Cursor IDE

Cursor IDE supports two AutoMem integration modes:

• Plugin mode (default via the guided installer) — copies the AutoMem plugin into ~/.cursor/plugins/local/automem. Cursor’s native plugin system bundles the MCP server, a Cursor-native sessionStart recall hook, and the always-on rule. Configuration is done through Cursor’s UI rather than mcp.json.
• Files mode (via npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor) — the classic three-component approach: MCP server config (~/.cursor/mcp.json), rule file (.cursor/rules/automem.mdc), and session-start hook (.cursor/hooks/automem-session-start.mjs + .cursor/hooks.json).

Memory storage remains model-judged in both modes — hooks never write memories themselves.

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Installation

Method 1: Guided Installer — Plugin Mode (Recommended)

The guided installer defaults to --cursor-mode plugin, which copies the bundled AutoMem plugin into ~/.cursor/plugins/local/automem:

npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem install

Select Cursor when the agent picker appears. The installer copies the plugin (MCP server, Cursor-native sessionStart recall hook, and always-on rule) from plugins/automem/. Re-running the installer replaces the plugin with the current release. The installer refuses to replace a symlink at that path, or a directory there that is not the AutoMem plugin.

After installation, fully restart Cursor, then open Customize → Automem → Configure and enter your AutoMem REST API URL and API key. The URL must be the AutoMem backend base URL (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:8001), not the remote MCP /mcp path.

The plugin exposes five tools: recall_memory, store_memory, associate_memories, update_memory, and check_database_health. delete_memory is excluded from the plugin’s default tool list.

Avoiding double-registration

If the installer finds a file-mode install alongside the plugin (an AutoMem entry in ~/.cursor/mcp.json or the marked .cursor/rules/automem.mdc), it offers to remove the file install to avoid loading AutoMem twice. In a --yes run it prints a warning with the uninstall command instead. Remove a project-level .cursor/mcp.json AutoMem entry by hand — no installer writes it.

Method 2: Guided Installer — Files Mode

Pass --cursor-mode files to use the classic file-based approach instead:

npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem install --cursor-mode files

This writes the same files as the standalone cursor command (see below). If the AutoMem plugin is already installed, an interactive run offers to remove it; a --yes run leaves it and warns.

Method 3: Standalone CLI Installer — Files Mode

The cursor command installs all three file-mode components directly for the current project:

# Install with auto-detected project name
npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor

# Specify project name manually
npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor --name my-project

# Preview changes without writing
npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor --dry-run

# Skip interactive prompts (for CI)
npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor --yes

CLI options:

Flag	Description	Default
--name <project>	Project name for memory tags	Auto-detected from package.json, git remote, or directory name
--dir <path>	Custom target directory for the rule file	.cursor/rules
--endpoint <url>	AutoMem service URL	From env, existing config, or default local URL
--api-key <key>	AutoMem API key	From env or existing config
--dry-run	Preview changes without writing files	Off
--yes / -y	Skip interactive prompts	Off
--quiet	Suppress output	Off

The installer:

1. Detects project name from package.json, git remote, or directory name
2. Checks version of any existing .mdc file and prompts for update if a newer version is available
3. Detects your MCP server name from ~/.cursor/mcp.json (looks for memory, automem, or any server with AutoMem signatures) and uses memory when it finds none
4. Generates .cursor/rules/automem.mdc with your project name and correct tool prefix
5. Generates .cursor/hooks/automem-session-start.mjs with the two-phase recall context for this project
6. Writes .cursor/hooks.json to register the automem-session-start.mjs script as a Cursor sessionStart hook
7. Writes or updates ~/.cursor/mcp.json with the AutoMem server entry (AUTOMEM_API_URL, AUTOMEM_API_KEY; file is created with 600 permissions to protect credentials)
8. Creates a .bak backup before overwriting any existing file

If it finds an unrelated server entry under the AutoMem server name in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, the installer refuses and prompts you to rename that server first.

Method 4: One-Click Deeplink (MCP server only)

Use Cursor’s deeplink URL scheme to install the MCP server in one click:

cursor://anysphere.cursor-deeplink/mcp/install?name=memory&config=eyJ...

The base64-encoded config contains your endpoint and API key. Find the current deeplink in the AutoMem README.

Note

The deeplink only configures ~/.cursor/mcp.json. You still need to run the CLI installer (Methods 2–3) to add the .mdc rule file and session-start hook.

