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Palimem Docsspec v1.7.0

Use Palimem with Cursor

Connect Palimem to Cursor using the ai-memory connect cursor helper. The helper writes a valid MCP entry to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (project-level).

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • Cursor ≥ 0.40 (MCP support required)
  • Node.js 18+
  • Repository cloned and Node dependencies installed:
    Terminal window
    cd app && npm install
Section titled “Recommended install”

From your repository root:

Terminal window
node app/scripts/ai-memory.js connect cursor \
  --project-root "$(pwd)" \
  --data-dir .ai-memory/data

This writes the memory-service entry to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global config). Cursor picks up the change on next restart.

Config block

Section titled “Config block”

The committed sample lives at examples/cursor/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory-service": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/repo/app/scripts/memory-service-mcp.js"],
      "env": {
        "MEMORY_SERVICE_DATA_DIR": "/absolute/path/to/repo/.ai-memory/data"
      }
    }
  }
}

Use absolute paths in args and MEMORY_SERVICE_DATA_DIR. The ai-memory connect cursor helper resolves these automatically.

Project-level config

Section titled “Project-level config”

Cursor also supports a per-project .cursor/mcp.json. Write both global and project config:

Terminal window
node app/scripts/ai-memory.js connect cursor \
  --project-root "$(pwd)" \
  --project-config .cursor/mcp.json \
  --data-dir .ai-memory/data

Verification

Section titled “Verification”
  1. Restart Cursor (or use Command Palette → Reload MCP servers).
  2. Ask the agent to call tools/list, then memory_status with scope repository and your project namespace.

tools/list — expect 11 tools, including memory_query_temporal and memory_audit_export.

memory_status — expect ok: true, wal_high_water_seq, semantic_units_in_sync: true, and index_status.state: "current".

Agent prompt

Section titled “Agent prompt”

Paste this into your Cursor chat to configure Palimem:

Set up Palimem as governed local memory for this Cursor project.


- Project: Palimem (spec v1.7.0)
- Run: node app/scripts/ai-memory.js connect cursor --project-root "$(pwd)" --data-dir .ai-memory/data
- Verify: call tools/list (11 tools), then memory_status — expect ok and index_status current


Use local data directory .ai-memory/data. Do not enable cloud services.

CLI options

Section titled “CLI options”
Flag Purpose
--global-config PATH Override global mcp.json path (default: ~/.cursor/mcp.json)
--project-config PATH Also write project .cursor/mcp.json
--project-root PATH Repo root for resolving script paths (default: $PWD)
--data-dir PATH MEMORY_SERVICE_DATA_DIR resolved to absolute (default: .ai-memory/data)
--replace Overwrite existing memory-service entry
--dry-run Print merged JSON without writing

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

MCP server not listed in Cursor

Restart Cursor after writing the config. Cursor reads mcp.json only on startup, not dynamically.

ENOENT on memory-service-mcp.js

The Node wrapper is not installed. Run:

Terminal window
cd app && npm install

Existing entry refused

If a previous memory-service entry exists, re-run with --replace:

Terminal window
node app/scripts/ai-memory.js connect cursor \
  --project-root "$(pwd)" --data-dir .ai-memory/data --replace

Tools show 9 instead of 11

Pull the latest main and reinstall. memory_query_temporal and memory_audit_export were added in spec v1.6.0 and are present in v1.7.0.

Seed memory (optional)

Section titled “Seed memory (optional)”

Pre-load memory from Markdown files:

Terminal window
python3 app/import_markdown.py \
  --data-dir .ai-memory/data \
  examples/markdown/USER.md.sample \
  examples/markdown/MEMORY.md.sample

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”