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OpenMem

mem0

mem0 is a supported OpenMem provider. You run a self-hosted mem0 REST server; OpenMem points the shared indexer and unified memory_* MCP at it. One active provider at a time — same agent surface as Hindsight or Cognee.

This is not the hosted platform at https://api.mem0.ai (different API shape). OpenMem talks to the open-source REST server only (no /v1/ prefix).

Upstream project: mem0ai/mem0. Stack details for contributors: providers/mem0/OPERATOR.md.

What you run vs what OpenMem runs

Section titled “What you run vs what OpenMem runs”
You OpenMem
mem0 REST server (JWT, Postgres/pgvector, embedder keys) MEMORY_PROVIDER=mem0, MEMORY_SINK=mem0
API key in ~/.config/personal-memory/mem0.env (mode 600) MEM0_API_URL / MEM0_INDEXER_URL in stack env
Bind so the indexer container can reach the server Wizard smoke: docs, retain, search, delete-by-id
Unified MCP + optional native mem0 MCP

Compose profile mem0 adds env + extra_hosts on the shared indexer only — there is no mem0 container in this repo yet.

First-time setup

Section titled “First-time setup”
  1. Start your mem0 REST server (default OpenMem port expectation: 18888).
  2. Put the API key in the env file (skip if AUTH_DISABLED=true on the server for local dev only):
~/.config/personal-memory/mem0.env
MEM0_API_KEY=…

Never put MEM0_API_KEY in stack .env, wizard.conf, config.toml, or mcp.json.

  1. Select mem0 in the wizard, or switch later:
Terminal window
npx @bcmyguest/openmem              # choose mem0 when prompted
# or:
npx @bcmyguest/openmem switch mem0 --yes
  1. Confirm:
Terminal window
npx @bcmyguest/openmem doctor
curl -fsS "$MEM0_API_URL/docs"   # URL from wizard / stack .env

URLs

Section titled “URLs”
Variable Meaning
MEM0_API_URL Host view (what you curl), e.g. http://127.0.0.1:18888
MEM0_INDEXER_URL Derived for the indexer container — loopback hosts are rewritten to the Docker bridge gateway. Do not set this to 127.0.0.1 by hand inside the container.

Linux: a process bound only to loopback is often unreachable from the indexer container. Bind mem0 to 0.0.0.0 (or a real hostname). Prefer https:// when the server is not on loopback — X-API-Key is cleartext on plain HTTP.

Search fails if the server’s embedder is misconfigured; smoke stores with infer: false and looks for that fact.

Banks / scopes

Section titled “Banks / scopes”

mem0 scopes map to user_id. OpenMem’s MCP bank argument and indexer banks become that user_id. Default unified MCP scope is openmem-mcp unless tools pass bank. Project work should pass the resolved project bank so session noise does not land in the default. See Concepts — Context and banks.

Coding agents and MCP

Section titled “Coding agents and MCP”

Preferred: unified OpenMem MCP (memory_*) — same tools as Hindsight/Cognee:

Terminal window
npx @bcmyguest/openmem install-coding-agent --yes
# or MCP only:
npx @bcmyguest/openmem install-mcp --yes

Optional native mem0 tools (upstream @yeyuan98/mem0-mcp names, not memory_*):

Terminal window
MEMORY_PROVIDER=mem0 npx @bcmyguest/openmem install-mcp --yes --provider-only

That registers cli/mem0-mcp.mjs with MEM0_API_URL / MEM0_BASE_URL and the path to mem0.env — never the key value in mcp.json. Mem0’s cloud MCP (https://mcp.mem0.ai) is not for self-hosted REST.

Restart Cursor Agent after MCP changes. Full flag matrix: MCP setup.

There is no Hindsight-style coding-agent plugin for mem0; session hooks + unified MCP cover day-to-day agent memory.

Portability

Section titled “Portability”

Export/import uses PMM via memory_export / memory_import on the unified MCP. Switching providers does not migrate data by itself — export, switch, import (or re-index). See Portable memory (PMM).

Switch provider

Section titled “Switch provider”
Terminal window
npx @bcmyguest/openmem switch mem0 --yes
# later:
npx @bcmyguest/openmem switch hindsight --yes

Updates active provider config, restarts the stack (unless --no-stack), refreshes MCP (unless --no-mcp). Does not migrate memories.

Section titled “Related”