Explain how claude-mem captures observations, when memory injection kicks in, and where data lives. Use when the user asks "how does claude-mem work?" or "what is this thing doing?".

How claude mem works What it does Every Read, Edit, and Bash that Claude makes turns into a compressed observation. Observations get summarized at session end. Relevant ones get auto injected into future prompts so the next session starts with context from the last one — no re explaining the codebase, no re discovering decisions. When it kicks in Memory injection starts on your second session in a project. The first session in a fresh project seeds memory; subsequent sessions receive auto injected context for relevant past work. Run /learn codebase if you want to front load the entire repo into memory in a single pass (~5 minutes, optional). Where data lives Everything stays in ~/.claude mem on this machine. Nothing leaves your machine except calls to whichever AI provider you configured for compression (Claude / OpenRouter / Gemini). Local installs contact cmem.ai once, at signup, to create the sign in link; nothing else is sent to cmem.ai. The SQLite database, vector index, logs, and settings all live under that directory and are removed cleanly on npx claude mem uninstall .

how-it-works