Claude DB

Free, open-source memory for Claude Code. Your own database, no cloud, no subscription.

Documentation · Quick start · CLI reference

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Why

Every Claude Code chat starts from zero. You explain the same decisions, dead ends and rules again, and Claude works out what calls what from scratch.

claude-db fixes that. It keeps what you decided and a map of your code, and gives Claude the right part of it at the right time.

What it does

• Remembers across chats. Decisions, dead ends and rules are saved when a chat ends, and the next chat starts by seeing them.
• Recalls what fits. Each prompt gets the one or two earlier memories that match it, and nothing when none fit.
• Maps your code. Who defines, calls or imports a symbol is answered in one call, instead of grep and reading files. It follows imports in TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java and Kotlin.
• Keeps it yours. SQLite on your machine by default, or Postgres or MongoDB to share across machines. No cloud, no subscription.

Install

You need Node 22.16 or newer and a git repository.

npm install -g claude-db
cd your-project
claude-db install --project

Restart Claude Code. There is nothing else to run, because capture and recall are hooks.

Then load what already exists with claude-db flush and claude-db scan. The setup guide has the rest.

Everyday use

Where	What it does
/catchup	Answers "where did I stop?" when you come back
/handoff	Leaves a short note for the next chat or a mate
/cdb-scan	Maps an existing codebase into memory
claude-db status	Shows whether it is wired up and what it recorded
claude-db doctor	Checks the setup, and finds what is wrong
claude-db use <url>	Switches to Postgres or MongoDB (pg/mongodb)

cdb is a shorter alias. Every command is in the CLI reference.

Privacy

Memory stays in your own database. Two features call Claude Haiku through your own login, and each has an off switch: claude-db distill off for making facts from finished chats, and claude-db pick off for choosing memory per prompt. Once a day it asks npm for the latest version ("updates": "off" stops that).

.env, secrets/, node_modules and .git/ are never stored. Text inside ...</private> is stripped, and API keys and tokens are redacted before anything is written or sent.

Documentation

• Setup guide: install, head start and habits
• Documentation site: CLI, MCP tools, databases and troubleshooting
• With and without and benchmarks: the numbers, including where plain grep wins
• Changelog

Contributing

npm install
npm run build
npm test
npm run lint

CONTRIBUTING.md has the setup, the rules and the pull request checklist, with links to adding a language and to releasing. Security reports go through SECURITY.md, privately.

License

Apache-2.0