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MCP Server Configuration

Manually edit or create ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@verygoodplugins/mcp-automem"],
      "env": {
        "AUTOMEM_API_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8001",
        "AUTOMEM_API_KEY": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

For local development (no API key needed):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@verygoodplugins/mcp-automem"],
      "env": {
        "AUTOMEM_API_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8001"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool Naming Convention

Cursor exposes MCP tools with underscore-delimited prefixes: mcp_<server>_<tool>. The server name is sanitized — hyphens become underscores.

Server name in config	Tool prefix	Example tool
memory	mcp_memory_	mcp_memory_recall_memory
auto-mem	mcp_auto_mem_	mcp_auto_mem_recall_memory

The CLI installer detects the server name and generates the .mdc file with the matching prefix. When it builds the prefix, it replaces every character other than an ASCII letter, digit, or underscore with an underscore. If it finds no AutoMem server in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, it falls back to the server name memory, so the rules use mcp_memory_* tool names by default.

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Rule File Structure

After running the installer, .cursor/rules/automem.mdc is created with alwaysApply: true so Cursor applies the rules to all conversations in the project.

Two-Phase Recall and Three Storage Triggers

The rule file prescribes two recalls at the start of a session, followed by three mid-conversation storage triggers. It has no end-of-conversation summary step.

Session start: two recalls, issued in parallel

Preferences and task context are independent recalls, so the rule file has Cursor issue both in a single message. The defaults are limit: 20 for preferences, limit: 30 for task context, and a 90-day task window.

1. Preferences: tags: ["preference"], limit: 20, sort: "updated_desc"
2. Task context: one semantic query built from the proper nouns, product names, people, tools, and specific topics in the user’s message, gated on the project tag unless the name collides with a common topic word (see Tagging Conventions), with time_query: "last 90 days" and limit: 30. The optional language and active_path parameters boost results and do not gate them.

Skip the task-context recall for pure syntax questions, trivial edits, one-off calculations, direct factual queries about current files, and casual openings.

Debug recall is separate and runs only when Cursor is investigating a concrete symptom: the error message or symptom as the query, limit: 20, and no tag gate, because bugfix and solution tagging is incomplete and a hard gate hides fixes stored elsewhere in the corpus. The rule file also says not to re-recall mid-conversation unless the topic shifts, a new proper noun enters, or debugging starts.

When the task-context recall misses:

• Too broad — add a tag gate (a stable category or the unambiguous project slug) and tighten the query to the real nouns
• Empty — drop the time window first, then broaden the query
• Sparse under a tag gate — drop the gate and rely on the semantic query alone, since older memories can use project/<slug> prefixes
• Need graph traversal — use expand_relations: true, adding expand_respect_tags: true only when traversal must stay inside the tag gate

During the conversation: three storage triggers

The rule file stores only durable decisions, corrections, explicit preferences, bug-fix root causes, and articulated reusable patterns. Its mid-conversation triggers are these three, and only these three:

Trigger	Store as	Importance	Then associate with
User correction or override (“actually”, “no, I prefer”, “stop doing X”)	Preference, tag correction, confidence 0.95	0.9	The prior memory, via INVALIDATED_BY
Decision stabilizes after at least one round of discussion (“let’s go with X”, “ship it”)	Decision	0.85–0.9	Alternatives that came up, via PREFERS_OVER
Pattern the user articulated, not one inferred (“I always do X”, “every time”)	Pattern	0.8	Concrete examples, via EXEMPLIFIES

A bug-fix root cause is stored as an Insight (importance 0.75, confidence 0.85) tagged bugfix and solution, then associated with the bug report through LEADS_TO.

Every store follows the same four steps:

1. Recall related memories (limit: 5)
2. Store the memory
3. Recall a distinctive phrase from the content to verify it was saved, and retry the store once if it is missing, because store_memory can silently fail
4. Associate it with the related memory from step 1 when one exists

No end-of-conversation summary

The rule file’s storage discipline says never to store session summaries, progress reports, confirmations, speculative context, or attentiveness notes, and never to store secrets, credentials, tokens, or PII. It has no wrap-up step at the end of the conversation.

