Memory Journal MCP Server

Last Updated November 26, 2025 - Production/Stable v2.1.0

Project context management for AI-assisted development - Bridge the gap between fragmented AI threads with persistent knowledge graphs and intelligent context recall

🎯 Solve the AI Context Problem: When working with AI across multiple threads and sessions, context is lost. Memory Journal maintains a persistent, searchable record of your project work, decisions, and progress - making every AI conversation informed by your complete project history.

🚀 Quick Deploy:

PyPI Package - pip install memory-journal-mcp
Docker Hub - Alpine-based (225MB) with full semantic search
MCP Registry - Discoverable by MCP clients

📚 Full Documentation: GitHub Wiki

📰 Read the v2.1.0 Release Article - Learn about knowledge graphs, performance optimizations, and relationship mapping

🎯 Why Memory Journal?

The Fragmented AI Context Problem

When managing large projects with AI assistance, you face a critical challenge:

Thread Amnesia - Each new AI conversation starts from zero, unaware of previous work
Lost Context - Decisions, implementations, and learnings scattered across disconnected threads
Repeated Work - AI suggests solutions you've already tried or abandoned
Context Overload - Manually copying project history into every new conversation is tedious and incomplete

The Solution: Persistent Project Memory

Memory Journal acts as your project's long-term memory, bridging the gap between fragmented AI threads:

For Developers:

📝 Automatic Context Capture - Git commits, branches, GitHub issues, PRs, and project state captured with every entry
🔗 Knowledge Graph - Link related work (specs → implementations → tests → PRs) to build a connected history
🔍 Intelligent Search - Find past decisions, solutions, and context across your entire project timeline
📊 Project Analytics - Track progress from issues through PRs, generate reports for standups/retrospectives/code reviews

For Project Managers:

👥 Team Context Continuity - Maintain shared project memory across team members and time
📈 Progress Tracking - Monitor milestones, velocity, and cross-project insights from issues to PRs
🎯 Status Reporting - Generate comprehensive project summaries with PR metrics and timelines
🔄 GitHub Integration - Connect entries with Projects, Issues, and Pull Requests for unified tracking

For AI-Assisted Work:

💡 AI can query your complete project history in any conversation
🧠 Semantic search finds conceptually related work, even without exact keywords
📖 Context bundles provide AI with comprehensive project state instantly
🔗 Relationship visualization shows how different pieces of work connect

Real-World Example

Without Memory Journal:
Thread 1: "Help me design the authentication system"
Thread 2 (next day): "How should I implement user sessions?"  
         AI: *suggests approach you already decided against*
Thread 3 (next week): "What was our decision about JWT tokens?"
         AI: *no memory of previous threads*

With Memory Journal:
Thread 1: Work captured → "Decided on JWT with refresh tokens"
Thread 2: AI queries history → "I see you decided on JWT. Let's implement refresh token rotation..."
Thread 3: AI finds related entries → "Based on your design from Oct 15, here's the implementation..."

✨ What's New in v2.1.0 (November 26, 2025)

🎉 Complete GitHub Actions Integration

GitHub Actions Resources - 5 new MCP resources for CI/CD visibility
Actions Visual Graph - memory://graph/actions - CI/CD narrative with Mermaid diagrams
Failure Digest Prompt - actions-failure-digest - Comprehensive failure analysis with root cause identification
Workflow Run Linking - Link journal entries to specific workflow runs

🔍 GitHub Issues & Pull Requests Integration

GitHub Issues - Auto-fetch, link entries, detect from branch names
GitHub Pull Requests - Auto-detect current PR, track lifecycle, link entries
3 PR Workflow Prompts - pr-summary, code-review-prep, pr-retrospective
3 New Resources - Issue/PR entries, PR timelines

✅ True Pyright Strict Type Compliance

700+ type issues fixed - Complete strict mode compliance
All exclusions removed - Zero compromises on type safety
Better IDE support - Enhanced autocomplete and error detection

Current Capabilities

16 MCP tools - Complete development workflow
14 workflow prompts - Standups, retrospectives, PR workflows, CI/CD failure analysis
13 MCP resources - Recent entries, graphs, project/issue/PR timelines, GitHub Actions
GitHub Integration - Projects, Issues, Pull Requests, Actions with auto-linking
Smart caching - 80%+ API reduction (15min issues, 5min PRs/workflows, 1hr projects)
Knowledge graphs - 5 relationship types, Mermaid visualization
10x faster startup - Lazy ML loading (14s → 2-3s)

