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ICM

Permanent memory for AI agents. Single binary, zero dependencies, MCP native.

---

ICM gives your AI agent a real memory — not a note-taking tool, not a context manager, a memory.

                       ICM (Infinite Context Memory)
            ┌──────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
            │   MEMORIES (Topics)  │   MEMOIRS (Knowledge)   │
            │                      │                         │
            │  Episodic, temporal  │  Permanent, structured  │
            │                      │                         │
            │  ┌───┐ ┌───┐ ┌───┐  │    ┌───┐               │
            │  │ m │ │ m │ │ m │  │    │ C │──depends_on──┐ │
            │  └─┬─┘ └─┬─┘ └─┬─┘  │    └───┘              │ │
            │    │decay │     │    │      │ refines      ┌─▼─┐│
            │    ▼      ▼     ▼    │    ┌─▼─┐            │ C ││
            │  weight decreases    │    │ C │──part_of──>└───┘│
            │  over time unless    │    └───┘                 │
            │  accessed/critical   │  Concepts + Relations    │
            ├──────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┤
            │             SQLite + FTS5 + sqlite-vec          │
            │        Hybrid search: BM25 (30%) + cosine (70%) │
            └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Two memory models:

• Memories — store/recall with temporal decay by importance. Critical memories never fade, low-importance ones decay naturally. Filter by topic or keyword.
• Memoirs — permanent knowledge graphs. Concepts linked by typed relations (depends_on, contradicts, superseded_by, ...). Filter by label.
• Feedback — record corrections when AI predictions are wrong. Search past mistakes before making new predictions. Closed-loop learning.

Install

# Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
brew tap rtk-ai/tap && brew install icm

# Quick install (macOS / Linux) — verifies SHA256 against the release checksums
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/icm/main/install.sh | sh

# Quick install (Windows PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/icm/main/install.ps1 | iex

# From source
cargo install --path crates/icm-cli

Re-run the install command to upgrade to the latest release. To pin a version, pass --version icm-vX.Y.Z (sh: sh -s -- --version …).

Setup

# Auto-detect and configure all supported tools
icm init

Configures 17 tools in one command (full integration guide):

Tool	MCP	Hooks	CLI	Skills
Claude Code	~/.claude.json	5 hooks	CLAUDE.md	/recall /remember
Claude Desktop	JSON	—	—	—
Gemini CLI	~/.gemini/settings.json	5 hooks	GEMINI.md	—
Codex CLI	~/.codex/config.toml	4 hooks	AGENTS.md	—
Copilot CLI	~/.copilot/mcp-config.json	4 hooks	.github/copilot-instructions.md	—
Cursor	~/.cursor/mcp.json	—	—	.mdc rule
Windsurf	JSON	—	.windsurfrules	—
VS Code	~/Library/.../Code/User/mcp.json	—	—	—
Amp	JSON	—	—	/icm-recall /icm-remember
Amazon Q	JSON	—	—	—
Cline	VS Code globalStorage	—	—	—
Roo Code	VS Code globalStorage	—	—	.md rule
Kilo Code	VS Code globalStorage	—	—	—
Zed	~/.zed/settings.json	—	—	—
OpenCode	JSON	TS plugin	—	—
Continue.dev	~/.continue/config.yaml	—	—	—
Aider	—	—	.aider.conventions.md	—

Or manually:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add icm -- icm serve

# Compact mode (shorter responses, saves tokens)
claude mcp add icm -- icm serve --compact

# Any MCP client: command = "icm", args = ["serve"]

Skills / rules

icm init --mode skill

Installs slash commands and rules for Claude Code (/recall, /remember), Cursor (.mdc rule), Roo Code (.md rule), and Amp (/icm-recall, /icm-remember).

CLI instructions

icm init --mode cli

Injects ICM instructions into each tool's instruction file:

Tool	File
Claude Code	CLAUDE.md
GitHub Copilot	.github/copilot-instructions.md
Windsurf	.windsurfrules
OpenAI Codex	AGENTS.md
Gemini	~/.gemini/GEMINI.md

Hooks (5 tools)

icm init --mode hook

Installs auto-extraction and auto-recall hooks for all supported tools:

Tool	SessionStart	PreTool	PostTool	Compact	PromptRecall	Config
Claude Code	icm hook start	icm hook pre	icm hook post	icm hook compact	icm hook prompt	~/.claude/settings.json
Gemini CLI	icm hook start	icm hook pre	icm hook post	icm hook compact	icm hook prompt	~/.gemini/settings.json
Codex CLI	icm hook start	icm hook pre	icm hook post	—	icm hook prompt	~/.codex/hooks.json
Copilot CLI	icm hook start	icm hook pre	icm hook post	—	icm hook prompt	.github/hooks/icm.json
OpenCode	session start	—	tool extract	compaction	—	~/.config/opencode/plugins/icm.ts

