Alex Newman
12149470a2
- Created comprehensive installation guide detailing quick start, system requirements, and advanced installation steps. - Developed troubleshooting guide addressing common issues with worker service, hooks, database, and search tools. - Introduced getting started documentation explaining automatic operation, session summaries, and context injection. - Added detailed usage instructions for MCP search tools, including query examples and advanced filtering techniques.
172 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
172 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
# Getting Started with Claude-Mem
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## Automatic Operation
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Claude-Mem works automatically once installed. No manual intervention required!
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### The Full Cycle
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1. **Start Claude Code** - Context from last 3 sessions appears automatically
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2. **Work normally** - Every tool execution is captured
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3. **Stop Claude** - Summary is generated and saved
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4. **Next session** - Previous work appears in context
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### What Gets Captured
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Every time Claude uses a tool, claude-mem captures it:
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- **Read** - File reads and content access
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- **Write** - New file creation
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- **Edit** - File modifications
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- **Bash** - Command executions
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- **Glob** - File pattern searches
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- **Grep** - Content searches
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- And all other Claude Code tools
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### What Gets Processed
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The worker service processes tool observations and extracts:
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- **Title** - Brief description of what happened
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- **Subtitle** - Additional context
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- **Narrative** - Detailed explanation
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- **Facts** - Key learnings as bullet points
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- **Concepts** - Relevant tags and categories
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- **Type** - Classification (decision, bugfix, feature, etc.)
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- **Files** - Which files were read or modified
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### Session Summaries
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When you stop Claude (or a session ends), a summary is generated with:
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- **Request** - What you asked for
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- **Investigated** - What Claude explored
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- **Learned** - Key discoveries and insights
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- **Completed** - What was accomplished
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- **Next Steps** - What to do next
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### Context Injection
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When you start a new Claude Code session, the SessionStart hook:
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1. Queries the database for recent sessions in your project
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2. Retrieves the last 10 session summaries
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3. Formats them with three-tier verbosity (most recent = most detail)
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4. Injects them into Claude's initial context
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This means Claude "remembers" what happened in previous sessions!
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## Manual Commands (Optional)
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### Worker Management
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v4.0+ auto-starts the worker on first session. Manual commands below are optional.
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```bash
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# Start worker service (optional - auto-starts automatically)
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npm run worker:start
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# Stop worker service
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npm run worker:stop
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# Restart worker service
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npm run worker:restart
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# View worker logs
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npm run worker:logs
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# Check worker status
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npm run worker:status
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```
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### Testing
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```bash
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# Run all tests
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npm test
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# Test context injection
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npm run test:context
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# Verbose context test
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npm run test:context:verbose
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```
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### Development
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```bash
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# Build hooks and worker
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npm run build
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# Build only hooks
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npm run build:hooks
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# Publish to NPM (maintainers only)
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npm run publish:npm
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```
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## Viewing Stored Context
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Context is stored in SQLite database at `~/.claude-mem/claude-mem.db`.
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Query the database directly:
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```bash
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# Open database
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sqlite3 ~/.claude-mem/claude-mem.db
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# View recent sessions
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SELECT session_id, project, created_at, status
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FROM sdk_sessions
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ORDER BY created_at DESC
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LIMIT 10;
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# View session summaries
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SELECT session_id, request, completed, learned
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FROM session_summaries
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ORDER BY created_at DESC
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LIMIT 5;
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# View observations for a session
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SELECT tool_name, created_at
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FROM observations
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WHERE session_id = 'YOUR_SESSION_ID';
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```
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## Understanding Verbosity Levels
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Context injection uses three-tier verbosity for efficient token usage:
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### Tier 1 (Most Recent Session)
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- Full summary with all details
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- Request, investigated, learned, completed, next_steps, notes
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- ~500-1000 tokens
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### Tier 2 (Sessions 2-5)
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- Medium detail
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- Request, learned, completed
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- ~200-400 tokens
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### Tier 3 (Sessions 6-10)
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- Brief summary
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- Request and completed only
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- ~100-200 tokens
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This ensures you get maximum detail for recent work while still having context from older sessions.
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## Multi-Prompt Sessions
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Claude-Mem supports sessions that span multiple user prompts:
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- **prompt_counter**: Tracks total prompts in a session
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- **prompt_number**: Identifies specific prompt within session
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- **Session continuity**: Observations and summaries link across prompts
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When you use `/clear`, the session doesn't end - it continues with a new prompt number. This preserves context across conversation restarts.
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## Next Steps
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- [MCP Search Tools](search-tools.md) - Learn how to search your project history
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- [Architecture Overview](../architecture/overview.md) - Understand how it works
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- [Troubleshooting](../troubleshooting.md) - Common issues and solutions
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