Complete CHANGELOG → | Architecture Details →

🎯 Workflow Prompts (14 Total)

find-related - Discover connected entries via semantic similarity
prepare-standup - Daily standup summaries
prepare-retro - Sprint retrospectives
weekly-digest - Day-by-day weekly summaries
analyze-period - Deep period analysis with insights
goal-tracker - Milestone and achievement tracking
get-context-bundle - Project context with Git/GitHub
get-recent-entries - Formatted recent entries
project-status-summary - GitHub Project status reports
project-milestone-tracker - Milestone progress tracking
pr-summary - Pull request journal activity summary
code-review-prep - Comprehensive PR review preparation
pr-retrospective - Completed PR analysis with learnings
actions-failure-digest - NEW CI/CD failure analysis with root cause identification

📡 Resources (13 Total)

MCP Server Identifier: user-memory-journal-mcp (when using recommended config name; Cursor prefixes your config key with user-)

memory://recent - 10 most recent entries
memory://significant - Significant milestones and breakthroughs
memory://graph/recent - Live Mermaid diagram of recent relationships
memory://team/recent - Recent team-shared entries
memory://projects/{number}/timeline - Project activity timeline
memory://issues/{issue_number}/entries - All entries linked to a specific issue
memory://prs/{pr_number}/entries - All entries linked to a specific pull request
memory://prs/{pr_number}/timeline - Combined PR + journal timeline

GitHub Actions Resources:

memory://graph/actions - CI/CD narrative graph: commits → runs → failures → entries → fixes → deployments
memory://actions/recent - Recent workflow runs with CI status (supports ?branch=X&workflow=Y&commit=SHA&pr=N&limit=10)
memory://actions/workflows/{name}/timeline - Workflow-specific timeline blending runs, journals, PRs
memory://actions/branches/{branch}/timeline - Branch CI timeline with PR lifecycle
memory://actions/commits/{sha}/timeline - Commit-specific CI timeline

🗄️ Database Improvements

Automatic schema migrations (seamless v1.0 → v1.1 upgrades)
Soft delete support with deleted_at column
New relationships table with cascading deletes
Enhanced indexes for optimal query performance

🚀 Quick Start

Option 1: PyPI (Fastest - 30 seconds)

Step 1: Install the package

pip install memory-journal-mcp

Step 2: Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory-journal-mcp": {
      "command": "memory-journal-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Step 3: Restart Cursor

Restart Cursor or your MCP client, then start journaling!

Option 2: Docker (Full Features - 2 minutes)

Step 1: Pull the Docker image

docker pull writenotenow/memory-journal-mcp:latest

Step 2: Create data directory

mkdir data

Step 3: Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory-journal-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i", 
        "-v", "./data:/app/data",
        "writenotenow/memory-journal-mcp:latest",
        "python", "src/server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Restart Cursor

Restart Cursor or your MCP client, then start journaling!

⚡ Install to Cursor IDE

One-Click Installation

Click the button below to install directly into Cursor:

Or copy this deep link:

cursor://anysphere.cursor-deeplink/mcp/install?name=Memory%20Journal%20MCP&config=eyJtZW1vcnktam91cm5hbCI6eyJhcmdzIjpbInJ1biIsIi0tcm0iLCItaSIsIi12IiwiLi9kYXRhOi9hcHAvZGF0YSIsIndyaXRlbm90ZW5vdy9tZW1vcnktam91cm5hbC1tY3A6bGF0ZXN0IiwicHl0aG9uIiwic3JjL3NlcnZlci5weSJdLCJjb21tYW5kIjoiZG9ja2VyIn19

Prerequisites

✅ Docker installed and running
✅ ~500MB disk space for data directory

Configuration

After installation, Cursor will use this Docker-based configuration. If you prefer manual setup, add this to your ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "memory-journal": {
    "command": "docker",
    "args": [
      "run", "--rm", "-i",
      "-v", "./data:/app/data",
      "writenotenow/memory-journal-mcp:latest",
      "python", "src/server.py"
    ]
  }
}

📖 See Full Installation Guide →

📋 Core Capabilities

🛠️ 16 MCP Tools

Entry CRUD • Triple search (FTS5/semantic/date) • Knowledge graphs • Analytics • Export
Complete tools reference →

🎯 14 Workflow Prompts

Standups • Retrospectives • Weekly digests • PR workflows • Goal tracking
Complete prompts guide →

🔄 Git & GitHub Auto-Context

Every entry captures: repo, branch, commit, issues, PRs, projects (user & org)
Integration details →

🔧 Configuration

Optional GitHub Integration:

export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_token"              # For Projects/Issues/PRs
export GITHUB_ORG_TOKEN="your_org_token"      # Optional: org projects
export DEFAULT_ORG="your-org-name"            # Optional: default org