What each hook does:

Hook	What it does
icm hook start	Inject a wake-up pack of critical/high memories at session start (~500 tokens)
icm hook pre	Auto-allow icm CLI commands (no permission prompt)
icm hook post	Extract facts from tool output every N calls (auto-extraction)
icm hook compact	Extract memories from transcript before context compression
icm hook prompt	Inject recalled context at the start of each user prompt

CLI vs MCP

ICM can be used via CLI (icm commands) or MCP server (icm serve). Both access the same database.

	CLI	MCP
Latency	~30ms (direct binary)	~50ms (JSON-RPC stdio)
Token cost	0 (hook-based, invisible)	~20-50 tokens/call (tool schema)
Setup	icm init --mode hook	icm init --mode mcp
Works with	Claude Code, Gemini, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode (via hooks)	All 17 MCP-compatible tools
Auto-extraction	Yes (hooks trigger icm extract)	Yes (MCP tools call store)
Best for	Power users, token savings	Universal compatibility

Dashboard

icm dashboard    # or: icm tui

Interactive TUI with 5 tabs: Overview, Topics, Memories, Health, Memoirs. Keyboard navigation (vim-style: j/k, g/G, Tab, 1-5), live search (/), auto-refresh.

Requires the tui feature (enabled by default). Build without: cargo install --path crates/icm-cli --no-default-features --features embeddings.

CLI

Memories (episodic, with decay)

# Store
icm store -t "my-project" -c "Use PostgreSQL for the main DB" -i high -k "db,postgres"

# Recall
icm recall "database choice"
icm recall "auth setup" --topic "my-project" --limit 10
icm recall "architecture" --keyword "postgres"

# Manage
icm forget <memory-id>
icm consolidate --topic "my-project"
icm topics
icm stats

# Extract facts from text (rule-based, zero LLM cost)
echo "The parser uses Pratt algorithm" | icm extract -p my-project

Memoirs (permanent knowledge graphs)

# Create a memoir
icm memoir create -n "system-architecture" -d "System design decisions"

# Add concepts with labels
icm memoir add-concept -m "system-architecture" -n "auth-service" \
  -d "Handles JWT tokens and OAuth2 flows" -l "domain:auth,type:service"

# Link concepts
icm memoir link -m "system-architecture" --from "api-gateway" --to "auth-service" -r depends-on

# Search with label filter
icm memoir search -m "system-architecture" "authentication"
icm memoir search -m "system-architecture" "service" --label "domain:auth"

# Inspect neighborhood
icm memoir inspect -m "system-architecture" "auth-service" -D 2

# Export graph (formats: json, dot, ascii, ai)
icm memoir export -m "system-architecture" -f ascii   # Box-drawing with confidence bars
icm memoir export -m "system-architecture" -f dot      # Graphviz DOT (color = confidence level)
icm memoir export -m "system-architecture" -f ai       # Markdown optimized for LLM context
icm memoir export -m "system-architecture" -f json     # Structured JSON with all metadata

# Generate SVG visualization
icm memoir export -m "system-architecture" -f dot | dot -Tsvg > graph.svg

Transcripts (verbatim session replay)

Store every message exchanged with an agent as-is — no summarization, no extraction. Search later with FTS5 (BM25 + boolean + phrase + prefix). Useful for session replay, post-mortem review, compliance audit, training data. Complementary to curated memories.

# 1. Start a session
SID=$(icm transcript start-session --agent claude-code --project myapp)

# 2. Record every turn verbatim
icm transcript record -s "$SID" -r user      -c "Pourquoi on avait choisi Postgres ?"
icm transcript record -s "$SID" -r assistant -c "JSONB natif, BRIN pour les logs, auto-vacuum tuné."
icm transcript record -s "$SID" -r tool      -c '{"cmd":"psql -c ..."}' -t Bash --tokens 42

# 3. Replay, search, inspect
icm transcript list-sessions --project myapp
icm transcript show "$SID" --limit 200
icm transcript search "postgres JSONB"                    # BM25 ranked
icm transcript search '"auto-vacuum"'                     # phrase match
icm transcript search "postgres OR mysql" --session "$SID" # boolean, scoped
icm transcript stats

# 4. Delete a session (cascade deletes its messages)
icm transcript forget "$SID"

Rust + SQLite + FTS5 — 0 Python, 0 ChromaDB, 0 external service. Writes are ~10× faster than ChromaDB-based verbatim stores; the whole transcript lives in the same SQLite file as your memories and memoirs.

