Celiums Memory

A complete cognitive memory engine. Apache-2.0. All of it.

Celiums Memory is an engine, not an app — no UI, no dashboard to log into. It is the memory, journaling, ethics and knowledge substrate you embed inside other software: agents, assistants, tools, pipelines. It speaks MCP (Model Context Protocol) so any compatible client (Claude Code, Cursor, Continue, Cline, OpenCode, or your own) gets persistent memory, a first-person journal, an auditable ethics engine, and a per-user biological clock — without you building any of it.

It is open source under Apache-2.0 in full: no open-core split, no paid tier, no proprietary core held back. The Ethics Engine — every layer — is open and auditable. Its ethics_knowledge corpus is distributed separately as a v2.0.0 release asset (not in the git tree); the engine runs on Layers A+B without it, and Layer K (precedent) abstains cleanly when the corpus is absent.

A fuller statement of intent: MANIFESTO.md.

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How it works

Every request — whether over MCP or HTTP — flows through the same path:

MCP client / HTTP caller
        │
        ▼
auto-bootstrap   →  prepends <session_context> on the first call so a
        │            fresh client starts with memory already loaded
        ▼
RBAC + AAL + Ethics  →  three orthogonal checks; all must pass before
        │                an irreversible or content-bearing op runs
        ▼
MCP dispatcher (61 typed tools)
        │
        ├─►  Storage adapter   — SQLite | Postgres+Qdrant+Valkey
        └─►  LLM provider       — Ollama/OpenAI/Anthropic/… (BYO key)

The pieces:

• Memory — remember / recall with hybrid retrieval (vector + full-text + affective/PAD resonance), importance scoring, consolidation, lifecycle decay, and circadian/interoceptive modulation.
• Journal — append-only, hash-chained, first-person agent journal: causal chains, arcs, introspection, dialogue, chain verification.
• Ethics Engine — a 4-layer evaluator (A deterministic lexicon · B probabilistic CVaR with a categorical CBRN hard-block · C philosophical scaffold · K precedent advisory). Fully open, corpus included — the component that makes moral calls is the one that least deserves to be hidden.
• Biological clock — per-user circadian rhythm modulates arousal and recall; the engine has a sense of time and state.
• Knowledge — forage does hybrid search over the skills/knowledge you bring (BYO; via the skills table). The large curated module corpus is a separate Celiums project — forage runs without it.
• Storage adapters — SQLite (local/embedded) or Postgres + Qdrant + Valkey (clustered), same engine code, config-only switch.
• Sync modes — local-only, zero-knowledge (encrypted, server sees ciphertext), or cloud-managed. Chosen consciously at install.

Full detail — trust boundaries, RLS multi-tenancy, AAL tiers, the Ethics layers, observability — is in ARCHITECTURE.md.

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Quick start

Option A — Docker Compose (Postgres + Qdrant + Valkey)

git clone https://github.com/terrizoaguimor/celiums-memory.git
cd celiums-memory
cp .env.example .env          # set POSTGRES_PASSWORD at minimum
pnpm docker:up                # builds the image, starts the stack
curl localhost:3210/health    # → ok, once ready

The MCP/HTTP server listens on :3210. CELIUMS_API_KEY is auto-generated on first run if you don't set one — check the container logs (pnpm docker:logs).

Option B — Local, SQLite, no Docker

git clone https://github.com/terrizoaguimor/celiums-memory.git
cd celiums-memory
pnpm install
pnpm build
SQLITE_PATH=./celiums.db pnpm start    # MCP/HTTP server on :3210

SQLite mode needs no external services — good for local/embedded use and trying the engine out.

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Connect an MCP client

Point any MCP client at the HTTP endpoint with the API key. Example for Claude Code / Cursor-style config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "celiums-memory": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3210/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer cmk_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

From then on the client can call remember, recall, journal_write, forage, ethics_trace, and the rest — and auto-bootstrap loads prior context into the first response automatically.

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Configuration

Set via .env (Docker) or environment (local). The essentials:

Var	What
PORT	HTTP/MCP port (default 3210)
DATABASE_URL	Postgres DSN — enables the Postgres+Qdrant adapter
SQLITE_PATH	use SQLite single-file mode instead of Postgres
QDRANT_URL / VALKEY_URL	vector + cache backends (Postgres mode)
CELIUMS_API_KEY	auth bearer; auto-generated on first run if unset
PERSONALITY	engine personality profile (default celiums)
CELIUMS_LLM_API_KEY / _BASE_URL / _MODEL	BYO LLM for AI-backed tools (any OpenAI-compatible provider, Ollama, Anthropic, …)
KNOWLEDGE_API_URL / _KEY	optional BYO knowledge backend for forage

.env.example documents the full set including onboarding and zero-knowledge encryption options.

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Ethics knowledge corpus (Layer K — optional)

The Ethics Engine runs on Layers A + B with zero setup. Layer K (precedent advisory) consults an ethics_knowledge corpus that is not in the git tree — it ships as a v2.0.0 release asset (ethics_knowledge.jsonl, ~31 MB, embeddings precomputed). To enable Layer K, point OPENSEARCH_URL at your OpenSearch and load it:

OPENSEARCH_URL="https://user:pass@your-opensearch:25060" pnpm ethics:load

The loader downloads the release asset, verifies its SHA-256, creates the index with the exact mapping, and bulk-indexes it (idempotent — re-runnable; --force recreates, --dry-run validates without writing). Until then Layer K abstains cleanly; A + B are unaffected.

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The MCP tool surface (61 tools)

Family	Examples	Purpose
Memory / OpenCore	recall, remember, forage, sense, synthesize	Memory + knowledge primitives
Journal	journal_write, journal_recall, journal_arc, journal_verify_chain	Hash-chained first-person journal
Ethics	ethics_lookup, ethics_audit, ethics_trace	Lookup, ad-hoc audit, traced evaluation
Atlas (optional)	atlas_ask, atlas_classify, bloom, cultivate	Model routing + cognitive primitives
Research	research_project_*, research_search, research_export	Long-running research workflows
Write	write_project_*, write_scene_*, write_continuity_check	Long-form creative continuity
Proactive	turn_context, turn_after, compact_checkpoint	Per-turn context composition

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Development

pnpm install
pnpm build         # turbo: builds packages in dependency order
pnpm typecheck     # workspace-wide
pnpm test          # vitest

The deployable is packages/core (@celiums/memory); the other workspace packages are its peers/deps. docker/Dockerfile builds the same thing the staging image does.

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Integrating

The engine is built to live inside your stack and is consumed over MCP or HTTP. Thin integration adapters (LangChain, LlamaIndex, REST, CLI) are being rebuilt against the current engine API under packages/.

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License & support

Apache-2.0 — every line of source is public, including the full Ethics Engine. Its ethics_knowledge corpus ships as a release asset (see Releases), not in the git tree. See LICENSE and TRADEMARKS.md.

If Celiums Memory is useful to you, you can sponsor its development. It is built — in the open, going its own way in peace — by Celiums Solutions LLC.