ai-memory v0.8.0

Cursor — MCP server + .cursorrules directive

Category 2 (MCP-capable, no native session-start hook).

Cursor supports MCP servers via Settings → Features → Model Context Protocol, and supports project-scoped behavior via .cursorrules at the repo root. There is no documented SessionStart hook today, so the recipe is two-part.

Quick install

ai-memory install cursor              # dry-run (default)
ai-memory install cursor --apply      # write ~/.cursor/mcp.json
ai-memory install cursor --uninstall --apply

This handles Part 1 (MCP-server registration) automatically. Part 2 (.cursorrules directive) is project-scoped and still manual — see below.

Part 1 — register the MCP server

Cursor’s MCP config (Settings → Features → MCP, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-memory": {
      "command": "ai-memory",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AI_MEMORY_DB": "${HOME}/.claude/ai-memory.db"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using --tier smart or --tier autonomous with a non-default LLM backend? Post-#1146 (v0.7.0) the recommended path is a [llm] section in ~/.config/ai-memory/config.toml — single source of truth across MCP / HTTP daemon / CLI / boot banner / doctor probe. Example: backend = "xai", model = "grok-4.3", api_key_env = "XAI_API_KEY" (the env-var name, not the literal key — inline keys are rejected at parse time). Export the named env var in your shell rc; the MCP config can stay minimal. Override path: extend the env block above with AI_MEMORY_LLM_BACKEND, AI_MEMORY_LLM_API_KEY, and AI_MEMORY_LLM_MODEL — shell exports don’t reach MCP-spawned subprocesses (#1144). Full schema + per-vendor recipes: ../CONFIG_SCHEMA.md + llm-backends.md.

Restart Cursor.

Part 2 — .cursorrules directive (best-effort)

At the project root, in .cursorrules:

At the start of every new conversation, before responding to the user's first
message, call the `memory_session_start` MCP tool from the `ai-memory` server
and a `memory_recall` against the current project's namespace. Reference the
recalled titles in your first reply.

Default namespace for this project: <set from cwd basename or project name>

Or, in workspace .cursorrules, you can specify the namespace explicitly:

Default ai-memory namespace: ai-memory-mcp/v0631-release

Caveat: text-directive only. Issue #487 layer 6.

Better, when Cursor lands a session-start hook

Replace Part 2 with the hook command:

ai-memory boot --quiet --no-header --limit 10 --budget-tokens 4096

Cross-file at the Cursor repo (linked from #487 comments).