Memory-powered AI agent framework with MCP integration

Cipher is an opensource memory layer specifically designed for coding agents. Compatible with Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, AWS's Kiro, VS Code, and Roo Code through MCP, and coding agents, such as Kimi K2. (see more on examples)

Key Features:

• ⁠MCP integration with any IDE you want.
• ⁠Auto-generate AI coding memories that scale with your codebase.
• ⁠Switch seamlessly between IDEs without losing memory and context.
• ⁠Easily share coding memories across your dev team in real time.
• ⁠Dual Memory Layer that captures System 1 (Programming Concepts & Business Logic & Past Interaction) and System 2 (reasoning steps of the model when generating code).
• ⁠Install on your IDE with zero configuration needed.

# Install globally npm install -g @byterover/cipher # Or install locally in your project npm install @byterover/cipher

# Clone and setup git clone https://github.com/campfirein/cipher.git cd cipher # Configure environment cp .env.example .env # Edit .env with your API keys # Start with Docker docker-compose up -d # Test curl http://localhost:3000/health

pnpm i && pnpm run build && npm link

# Interactive mode cipher # One-shot command cipher "Add this to memory as common causes of 'CORS error' in local dev with Vite + Express." # API server mode cipher --mode api # MCP server mode cipher --mode mcp

Configure Cipher using environment variables and YAML config:

# Required: At least one API key (except OPENAI_API_KEY is always required for embedding) OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_openrouter_api_key # Ollama (self-hosted, no API key needed) OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1 # Optional CIPHER_LOG_LEVEL=info NODE_ENV=production

# LLM Configuration llm: provider: openai # openai, anthropic, openrouter, ollama model: gpt-4-turbo apiKey: $OPENAI_API_KEY # System Prompt systemPrompt: 'You are a helpful AI assistant with memory capabilities.' # MCP Servers (optional) mcpServers: filesystem: type: stdio command: npx args: ['-y', '@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem', '.']

• Multiple Operation Modes: CLI interactive, one-shot commands, REST API server, MCP server
• Session Management: Create, switch, and manage multiple conversation sessions
• Memory Integration: Persistent memory that learns from every interaction
• MCP Protocol Support: Full Model Context Protocol integration for tools and resources
• Multi-LLM Support: OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, and Ollama compatibility
• Knowledge Graph: Structured memory with entity relationships (Neo4j, in-memory)
• Real-time Learning: Memory layers that improve automatically with usage

Cipher supports multiple LLM providers:

llm: provider: openai model: gpt-4-turbo apiKey: $OPENAI_API_KEY

llm: provider: anthropic model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022 apiKey: $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

llm: provider: openrouter model: openai/gpt-4-turbo # Any OpenRouter model apiKey: $OPENROUTER_API_KEY

llm: provider: ollama model: qwen2.5:32b # Recommended for best performance baseURL: $OLLAMA_BASE_URL

# Basic usage cipher # Interactive CLI mode cipher "Your prompt here" # One-shot mode # Server modes cipher --mode api # REST API server cipher --mode mcp # MCP server # Configuration cipher --agent /path/to/config.yml # Custom config cipher --strict # Strict MCP connections cipher --new-session [id] # Start with new session # CLI commands /session list # List sessions /session new [id] # Create session /session switch <id> # Switch session /config # Show config /stats # Show statistics /help # Show help

Cipher can run as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, allowing integration with MCP-compatible clients like Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and other AI coding assistants.

To use Cipher as an MCP server in your MCP client configuration:

{ "mcpServers": { "cipher": { "type": "stdio", "command": "cipher", "args": ["--mode", "mcp"], "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your_openai_api_key", "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "your_anthropic_api_key"	}	}	} }

Add to your Claude Desktop MCP configuration file:

{ "mcpServers": { "cipher": { "type": "stdio", "command": "cipher", "args": ["--mode", "mcp"], "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-openai-key", "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-your-anthropic-key"	}	}	} }

The MCP server requires at least one LLM provider API key:

# Required (at least one) OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key # Always required for embedding ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_openrouter_api_key # Optional OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1 CIPHER_LOG_LEVEL=info NODE_ENV=production

Cipher now supports a new MCP Aggregator Mode that exposes all available tools (not just ask_cipher) to MCP clients, including all built-in tools for cipher, such as cipher_search_memory and MCP server tools specified in cipher.yml. This is controlled by the MCP_SERVER_MODE environment variable.

• default: Only the ask_cipher tool is available.
• aggregator: All tools (including those from connected MCP servers) are available, with conflict resolution and timeout options.

# Select MCP server mode: 'default' (only ask_cipher) or 'aggregator' (all tools) MCP_SERVER_MODE=aggregator # (Optional) Tool name conflict resolution: 'prefix' (default), 'first-wins', or 'error' AGGREGATOR_CONFLICT_RESOLUTION=prefix # (Optional) Tool execution timeout in milliseconds (default: 60000) AGGREGATOR_TIMEOUT=60000

{ "mcpServers": { "cipher-aggregator": { "type": "stdio", "command": "cipher", "args": ["--mode", "mcp"], "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-openai-key", "MCP_SERVER_MODE": "aggregator", "AGGREGATOR_CONFLICT_RESOLUTION": "prefix", "AGGREGATOR_TIMEOUT": "60000"	}	}	} }

• In aggregator mode, all tools are exposed. Tool name conflicts are resolved according to AGGREGATOR_CONFLICT_RESOLUTION.
• If you want only the ask_cipher tool, set MCP_SERVER_MODE=default or omit the variable.

Cipher now supports SSE (Server-Sent Events) as a transport for MCP server mode, in addition to stdio and http.

To start Cipher in MCP mode with SSE transport:

cipher --mode mcp --mcp-transport-type sse --mcp-port 4000

• --mcp-transport-type sse enables SSE transport.
• --mcp-port 4000 sets the port (default: 3000).

{ "mcpServers": { "cipher-sse": { "type": "sse", "url": "http://localhost:4000/mcp", "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-openai-key"	}	}	} }

• Set "type": "sse" and provide the "url" to the running Cipher SSE server.

Cipher integrates seamlessly with Claude Code through MCP, providing persistent memory that enhances your coding experience. Here's how it works:

Every interaction with Claude Code can be automatically stored in Cipher's dual memory system, capturing both programming concepts and reasoning patterns to improve future assistance.

When you ask Claude Code to recall previous conversations, Cipher's memory layer instantly retrieves relevant context, allowing you to continue where you left off without losing important details.

Click the image above to watch a short demo of Claude Code using Cipher as an MCP server.

For detailed configuration instructions, see the CLI Coding Agents guide.

For detailed documentation, visit:

• Quick Start Guide
• Configuration Guide
• Complete Documentation

We welcome contributions! Refer to our Contributing Guide for more details.

cipher is the opensource version of the agentic memory of byterover which is built and maintained by the byterover team.

• Join our Discord to share projects, ask questions, or just say hi!
• If you enjoy cipher, please give us a ⭐ on GitHub—it helps a lot!
• Follow @kevinnguyendn on X

Thanks to all these amazing people for contributing to cipher!

Contributors

Elastic License 2.0. See LICENSE for full terms.