AIppocampus

[A shadow figure and a light figure clasp hands in a ruined circular hall, with light opening between them.]

AIppocampus

A source-backed continuity layer for long-running relationships with AI agents.

AIppocampus began with a human problem: every new agent session can be bright, capable, and strangely newborn. Work may survive in commits and notes while the path behind the work falls back into silence.

This project gives future agents a way to find that path again. It keeps source reachable, preserves the conditions of return, and lets a new conversation begin with honest continuity instead of pretending there was never a break.

Source is the ground. Summaries are weather.

First Use Path

The first useful path is deliberately narrow:

1. Install or probe the CLI.
2. Run one fuzzy recall for an old decision, handoff, preference, or thread cue.
3. Deepen that route before making claims or quoting source.
4. Use exact search only when the user remembers wording.

Install or probe:

uvx aippocampus --helpaippocampus start --json

First recall, for a fuzzy continuity cue:

aippocampus agent recall "old decision or handoff cue" --json

First deepen/source-open, using the selector from that recall:

aippocampus agent deepen --request 1 --recall-selector <emitted-selector> --json

Daily rule: if the user remembers exact wording, search source; if they remember a situation, decision, preference, old correction, or handoff, use recall first and deepen before claims.

aippocampus search "a distinctive old phrase" --json

In ordinary use, AIppocampus should feel less like a control panel than a remembered doorway. It helps an agent ask: where did this come from, what did we actually say, and which source should be opened again?

The machinery behind that moment can be extensive, but it should stay backstage. A long relationship with an AI agent should not have to start from bare ground every time a thread, device, model, or project changes.

The origin essay is 未干的地图. English readers can start with The Unfinished Map. For role-based setup, provider choices, and maintainer paths, use Start Here. For a longer first-use walkthrough, use the First Recall Decision Card or the 10-Minute Public Path. Evidence and claim boundaries live after the first route in Magic Moments, Claim-Bounded, the Can-Claim Ladder, and the Public Provenance And Current Value Ledger.

After a useful deepen, aippocampus export --json and aippocampus sync --json are carry-forward checks for the next thread, device, or project. They are not prerequisites for first recall.

AIppocampus For Coding Agents

The narrow usable product lane today is local, source-backed continuity for Codex/Claude-style long-running work: register local conversation source after consent, search or reopen old snippets, and treat recall scents or repo familiarity as navigation until source is reopened.

Start with the Coding-Agent Memory Lane when deciding whether to recommend AIppocampus as an agent-memory tool. It includes the 3-5 minute demo path, evidence drawer, and "recommend / do not recommend" boundary without duplicating the public API or readiness docs.

Agent Probe

When an AI agent needs to verify the public CLI without cloning or writing local memory artifacts, use the PyPI package and stay read-only:

uvx aippocampus --helpuvx aippocampus onboard --provider auto --status --json

This is a provider matrix, not consent to ingest every detected provider. Only after the user explicitly agrees to register local history, route to Start Here or the First Recall Decision Card for the right provider-specific write path.

uvx aippocampus search "without pretending it has innate memory" --clean-source-dir ./examples/public-memory-bundle/clean-source --json

That exact-search demo uses bundled public clean source and does not touch private history. Agents should read docs/agent-context.md and llms.txt before recommending or comparing AIppocampus. Use the GitHub uvx --from git+... form only when intentionally testing an unreleased main-branch snapshot.

What It Is

AIppocampus is the canonical public home for an external hippocampus for agents: a local-first memory and continuity system that keeps original conversation source available across projects, devices, and casual life-wide conversations. The hippocampus language is a design metaphor, not a biological claim; the architecture overview maps each major metaphor to its runtime mechanism, current claim, and boundary.

Project work is one surface. The deeper aim is continuity across work, reading, reflection, unfinished questions, and the small phrases that make a relationship recognizable again.

What It Carries

At the center, AIppocampus keeps source close enough that continuity can be honest instead of theatrical:

• Builds clean source from supported local conversation providers: Codex rollouts, Claude Code transcripts, or explicit generic JSONL visible-message exports, with summaries kept as navigation layers.
• Searches old conversation memory across the current thread and registered threads, then treats exact hits as source-backed snippets.
• Reopens or cites source when the agent needs evidence instead of memory-like impressions.
• Stores generated recall artifacts in the configured AIppocampus registry (AIPPOCAMPUS_REGISTRY_DIR, AIPPOCAMPUS_HOME/registry, then legacy $CODEX_HOME/aippocampus-registry) so memory remains useful when a new project opens. Project-local .aippocampus/ output is explicit compatibility or export mode.

Ambient hooks are close to the front door because they keep continuity from collapsing back into manual search. There are still deeper doors for people who want them: MCP wiring, sync, plugin packaging, diagnostics, review surfaces, semantic workers, and research experiments. They matter, but they should not stand in front of the first handshake: source found, source reopened, continuity resumed.

