Claude Code auto-memory
https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/memory
Persistent file-based memory at ~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/ with a MEMORY.md index plus typed memory files (user / feedback / project / reference). Loaded into context across sessions.
Active · Verified 2026-10-22 · fresh as of 2026-10-22 · 56 cited facts, 1 with a third-party source · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- Per-project file directory vendor fix
- Tier
- T1
- Section
- Claude Code memory mechanisms
- Created
- 2025-03 (Claude Code v1.0 launched Feb/Mar 2025; auto-memory feature in subsequent releases; v2.1.59+ required) vendor fix
- Latest release
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- License
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- GitHub
- not applicable — no GitHub repo fix
- Pricing
- not applicable — not commercial fix
- Funding
- not applicable — not commercial fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-22 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- commercial vendor fix
- Protocols
- mcp-client, mcp-server, opentelemetry vendor fix
Memory taxonomy
- storage
- file
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- cross-session
- update
- append-only
- unit
- fact
- governance
- user-controllable
- conflict
- append
When to use
Optimised for: Claude-Code-native + MCP-portable memory
Anti-fit: not for non-Claude-Code clients (some are MCP-portable)
Pros & cons
Pros
Per-project automatic memory built into the runtime — no plugin install, no external store, no extra prompts.
Cons
Single-vendor lock-in to Claude Code; no inspect/edit UI for what's been auto-saved; opaque to other tools.
Claims & capabilities
Persistent file-based memory at ~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/ with MEMORY.md index plus typed memory files (user/feedback/project/reference); loaded into context across sessions; Claude Code v2.1.59+ required; complemented by Auto Dream consolidation
Technical surface
- API surface
- not applicable — IDE feature
- Backend storage
- file (~/.claude/projects/<project>/MEMORY.md)
- Deployment
- not applicable — not a deployable product
- Embedding model
- not applicable — file feature
- Multi-tenancy
- hard-isolation (per project)
- MCP
- native (first-party) — Claude Code consumes MCP
- A2A
- not supported
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Compare Claude Code auto-memory with…
Alternatives to Claude Code auto-memory → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other claude code memory mechanisms in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Official MCP Memory server T1
Knowledge-graph-based persistent memory MCP server — the canonical reference implementation. npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory ; configurable via MEMORY_FILE_PATH .
- claude-brain T2
Claude Code plugin packaging of Memvid (see Dedicated memory layers). Wraps the Memvid .mv2 single-file store as a slash-command-installable plugin so per-project memory becomes a git-committable file inside the repo.
- Claude-CursorMemoryMCP T2
FastAPI server. RBAC + API-key auth, encryption, backup/recovery, embedding pipeline with deduplication. Only server in this list with role-based access control over pgvector.
- claude-mem T1
Hooks into Claude Code's session lifecycle; compresses tool outputs into ~500-token observations via Claude's agent SDK. SQLite + FTS5 with optional Chroma vector. "Endless Mode" compresses in-flight to extend session length. Captures what the agent did , not just what the user typed.
- claude-supermemory T2
Wraps Supermemory cloud API. Team memory shared across project members, separate from personal memories. Auto-capture on session end; per-repo config.
- codebase-memory-mcp (DeusData) T1
High-performance MCP server building persistent code knowledge graphs via AST. 155 languages via vendored tree-sitter; SQLite + WAL; single static binary; zero runtime deps. Knowledge graph: Project/Package/File/Module/Class/Function/Method/Interface/Enum/Type/Route/Resource nodes; CALLS/IMPORTS/DEFINES/IMPLEMENTS/INHERITS/HTTP_CALLS/ASYNC_CALLS/EMITS/LISTENS_ON/DATA_FLOWS/SIMILAR_TO/SEMANTICALLY_RELATED edges. 14 MCP tools incl. Cypher-like query.
Sources (55 cited facts, 1 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is Per-project file directory vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Persistent file-based memory at ~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/ with a MEMORY.md in… vendor
- Claims / benefits Persistent file-based memory at ~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/ with MEMORY.md inde… vendor
- Modalities text vendor
- Created 2025-03 (Claude Code v1.0 launched Feb/Mar 2025; auto-memory feature in subsequent relea… vendor
- Founders / pedigree Anthropic vendor
- Memory volume / scale no scale claim — markdown files per project vendor
- Backend storage file (~/.claude/projects/<project>/MEMORY.md) vendor
- Multi-tenancy hard-isolation (per project) vendor
- Consistency strong vendor
- Versioning immutable append-log vendor
- Tombstoning hard-delete supported vendor
- Schema evolution free-form / no schema vendor
- Namespace primitives hierarchical vendor
- Contradiction handling always append (no resolution) vendor
- Forgetting policy user-controlled forget vendor
- MCP support native (first-party) — Claude Code consumes MCP vendor
- A2A support not supported vendor
- Webhooks / events no vendor
- Import / export Markdown — CLAUDE.md and project memory files vendor
- Validated verticals coding agents only - Claude Code users (horizontal SWE) vendor
- Time to running <10min (plugin / MCP install) vendor
- Anti-fit not for non-Claude-Code clients (some are MCP-portable) vendor
- Optimised for Claude-Code-native + MCP-portable memory vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure requires Claude Code or MCP client; BYO storage vendor
- Pros Per-project automatic memory built into the runtime — no plugin install, no external sto… vendor
- Cons Single-vendor lock-in to Claude Code; no inspect/edit UI for what's been auto-saved; opa… vendor
- Project & sources Claude Code memory docs vendor
- obs-langsmith no vendor
- obs-opentelemetry yes vendor
- obs-datadog yes third-party
- obs-helicone no vendor
- obs-weave no vendor
- obs-langfuse no vendor
- obs-arize no vendor
- obs-custom Inherits Claude Code's OTLP observability surface vendor
- cost-token-budget no vendor
- cost-prompt-caching no vendor
- cost-semantic-caching no vendor
- cost-batching no vendor
- cost-model-routing no vendor
- cost-streaming-only no vendor
- cost-observability-cost-attribution no vendor
- eval-langsmith-evals no vendor
- eval-braintrust no vendor
- eval-weights-and-biases-agent no vendor
- eval-helicone-evals no vendor
- eval-custom-test-harness no vendor
- eval-human-loop no vendor
- eval-production-traffic-replay no vendor
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket commercial vendor
- positioning-platform-vs-product product vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- protocol-support mcp-client,mcp-server,opentelemetry vendor
Related systems
References (2)
- Anthropic Claude (foundation models) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: requires Claude Code or MCP client; BYO storage
- Model Context Protocol (MCP spec) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: requires Claude Code or MCP client; BYO storage