MCP Tools (31)

Memory tools

Tool	Description
icm_memory_store	Store with auto-dedup (>85% similarity → update instead of duplicate)
icm_memory_recall	Search by query, filter by topic / keyword / project
icm_memory_update	Edit a memory in-place (content, importance, keywords)
icm_memory_forget	Delete a memory by ID
icm_memory_forget_topic	Delete all memories in a given topic
icm_memory_consolidate	Merge all memories of a topic into one summary
icm_memory_extract_patterns	Detect recurring patterns within a topic and surface them as concepts
icm_memory_list_topics	List all topics with counts
icm_memory_stats	Global memory statistics
icm_memory_health	Per-topic hygiene audit (staleness, consolidation needs)
icm_memory_embed_all	Backfill embeddings for vector search

Session tools

Tool	Description
icm_wake_up	Build a project-scoped wake-up pack (critical/high memories + preferences) for SessionStart-style context injection
icm_learn	Scan a project directory and seed a Memoir knowledge graph from its code/docs

Memoir tools (knowledge graphs)

Tool	Description
icm_memoir_create	Create a new memoir (knowledge container)
icm_memoir_list	List all memoirs
icm_memoir_show	Show memoir details and all concepts
icm_memoir_add_concept	Add a concept with labels
icm_memoir_refine	Update a concept's definition
icm_memoir_search	Full-text search, optionally filtered by label
icm_memoir_search_all	Search across all memoirs
icm_memoir_link	Create typed relation between concepts
icm_memoir_inspect	Inspect concept and graph neighborhood (BFS)
icm_memoir_export	Export graph (json, dot, ascii, ai) with confidence levels

Feedback tools (learning from mistakes)

Tool	Description
icm_feedback_record	Record a correction when an AI prediction was wrong
icm_feedback_search	Search past corrections to inform future predictions
icm_feedback_stats	Feedback statistics: total count, breakdown by topic, most applied

Transcript tools (verbatim session replay)

Tool	Description
icm_transcript_start_session	Create a session for verbatim message capture; returns session_id
icm_transcript_record	Append a raw message (role, content, optional tool + tokens + metadata)
icm_transcript_search	FTS5 search across messages (BM25, boolean, phrase, prefix)
icm_transcript_show	Replay full message thread of a session, chronologically
icm_transcript_stats	Sessions, messages, bytes, breakdown by role/agent/top-sessions

Relation types

part_of · depends_on · related_to · contradicts · refines · alternative_to · caused_by · instance_of · superseded_by

How it works

Dual memory model

Episodic memory (Topics) captures decisions, errors, preferences. Each memory has a weight that decays over time based on importance:

Importance	Decay	Prune	Behavior
critical	none	never	Never forgotten, never pruned
high	slow (0.5x rate)	never	Fades slowly, never auto-deleted
medium	normal	yes	Standard decay, pruned when weight < threshold
low	fast (2x rate)	yes	Quickly forgotten

Decay is access-aware: frequently recalled memories decay slower (decay / (1 + access_count × 0.1)). Applied automatically on recall (if >24h since last decay).

Memory hygiene is built-in:

• Auto-dedup: storing content >85% similar to an existing memory in the same topic updates it instead of creating a duplicate
• Consolidation hints: when a topic exceeds 7 entries, icm_memory_store warns the caller to consolidate
• Health audit: icm_memory_health reports per-topic entry count, average weight, stale entries, and consolidation needs
• No silent data loss: critical and high-importance memories are never auto-pruned

Semantic memory (Memoirs) captures structured knowledge as a graph. Concepts are permanent — they get refined, never decayed. Use superseded_by to mark obsolete facts instead of deleting them.

Hybrid search

With embeddings enabled, ICM uses hybrid search:

• FTS5 BM25 (30%) — full-text keyword matching
• Cosine similarity (70%) — semantic vector search via sqlite-vec

Default model: intfloat/multilingual-e5-base (768d, 100+ languages). Configurable in your config file:

[embeddings]
# enabled = false                          # Disable entirely (no model download)
model = "intfloat/multilingual-e5-base"    # 768d, multilingual (default)
# model = "intfloat/multilingual-e5-small" # 384d, multilingual (lighter)
# model = "intfloat/multilingual-e5-large" # 1024d, multilingual (best accuracy)
# model = "Xenova/bge-small-en-v1.5"      # 384d, English-only (fastest)
# model = "jinaai/jina-embeddings-v2-base-code"  # 768d, code-optimized

To skip the embedding model download entirely, use any of these:

icm --no-embeddings serve          # CLI flag
ICM_NO_EMBEDDINGS=1 icm serve     # Environment variable

Or set enabled = false in your config file. ICM will fall back to FTS5 keyword search (still works, just no semantic matching).

