Install

Memory Layer installs as a native service on your machine. Pick your platform:

Memory Layer runs as a native background service (memory-layer.service on Linux, a launchd agent on macOS) that manages the database connection, curation pipeline, and embedding backends. The memory CLI and TUI communicate with this service over a local socket — nothing leaves your machine unless you configure an external embedding or LLM provider.

Prerequisites

You need a PostgreSQL database with the pgvector extension enabled. See PostgreSQL and pgvector for setup instructions. Optional LLM and embedding providers improve curation and semantic retrieval, but the core service works without them.

Configure the machine

memory wizard --global

The wizard writes global configuration and secrets (database URL, API keys) outside your repository so they are never committed. See Global wizard for details.

Configure a project

cd /path/to/project
memory wizard --dry-run
memory wizard

The dry run previews repo-local files before anything is written. The wizard creates .mem/project.toml and the .agents/ directory with Memory Layer skills and hooks. See Project wizard for details.

Check health

memory doctor
memory health
memory status --project <project-slug>

doctor checks configuration and dependencies. health checks the backend service. status combines service, project, watcher, and MCP diagnostics.

Open the TUI

memory tui

Use the Query, Memories, Project, Agents, Watchers, Activity, and Review tabs to inspect what Memory Layer knows.

Ask an evidence-backed question

memory query --project <project-slug> --question "What should a new agent know before changing this repo?"

A healthy setup returns answers with ranked memories, citations, and retrieval diagnostics. If answers look stale, inspect citations and run curation before trusting them.

More install topics

Next

Read How it works, Connect an agent, or Run an evaluation.