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Available MCP Tools

All six AutoMem tools are available via the mcp_memory_* prefix (assuming server named memory):

store_memory — Save memories with structured metadata

• content (required): 150–300 char target, 500 max (auto-summarized), 2000 hard limit
• type (optional): Decision, Pattern, Insight, Preference, Style, Habit, Context
• confidence (optional): 0.0–1.0 (default 0.9 if type provided)
• tags (optional): Array for categorization
• importance (optional): 0.0–1.0 (default 0.5)
• t_valid / t_invalid (optional): ISO 8601 timestamps for when the memory becomes valid and when it expires (single-memory mode only)
• metadata (optional): Custom structured data

recall_memory — Hybrid search

• Basic: query, queries, tags, limit
• Ordering: sort (score, time_desc, time_asc, updated_desc, or updated_asc; use time_* for chronological recaps)
• Time filters: time_query, start, end
• Tag matching: tag_mode (any/all), tag_match (exact/prefix)
• Graph expansion: expand_entities, expand_relations, auto_decompose
• Expansion filters: expand_min_importance, expand_min_strength (v0.8.0+)
• Expansion scope: expand_respect_tags (ranked mode only). When true, graph and entity expansion stays within the original tag scope; when false, expansion may include related context outside the tags
• Context hints: language, active_path, context_types, priority_ids

associate_memories — Create typed relationships between memories

• 11 authorable types: RELATES_TO, LEADS_TO, EVOLVED_INTO, DERIVED_FROM, EXEMPLIFIES, CONTRADICTS, REINFORCES, INVALIDATED_BY, OCCURRED_BEFORE, PART_OF, PREFERS_OVER
• Recall results may also surface system-generated SIMILAR_TO, PRECEDED_BY, and DISCOVERED relations, but those are not valid inputs to associate_memories
• strength: 0.0–1.0 association weight

update_memory — Modify existing memory fields

delete_memory — Remove memory by ID

check_database_health — Verify FalkorDB and Qdrant connections

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Tagging Conventions

Use bare tags only. The rule file says to use automem, not project/automem, and to avoid lang/ prefixes, platform tags (so no cursor tag), and date-stamped tags (so no YYYY-MM). entity:*:* tags are injected by the server.

The rule file treats tags as a hard gate on recall: memories without a matching tag are excluded before scoring. It therefore gates on stable categories and the project name rather than guessed topic tags.

Project-specific memories (code, architecture, decisions):

1. Category tag: a stable category such as preference, bugfix, solution, or correction
2. Project tag: your project name ({{PROJECT_NAME}} in the rule template), detected from package.json, the git remote, or the directory name, or set with --name
3. Language tag: for example typescript or python

["decision", "my-app", "typescript"]

Cross-project memories (preferences, style): the session-start preferences recall is gated on preference alone and is not scoped to a project, so the most recently updated preference-tagged memories (up to 20) surface in any project.

Notes on the rule file’s recall behavior:

• When the project name collides with a common topic word (api, app, test, video), the rule file drops the project tag gate on recall and relies on the semantic query alone
• A language tag is not a gate: at recall time the rule file passes the language as the optional language parameter, which boosts results and does not gate them
• For facts with a shelf life, set t_valid and t_invalid instead of encoding a date in a tag

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Content Size Governance

Limit	Size	Behavior
Target	150–300 chars	Optimal for embedding quality
Soft limit	500 chars	Auto-summarized by backend (requires OPENAI_API_KEY)
Hard limit	2000 chars	Rejected by MCP server

Format: "Brief title. Context and details. Impact/outcome."

If more detail is needed:

• Split into multiple atomic memories
• Use metadata for structured data (files, error signatures)
• Create associations between related memories

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Global User Rules (Optional)

For memory-first behavior across all Cursor projects, add rules to Cursor Settings > General > Rules for AI instead of per-project .mdc files.

Note

Keep global rules thin and cross-project. Use them for a short memory policy baseline only; put operational behavior, tagging conventions, and tool usage patterns in the project-level .cursor/rules/automem.mdc file installed by npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor.

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Error Handling

The rule file prescribes graceful degradation:

• Recall fails or empty — Continue without historical context. Do not announce failure.
• Store fails — Complete the task normally. Memory is an enhancement, not a requirement.
• Service unavailable — Focus on solving the immediate problem.

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Troubleshooting

Tools not available in Cursor

1. Check that ~/.cursor/mcp.json exists and is valid JSON
2. Restart Cursor after editing mcp.json
3. Verify the server name in mcp.json matches the prefix in .cursor/rules/automem.mdc
4. Run npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor again to regenerate the rule file with the detected server name

Rule file not updating

The installer creates a backup at automem.mdc.bak before overwriting. If you need to force update:

npx @verygoodplugins/mcp-automem cursor --yes

Memory not recalling project context

Ensure memories are tagged with the project name. Check by running a recall query in Cursor:

Recall memories tagged with [your-project-name]

If empty, memories may have been stored without the project tag. Update the .mdc rule file to use the correct project name and re-run the installer.