what I wish I'd had: my AI memory as a folder on my own computer. Any model can read it, I can see and undo every change a model makes, and no single company can take it away. — Leo ## Works with | App | Status | | --- | --- | | Claude Desktop (Chat, Cowork and Code) | ✅ Extension | | Claude Code | ✅ Plugin | | Codex (the CLI, and Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app) | ✅ Plugin | | Cursor, VS Code | ✅ Install link from the panel | | ChatGPT chat (web, desktop and mobile), claude.ai on the web | ❌ Not yet. They can only connect to MCP servers on the public internet, and OpenMyMemo stays on your computer. You can still bring your ChatGPT memories over with `openmymemo import chatgpt`. | ## Principles 1. Local files are the only source of truth — Markdown with YAML frontmatter you can open in any editor and keep in iCloud, git or an Obsidian vault. 2. AI writes; you see everything and can undo. Additions land right away and show up in a digest. Changes to what you wrote yourself, and anything in a private topic, wait for you. One switch makes every change wait. 3. What you see is what it gets — the panel shows the exact text an AI receives, and who read what. 4. Zero dependencies — no database, Docker, account, API key or telemetry. 5. Open protocols and open conventions — standard MCP, Markdown + frontmatter (an [Open Knowledge Format](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/open-knowledge-format) bundle), Obsidian block ids, open import and export formats, no vendor lock-in. ## Install **Mac app** (no terminal needed): build `OpenMyMemo.app` as described under [Mac app](#mac-app), drag it to Applications and open it. It shows the panel in its own window, puts the number of changes to review in the menu bar, and notifies you when an AI app changes something. It uses the same folder and the same panel as everything below. **Command line:** requires [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/). Not on PyPI yet, so install from the repo: ```bash git clone https://github.com/MyMemoAI/openmymemo.git uv tool install ./openmymemo ``` ## Use it ```bash openmymemo init # create ~/OpenMyMemo with 14 default topics openmymemo import chatgpt # paste ChatGPT's "Manage memories" page; it lands in "From ChatGPT" openmymemo sort # file imported memories into topics, one suggestion at a time openmymemo connector add "Claude Desktop" # prints config for Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor / Codex openmymemo serve # open the panel at http://127.0.0.1:8787 openmymemo review # what AI changed since you last looked: keep, edit or undo ``` More: `status`, `approval on|off` (on: every AI change waits for you), `context --connector <id>` (what an AI actually receives), `export --format claude|chatgpt|markdown|json`, `search`, `add`, `connector list|config|rotate|remove`, `setup codex` (load your memory at the start of every Codex session). Use `--vault` or `OPENMYMEMO_HOME` to put the folder elsewhere. ### Plugins **Install as many as you like: they all share one memory.** Every plugin uses the same `~/OpenMyMemo` folder by default (created on first use), so something you tell Claude, Codex knows in its next session, and the other way round. Each plugin loads your memory into new sessions where the app supports it — starting with a one-line summary of what AI changed since you last looked — and serves the panel at `http://127.0.0.1:8787` while the app is running. They need [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) except where noted. | App | Install | | --- | --- | | **Claude Desktop** | Download `openmymemo-<version>.mcpb` from the [latest release](https://github.com/MyMemoAI/openmymemo/releases/latest) (or build it with `uv run python scripts/build_mcpb.py`), then double-click it (or Settings → Extensions). Nothing to fill in: leave the memory folder empty to use `~/OpenMyMemo`. Then quit Claude Desktop and open it again. Claude Desktop installs Python and the dependencies itself; no uv needed. | | **Claude Code** | `/plugin marketplace add MyMemoAI/openmymemo`, then `/plugin install openmymemo@openmymemo`, then restart Claude Code. Adds `/openmymemo:memory` and `/openmymemo:remember`. | | **Codex** | Three steps, see [Codex](#codex) below. | | **Cursor** | Panel → Connectors → Setup → **Add to Cursor**. | | **VS Code** | Panel → Connectors → Setup → VS Code, then run the `code --add-mcp …` command. | **After installing, quit the app completely and open it again** so it loads OpenMyMemo. The first launch downloads Python and the dependencies (about 5 seconds on a fast connection; Codex gives MCP servers 10). If an app then says the OpenMyMemo server failed to start, restart it once more. **Then open the panel at [http://127.0.0.1:8787](http://127.0.0.1:8787)** in your browser (the page pictured at the top); bookmark it. It's there whenever Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Codex is running: your memories, what AI changed (Changes), the exact text each app gets (What AI sees) and the connected apps (Connectors). Without a plugin, `openmymemo serve` starts it and opens the browser. #### Codex You need [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/). Steps 2 and 3 are needed only once: Codex doesn't run hooks that plugins ship, so OpenMyMemo adds its own session-start hook. 1. **Install the plugin.** In a terminal: ```bash codex plugin marketplace add MyMemoAI/openmymemo codex plugin add openmymemo@openmymemo ``` Then restart Codex: quit the ChatGPT desktop app and open it again, or start `codex` again in the terminal. 