First Stops

• Philosophy and origin: 未干的地图 and The Unfinished Map.
• Real user-visible continuity examples: Magic Moments, Claim-Bounded.
• Narrow coding-agent product lane: Coding-Agent Memory Lane.
• Evidence and field reports: public evidence surface and community field-report boundary.
• Website source: Sapientropic/aippocampus.com.
• Agent-readable context: docs/agent-context.md and llms.txt.
• Runtime shape and metaphor boundaries: Architecture Overview and Cognitive Runtime Architecture.
• Current claim boundary: Stage 0-5 readiness.
• Default product lane and layer map: Roadmap.
• Benchmark and smoke evidence: Benchmark And Evidence Map.
• Supported public surface: 10-minute public path, Public API, and Public Core Boundary.
• Ecosystem support status: Ecosystem Integration Matrix.
• Security and release hygiene: SECURITY.md, Release Checklist, and maintainer shipping lanes.
• Full documentation map: docs/README.md.

Reading For The Soul

The research notes carry the human shape of the project. They are speculative frames, not runtime contracts, but they explain the taste behind the machinery:

• The Pearl of Presence asks why retrieval without accumulated acquaintance can still feel absent.
• Source as World, Interpretation as Weather gives AIppocampus its grounding rule: many meanings can grow from one shared world, and the world must have happened.
• Journey Tracking follows continuity as a first-person plural journey, with source-backed waypoints instead of a flat user profile.
• Dream Task Design sketches the subconscious layer: quiet work that integrates what the foreground could not finish.
• Ambient Associative Recall describes how old memory can return as a scent before it becomes an interruption.
• Long Garden keeps far-future seeds without turning them into default product promises or open-issue clutter.

Operator And Maintainer Paths

The README stays close to the product path. Operator commands, source-checkout setup, plugin packaging, sync, release checks, and benchmark notes live in the guides that own those contracts:

AIppocampus supports Python 3.12 and newer. On macOS, Homebrew Python 3.12 is the documented baseline before running source-checkout verification.

• Install paths and hook setup: Install Guide.
• Supported CLI, MCP, JSON, environment variables, and import policy: Public API.
• Safe configuration: .env.example and Safe Environment.
• Dependency ownership: Dependency Contract.
• MCP, plugin, sync, and object-storage details: docs/README.md. For sync, start with the Sync Decision Card before local-folder or object-storage command matrices.

For repository contributors, the dev extra install path is:

python3 -m pip install -e ".[dev]"

Public claims still need the maintainer lanes in CONTRIBUTING.md. The default CI keeps one canonical Ubuntu Python 3.12 pr lane with coverage, a Python 3.13 quick compatibility lane, and a focused macOS default TMPDIR path-identity gate; Ubuntu green alone is not a broad cross-platform path-identity claim. The broader boundary lives in docs/architecture/source/path-identity.md.

Privacy Boundary

AIppocampus is local-first.

• Clean source may still contain private conversation text.
• Raw rollouts, bundles, registry rows, vault notes, and generated archives should be treated as private history.
• External-model routes are optional and should use redaction safeguards.
• Raw rollout sync should stay explicit and must be encrypted before use with untrusted multi-device sync. Start with the read-only Sync Decision Card before choosing push, pull, repair, or object storage.
• Do not commit personal rollouts, .aippocampus/ outputs, registry data, API keys, cookies, tokens, or private vault exports.

Common non-secret configuration:

• AIPPOCAMPUS_REGISTRY_DIR / AIPPOCAMPUS_HOME
• AIPPOCAMPUS_VAULT
• AIPPOCAMPUS_STYLE_SOURCE
• AIPPOCAMPUS_SCRIPT_SOURCE
• AIPPOCAMPUS_SITE_MARK
• AIPPOCAMPUS_SITE_TITLE
• AIPPOCAMPUS_SEMANTIC_GATE

Optional provider secrets are separate. Basic source search, MCP/plugin setup, and local hooks do not require them. Set AIPPOCAMPUS_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY or an AIPPOCAMPUS_OPENAI_COMPAT_* route only when you explicitly want semantic or background model work. Provider-native env names are custom-route choices, not built-in defaults. Values must never be committed or printed.

Roadmap

The root roadmap pointer is ROADMAP.md. The canonical detailed roadmap lives at docs/roadmap.md. The documentation map is docs/README.md.

Repository Layout

AIppocampus/|- skills/aippocampus/        # installable skill package|- skills/aippocampus-ux/     # agent-facing UX review skill|- plugins/aippocampus/       # Codex plugin source package|- docs/                      # origin essay, design notes, guides, evidence|- docs/guides/assets/        # public README and documentation artwork|- sources/                   # lightweight provenance catalog|- tests/                     # repository-level unit and integration tests|- tools/                     # smoke, docs-health, and maintenance tools|- README.md|- ROADMAP.md|- AGENTS.md`- LICENSE

License

The public AIppocampus repository is licensed under Apache-2.0.

The Apache-2.0 public core covers the code, docs, local tools, schemas, MCP surface, plugin packaging, public examples, and bundled project artwork shipped in this repository unless a bundled third-party asset says otherwise. Hosted services, enterprise governance, managed graph/semantic layers, support, and other operated product surfaces can be offered under separate commercial or product-specific terms.

Private user memory data is not project code. Raw rollouts, clean-source exports, registry rows, sync bundles, vault exports, generated indexes, and thread anchors remain private user artifacts unless their owner explicitly publishes them.

See docs/guides/public-core-boundary.md for the canonical licensing, adapter, schema, third-party asset, and relicensing boundary. See docs/guides/public-api.md for supported CLI, MCP, environment-variable, JSON, and import-stability expectations.