Hypabase Memory

Persistent memory for agents. Stores preferences, decisions, facts, and events as a connected knowledge graph. Recalled by who, what, when, or why.

Persistent memory for agents. Stores preferences, decisions, facts, and events as a connected knowledge graph. Recalled by who, what, when, or why.

Setup

Add the MCP server to your OpenClaw config (~/.openclaw/openclaw.json):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hypabase-memory": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "hypabase", "hypabase-memory"],
      "env": { "HYPABASE_DB_PATH": "hypabase.db" }
    }
  }
}

uvx handles all Python dependencies automatically. Requires uv.

Quick start

Store a memory — one verb, roles for the participants:

text

remember(penman='(prefers :subject Alice :object Python :memory_type semantic)')

Recall it:

text

recall(entity="Alice")                              # everything about Alice
recall(entity="Alice", action="assign", role="subject")  # what Alice assigned
recall(entity=["Alice", "Bob"])                     # memories involving both
recall(mood="planned")                              # all plans

When to Remember

Store a memory when the user:

• Makes a decision or states a preference
• Shares a fact about themselves, their team, or a project
• Assigns a task or delegates work
• Describes an event, meeting, or outcome
• Explains a procedure or workflow

PENMAN Notation

Every memory is a verb with participants in role slots:

text

(verb :role "entity" :role "entity" ...)

Examples:

text

(prefers :subject Alice :object Python :memory_type semantic)

(assigned :subject Alice :object "billing task" :recipient Bob
 :instrument Jira :locus Monday :tense past :memory_type episodic)

(has :subject "quick sort" :attribute "time complexity"
 :value "O(n log n)" :memory_type semantic)

Multiple atoms in a single call:

text

(deployed :subject Alice :object API :locus Monday :tense past)
(reviewed :subject Bob :object API :locus Tuesday :tense past)

One action per memory. When a sentence contains multiple actions, decompose into separate atoms. Shared entities link them in the graph.

"Alice told Bob to migrate the database":

text

(told :subject Alice :recipient Bob :object "database migration" :tense past)
(migrate :subject Bob :object database :mood planned)

Any role slot can hold a nested atom:

text

(believes :subject Alice :object (is :subject deadline :value Friday))

Entity Naming

Same string after lowercasing = same entity. Different strings = different entities until consolidate() merges them.

• Pick one canonical name per entity and reuse it.
• Use full descriptive names: "machine learning" not "ML", "JavaScript" not "JS".
• Call consolidate() periodically to merge similar names via semantic similarity.

Tools

remember(penman, source?, confidence?)

Store memories as PENMAN atoms.

• penman (required): One or more PENMAN atoms.
• source (optional): Provenance source. Default: "memory".
• confidence (optional): 0.0–1.0. Default: 1.0.

recall(entity?, action?, role?, memory_type?, mood?, negated?, since?, before?, limit?, min_strength?)

Query memories. At least one parameter required.

• entity: Name or list of names.
• action: Filter by verb.
• role: Filter by role (subject/object/instrument/recipient/source/locus/attribute/value).
• memory_type: episodic / semantic / procedural.
• mood: actual / planned / uncertain / normative / conditional.
• negated: true = only negated, false = only positive.
• since / before: ISO date strings.
• limit: Max results (default: 10).
• min_strength: Minimum memory strength threshold.

consolidate(entity?)

Merge similar entities and compress repeated memories.

forget(older_than_days?, min_strength?, entity?)

Expire old or low-strength memories (soft delete).

Reference

Roles

Eight roles. Fill in what applies, skip what doesn't.

PENMAN role	Recall role	Meaning	Example
:subject	subject	Who or what it's about	Alice
:object	object	What is acted on	the proposal
:instrument	instrument	Tool, method, or means	Slack
:recipient	recipient	Who receives or benefits	Bob
:origin	source	Where it came from	the old system
:locus	locus	Where, when, or context	sprint review
:attribute	attribute	A named property	time complexity
:value	value	The specific value	O(n log n)

Memory types

Type	Use for	Decay rate
episodic	Events, meetings, conversations	Fast
semantic	Facts, preferences, definitions	Slow
procedural	How-to, workflows, processes	Slowest

Moods

Mood	When to use
actual	Something that happened or is true (default)
planned	Something intended to happen
uncertain	Something that might be true
normative	Something that should or shouldn't be
conditional	Something that depends on a condition

Modifiers

Modifier	Values	Default
:tense	past, present, future	--
:negated	true, false	false
:importance	0.0 to 1.0	--
:cause	Nested atom: why it happened	--
:purpose	Nested atom: what for	--
:condition	Nested atom: if/when/unless	--

Environment variables

• HYPABASE_DB_PATH -- SQLite database path (default: hypabase.db)
• HYPABASE_EMBEDDER -- Embedder for semantic search:
  • fastembed (default) -- BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 via ONNX
  • openai -- text-embedding-3-small (requires OPENAI_API_KEY)
  • sentence-transformers -- all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • none -- disable embeddings