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name: how-it-works description: 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.