Changing the model automatically re-creates the vector index (existing embeddings are cleared and can be regenerated with icm_memory_embed_all).

Storage

Single SQLite file. No external services, no network dependency.

~/Library/Application Support/dev.icm.icm/memories.db                    # macOS
~/.local/share/dev.icm.icm/memories.db                                   # Linux
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\icm\icm\data\memories.db                   # Windows

Configuration

icm config                    # Show active config

Config file location (platform-specific, or $ICM_CONFIG):

~/Library/Application Support/dev.icm.icm/config.toml                    # macOS
~/.config/icm/config.toml                                                # Linux
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\icm\icm\config\config.toml              # Windows

See config/default.toml for all options.

Auto-extraction

ICM extracts memories automatically via three layers:

  Layer 0: Pattern hooks              Layer 1: PreCompact           Layer 2: UserPromptSubmit
  (zero LLM cost)                     (zero LLM cost)               (zero LLM cost)
  ┌──────────────────┐                ┌──────────────────┐          ┌──────────────────┐
  │ PostToolUse hook  │                │ PreCompact hook   │          │ UserPromptSubmit  │
  │                   │                │                   │          │                   │
  │ • Bash errors     │                │ Context about to  │          │ User sends prompt │
  │ • git commits     │                │ be compressed →   │          │ → icm recall      │
  │ • config changes  │                │ extract memories  │          │ → inject context  │
  │ • decisions       │                │ from transcript   │          │                   │
  │ • preferences     │                │ before they're    │          │ Agent starts with  │
  │ • learnings       │                │ lost forever      │          │ relevant memories  │
  │ • constraints     │                │                   │          │ already loaded     │
  │                   │                │ Same patterns +   │          │                   │
  │ Rule-based, no LLM│                │ --store-raw fallbk│          │                   │
  └──────────────────┘                └──────────────────┘          └──────────────────┘

Layer	Status	LLM cost	Hook command	Description
Layer 0	Implemented	0	icm hook post	Rule-based keyword extraction from tool output
Layer 1	Implemented	0	icm hook compact	Extract from transcript before context compression
Layer 2	Implemented	0	icm hook prompt	Inject recalled memories on each user prompt

All 3 layers are installed automatically by icm init --mode hook.

Benchmarks

Storage performance

ICM Benchmark (1000 memories, 384d embeddings)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Store (no embeddings)      1000 ops      34.2 ms      34.2 µs/op
Store (with embeddings)    1000 ops      51.6 ms      51.6 µs/op
FTS5 search                 100 ops       4.7 ms      46.6 µs/op
Vector search (KNN)         100 ops      59.0 ms     590.0 µs/op
Hybrid search               100 ops      95.1 ms     951.1 µs/op
Decay (batch)                 1 ops       5.8 ms       5.8 ms/op
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Apple M1 Pro, in-memory SQLite, single-threaded. icm bench --count 1000

Agent efficiency

Multi-session workflow with a real Rust project (12 files, ~550 lines). Sessions 2+ show the biggest gains as ICM recalls instead of re-reading files.

ICM Agent Benchmark (10 sessions, model: haiku, 3 runs averaged)
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
                            Without ICM         With ICM      Delta
Session 2 (recall)
  Turns                             5.7              4.0       -29%
  Context (input)                 99.9k            67.5k       -32%
  Cost                          $0.0298          $0.0249       -17%

Session 3 (recall)
  Turns                             3.3              2.0       -40%
  Context (input)                 74.7k            41.6k       -44%
  Cost                          $0.0249          $0.0194       -22%
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

icm bench-agent --sessions 10 --model haiku

Knowledge retention

Agent recalls specific facts from a dense technical document across sessions. Session 1 reads and memorizes; sessions 2+ answer 10 factual questions without the source text.

ICM Recall Benchmark (10 questions, model: haiku, 5 runs averaged)
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
                                               No ICM     With ICM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Average score                                      5%          68%
Questions passed                                 0/10         5/10
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

icm bench-recall --model haiku

Local LLMs (ollama)

Same test with local models — pure context injection, no tool use needed.