Scopes: repo, project, read:org (org only) • Fallback: Uses gh CLI if tokens not set
Full configuration guide →

📖 Usage Examples

Create an Entry with GitHub Projects

// Create an entry linked to a GitHub Project
create_entry({
  content: "Completed Phase 1 of GitHub Projects integration - all core features implemented!",
  entry_type: "technical_achievement",
  tags: ["github-projects", "integration", "milestone"],
  project_number: 1,  // Links to GitHub Project #1
  significance_type: "technical_breakthrough"
})
// Context automatically includes GitHub Projects info

// Search entries by project
search_entries({
  project_number: 1,
  limit: 10
})

// Filter by project and date range
search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31",
  project_number: 1
})

Create an Entry with Relationships

// Create a technical achievement
create_entry({
  content: "Implemented lazy loading for ML dependencies - 10x faster startup!",
  entry_type: "technical_achievement",
  tags: ["performance", "optimization", "ml"],
  significance_type: "technical_breakthrough"
})
// Returns: Entry #55

// Link related work
link_entries({
  from_entry_id: 56,  // Testing entry
  to_entry_id: 55,    // Implementation
  relationship_type: "implements"
})

// Visualize the connections
visualize_relationships({
  entry_id: 55,
  depth: 2
})

Search and Analyze

// Full-text search with highlighting
search_entries({ query: "performance optimization", limit: 5 })

// Semantic search for concepts
semantic_search({ query: "startup time improvements", limit: 3 })

// Date range with tags
search_by_date_range({
  start_date: "2025-10-01",
  end_date: "2025-10-31",
  tags: ["performance"]
})

// Get analytics
get_statistics({ group_by: "week" })

Generate Visual Maps

// Visualize entry relationships
visualize_relationships({
  entry_id: 55,  // Root entry
  depth: 2       // 2 hops out
})

// Filter by tags
visualize_relationships({
  tags: ["visualization", "relationships"],
  limit: 20
})

// Listing resources - IMPORTANT: Call with NO parameters first
list_mcp_resources()  // ✅ Returns actual server identifier (e.g., user-memory-journal-mcp)

// Then fetch using exact identifier from list output
fetch_mcp_resource({
  server: "user-memory-journal-mcp",  // Use exact name from list_mcp_resources()
  uri: "memory://graph/recent"
})

// Available resource URIs:
memory://graph/recent  // Most recent 20 entries with relationships
memory://team/recent   // Recent team-shared entries (v2.0.0)

Note: Always call list_mcp_resources() without parameters first. MCP clients like Cursor may prefix your config name (e.g., memory-journal-mcp becomes user-memory-journal-mcp).

Using Workflow Prompts

Ask Cursor's AI naturally:

"Show me my recent journal entries"
"Prepare my standup for today"
"Generate a weekly digest"
"Find entries related to refactoring"

See all 14 prompts → | Complete examples →

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MCP Server Layer (Async/Await)                              │
│  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ Entry Creation  │  │ Triple Search   │  │ Relationship│  │
│  │ with Context    │  │ FTS5/Date/ML    │  │ Mapping     │  │
│  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Thread Pool Execution Layer                                 │
│  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ Git Operations  │  │ Database Ops    │  │ Lazy ML     │  │
│  │ (2s timeout)    │  │ Single Conn     │  │ Loading     │  │
│  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SQLite Database with FTS5 + Relationships                   │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│  │ entries + tags + relationships + embeddings + FTS       ││
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🔧 Technical Highlights

Performance & Security

Python 3.14 - Latest Python with free-threaded support (PEP 779), deferred annotations (PEP 649), and performance optimizations
10x faster startup - Lazy loading of ML dependencies (2-3s vs 14s)
Thread-safe operations - Zero race conditions in tag creation
WAL mode - Better concurrency and crash recovery
Database lock prevention - Single-connection transactions
Aggressive timeouts - Git operations fail-fast (2s per command)
Input validation - Length limits, parameterized queries, SQL injection prevention

Semantic Search (Optional)

Model: all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (384-dimensional embeddings)
Storage: FAISS index for fast similarity search
Graceful degradation: Works perfectly without ML dependencies

Data & Privacy

Local-first: Single SQLite file, you own your data
Portable: Move your .db file anywhere
Secure: No external API calls, non-root Docker containers

📚 Documentation & Resources

GitHub Wiki - Complete documentation
Practical Examples Gists - 7 curated use cases
Docker Hub - Container images
PyPI Package - Python distribution
Issues - Bug reports & feature requests

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

Built by developers, for developers. PRs welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

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