Every session leaves a handoff
When a session stops, claude-mem produces a semantic summary. It is not a transcript. It is the compact handoff another capable worker would want: the request, completed work, discoveries, decisions, and remaining direction.
The first session in a project seeds memory. Automatic memory injection begins with the second session, once there is something useful to bring back.
Time gives memory its shape
Each observation keeps its project and temporal context. That matters because a decision from this morning and a discarded experiment from six months ago should not carry the same weight.
At session start, claude-mem injects a compact index of recent work. Dates, types, titles, and IDs give the new agent orientation without pretending every old detail is still current.
Local first, cloud when invited
The memory system works on your machine. Its SQLite database, vector index, settings, and logs remain under ~/.claude-mem. Only the AI provider chosen for compression receives the material it needs to process.
CMEM Pro is an optional transport layer. It can mirror that memory so agents on other machines reach the same history through one private MCP connection. The local worker remains the source of capture, and network trouble does not block local work.