2. **Set up the hook.** Start a new Codex session and ask it to "set up OpenMyMemo". It adds a hook to `~/.codex/hooks.json` and leaves your other hooks alone. If you installed the CLI, `openmymemo setup codex` does the same. 3. **Trust the hook.** In the ChatGPT desktop app, open Settings → Coding → Hooks and trust "Loading your OpenMyMemo memory". Or open Codex in a terminal (`codex`), type `/hooks`, select SessionStart and trust it there. The app and the terminal share these settings, so trusting it in either place covers both. From your next new session on, Codex starts with your memory. The plugin also adds the `memory`, `remember` and `codex-setup` skills. ### Connecting AI apps by hand - **Local process (recommended):** Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and other stdio MCP clients. `openmymemo connector add <name>` prints a config with absolute paths to paste in. Give each app its own `--connector` so permissions and logs stay separate. - **Local HTTP:** `openmymemo connector add <name> --http` creates a token (shown once) for use with `openmymemo serve` at `http://127.0.0.1:8787/mcp`. - ChatGPT chat (web, desktop and mobile) and claude.ai on the web can only reach MCP servers on the public internet, so they aren't supported yet. On the OpenAI side, Codex works today, including the Codex built into the ChatGPT desktop app. Tools AI apps see: `memory_context`, `memory_search`, `memory_get`, `memory_propose`, `memory_proposals`, plus the `recall` prompt. ## What happens when an AI writes  - **An addition applies right away.** It is marked as new until you look at it: on the panel's Changes page, in `openmymemo review`, or in the one-line summary at the start of your next Claude Code or Codex session. - **A change to a memory you wrote, imported or approved yourself waits for you.** So does anything in a private topic (`health` and `finance` by default). AI never silently changes what you wrote. - **Undo is one click** for as long as the change is the memory's latest version; after that, the memory's version history. - **"Require my approval for AI changes"** makes every change wait. Each connected app can also be set to read-only, or trusted to write directly. ## The memory folder ``` ~/OpenMyMemo/ ├── memories/ # one file per topic: frontmatter, then one memory per line │ ├── work.md # - Engineering lead at Acme <!-- until: 2026-12 --> ^m7f3a │ └── from-chatgpt.md # what you imported, in its original order, until you sort it ├── MEMORY.md # generated: what an AI sees with the default scope ├── log.md # generated: what changed, by whom, newest day first ├── connectors.yaml # connected apps and their permissions (tokens stored as hashes) └── .openmymemo/ # settings, metadata, history, activity, proposals — all plain text ``` Each topic file starts with YAML frontmatter (`type`, `title`, `description`, `group`, `private`). Edit `memories/*.md` in any editor: a new line is a new memory, a deleted line is archived, a line moved to another file changes topic. OpenMyMemo adds the `^id` and records the change in history on its next read. Other tools can read and write the folder by following [docs/MEMORY_FORMAT.md](./docs/MEMORY_FORMAT.md). Upgrading from v0.1: open the folder once with v0.2. The files get their frontmatter, nothing else in them changes, and your approval setting is kept as it was. ## Security The server listens on 127.0.0.1 only. The panel API checks `Host`, `Origin` and a header that cross-site pages can't add; `/mcp` requires a connector token. The `health` and `finance` topics are hidden from every AI by default, and AI changes to private topics always wait for you, whatever the approval switch or an app's write mode says. Found a vulnerability? Please report it privately as described in [SECURITY.md](./SECURITY.md). ## Development ```bash uv sync # Python dependencies uv run pytest # tests uv run ruff check src tests scripts uv run python scripts/demo_vault.py /tmp/omm-demo && uv run openmymemo --vault /tmp/omm-demo serve cd web && pnpm install && pnpm build # builds the panel into src/openmymemo/static/ (committed) cd web && pnpm test # panel tests ``` Panel development: run `openmymemo serve --no-open`, then `pnpm dev` in `web/` (port 5173, proxies `/api` to 8787, or to `OPENMYMEMO_PORT`). Add `?desktop=1` to the URL to see the Mac app's layout. ### Mac app `desktop/` is a [Tauri](https://tauri.app) shell around the same panel. It bundles `uv` and this package; on first launch uv downloads Python and the dependencies into `~/Library/Application Support/ai.mymemo.openmymemo/`, then the app runs `openmymemo serve`. If a server for the same folder already runs (Claude Desktop's extension, or `openmymemo serve`), the app uses it. Needs Rust (`rustup`) and Node. ```bash cd web && pnpm build # the panel the app shows cd desktop && pnpm install pnpm tauri dev # run it; OPENMYMEMO_HOME=/tmp/omm-demo to use another folder pnpm tauri build --bundles app,dmg # → desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/ ``` Builds are signed ad hoc and not notarized yet: the first time, right-click the app and choose Open. The server's log is in `~/Library/Logs/ai.mymemo.openmymemo/core.log`. ## Relationship to MyMemo An independent project with no dependency on MyMemo accounts or services. MyMemo may later read this memory as an ordinary connector, on equal footing with Claude. ## License Apache-2.0