Model               Params   No ICM   With ICM     Delta
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
qwen2.5:14b           14B       4%       97%       +93%
mistral:7b             7B       4%       93%       +89%
llama3.1:8b            8B       4%       93%       +89%
qwen2.5:7b             7B       4%       90%       +86%
phi4:14b              14B       6%       79%       +73%
llama3.2:3b            3B       0%       76%       +76%
gemma2:9b              9B       4%       76%       +72%
qwen2.5:3b             3B       2%       58%       +56%
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

scripts/bench-ollama.sh qwen2.5:14b

LongMemEval (ICLR 2025)

Standard academic benchmark — 500 questions across 6 memory abilities, from the LongMemEval paper (ICLR 2025).

LongMemEval Results — ICM (oracle variant, 500 questions)
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Category                        Retrieval     Answer (Sonnet)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
single-session-user                100.0%           91.4%
temporal-reasoning                 100.0%           85.0%
single-session-assistant           100.0%           83.9%
multi-session                      100.0%           81.2%
knowledge-update                   100.0%           80.8%
single-session-preference          100.0%           50.0%
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
OVERALL                            100.0%           82.0%
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

• Retrieval = does ICM find the right information? 100% across all categories.
• Answer = can the LLM produce the correct answer from retrieved context? Depends on the LLM, not ICM.
• The retrieval score is the ICM benchmark. The answer score reflects the downstream LLM capability.

scripts/bench-longmemeval.py --judge claude --workers 8

Test protocol

All benchmarks use real API calls — no mocks, no simulated responses, no cached answers.

• Agent benchmark: Creates a real Rust project in a tempdir. Runs N sessions with claude -p --output-format json. Without ICM: empty MCP config. With ICM: real MCP server + auto-extraction + context injection.
• Knowledge retention: Uses a fictional technical document (the "Meridian Protocol"). Scores answers by keyword matching against expected facts. 120s timeout per invocation.
• Isolation: Each run uses its own tempdir and fresh SQLite DB. No session persistence.

Multi-agent unified memory

All 17 tools share the same SQLite database. A memory stored by Claude is instantly available to Gemini, Codex, Copilot, Cursor, and every other tool.

ICM Multi-Agent Efficiency Benchmark (10 seeded facts, 5 CLI agents)
╔══════════════╦═══════╦══════════╦════════╦═══════════╦═══════╗
║ Agent        ║ Facts ║ Accuracy ║ Detail ║ Latency   ║ Score ║
╠══════════════╬═══════╬══════════╬════════╬═══════════╬═══════╣
║ Claude Code  ║ 10/10 ║   100%   ║  5/5   ║    ~15s   ║   99  ║
║ Gemini CLI   ║ 10/10 ║   100%   ║  5/5   ║    ~33s   ║   94  ║
║ Copilot CLI  ║ 10/10 ║   100%   ║  5/5   ║    ~10s   ║  100  ║
║ Cursor Agent ║ 10/10 ║   100%   ║  5/5   ║    ~16s   ║   99  ║
║ Aider        ║ 10/10 ║   100%   ║  5/5   ║     ~5s   ║  100  ║
╠══════════════╬═══════╬══════════╬════════╬═══════════╬═══════╣
║ AVERAGE      ║       ║          ║        ║           ║   98  ║
╚══════════════╩═══════╩══════════╩════════╩═══════════╩═══════╝

Score = 60% recall accuracy + 30% fact detail + 10% speed. 98% multi-agent efficiency.

Why ICM

Capability	ICM	Mem0	Engram	AgentMemory
Tool support	17	SDK only	~6-8	~10
One-command setup	icm init	manual SDK	manual	manual
Hooks (auto-recall at startup)	5 tools	none	via MCP	1 tool
Hybrid search (FTS5 + vector)	30/70 weighted	vector only	FTS5 only	FTS5+vector
Multilingual embeddings	100+ langs (768d)	depends	none	English 384d
Knowledge graph	Memoir system	none	none	none
Temporal decay + consolidation	access-aware	none	basic	basic
TUI dashboard	icm dashboard	none	yes	web viewer
Auto-extraction from tool output	3 layers, zero LLM	none	none	none
Feedback/correction loop	icm_feedback_*	none	none	none
Runtime	Rust single binary	Python	Go	Node.js
Local-first, zero dependencies	SQLite file	cloud-first	SQLite	SQLite
Multi-agent recall accuracy	98%	N/A	N/A	95.2%

Documentation

Document	Description
Integration Guide	Setup for all 17 tools: Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Amp, etc.
Technical Architecture	Crate structure, search pipeline, decay model, sqlite-vec integration, testing
User Guide	Installation, topic organization, consolidation, extraction, troubleshooting
Product Overview	Use cases, benchmarks, comparison with alternatives

License

Apache-2.0