Lab

Memory vault

In progress

A memory for my agents, built on my notes. It is early: the core works and the rest is still being shaped.

$ vault search "retry" --limit 3

projects/queue-retry-budget.md Queue retry budget [queue, design]

journal/2026-03-02.md Retries that hid a bug [journal]

reference/backoff.md Backoff notes [reference]

$ vault context list

context/about-me.md About me

context/working-rules.md Working rules

$ vault retrieve "what to read next"

lists/reading-list.md Reading list [lists]

--- Auto-Context ---

context/about-me.md

context/working-rules.md

The CLI: a full-text search, the notes pinned to auto-context, and a retrieval that returns matches plus the pinned notes every time. Mockup with sample data.

{

"query": "retry",

"results": [

{

"path": "projects/queue-retry-budget.md",

"title": "Queue retry budget",

"tags": ["queue", "design"],

"score": 0.91

{

"path": "journal/2026-03-02.md",

"title": "Retries that hid a bug",

"tags": ["journal"],

"score": 0.64

}

]

}

The same search as a REST response, which a Claude Code skill or any other agent can call with a token. Mockup with sample data.

How it works

My notes stay in Obsidian. The vault is plain markdown with frontmatter, and I keep writing in it the way I always did.
A watcher keeps the index fresh. chokidar sees a note change, gray-matter reads its tags and title, and FlexSearch updates the index.
An API serves the memory. The routes are context, search, retrieve, notes and tags, all behind token auth, running in Docker at home.
Agents ask through the CLI. The vault command and the Claude Code slash commands and skills call the same routes, so an agent can search or create a note.
Pinned notes always come along. Anything in the auto-context folder is added to every retrieval, so the basics are there without being asked for.

Built with

Node and ExpressThe REST API and the token auth in front of it.
FlexSearchThe in-memory full-text index over every note.
chokidarWatches the vault folder and triggers reindexing on change.
gray-matterParses note frontmatter into titles and tags.
commanderThe vault command line.
DockerRuns the service at home next to the vault.

Decisions

Notes are the source of truth. The index can be rebuilt from the files at any time, so there is no second database to keep in sync or back up.
One folder is always included. Retrieval adds the auto-context notes to every result, which gives an agent the basics about me without a prompt that repeats them.
Keep it small while it is early. The first version is notes, an index, an API and a CLI. Anything beyond that waits until I see how my agents actually use it.