Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop is the recommended way to use Basic Memory. Integration through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) gives Claude direct access to your knowledge base.

Cloud Setup

Local Setup

For local installation, see Quickstart: Local to install Basic Memory and configure Claude Desktop.

Features

Core Capabilities

• Knowledge Creation — Create and update notes through natural conversation
• Knowledge Search — Find information across your entire knowledge base
• Context Building — Load context from previous conversations using memory:// URLs
• Project Management — Work with multiple knowledge projects in each conversation
• Visual Note Display — View notes as formatted artifacts for better readability

Real-time Sync

Changes you make to files are immediately available in conversations:

1. Edit a file in any text editor
2. Save the changes
3. Ask Claude to read the note - it will see your updates

Memory URLs

Reference specific knowledge with memory:// URLs:

You: "Take a look at memory://project-planning and let's continue our discussion"

Claude will load that specific note and any related context.

Common Workflows

Creating Knowledge

During a conversation:

You: "Could you create a note summarizing our discussion about API design?"
Claude: I'll create a note capturing our API design discussion...
[Creates structured note with observations and relations]

Building on existing knowledge:

You: "Add a section about authentication to my API documentation"
Claude: [Uses edit_note to append new content without rewriting]

Searching and Discovery

Find information:

You: "What did we decide about the database schema?"
Claude: [Searches knowledge base and provides relevant information]

View formatted notes:

You: "Show me the project documentation as a formatted artifact"
Claude: [Uses view_note to display the note as a readable artifact]

Recent activity:

You: "What have we been working on lately?"
Claude: [Shows recently modified notes and offers to continue discussions]

Project Management

Projects are selected at the start of each conversation. Claude will suggest your most active project and ask which one to use.

For single-project users, add this to ~/.basic-memory/config.json:

{
  "default_project": "main",
  "default_project_mode": true
}

This skips project selection and uses your default project automatically.

Troubleshooting

Claude can't find Basic Memory tools

Solutions:

• Verify uv is installed: which uvx
• Check config file syntax is valid JSON
• Restart Claude Desktop after config changes
• Try absolute path to uvx in config

Tools appear but don't work

Solutions:

• Check Basic Memory is installed: basic-memory --version
• Verify sync is running: basic-memory status
• Check file permissions in ~/basic-memory
• Look for error messages in Claude Desktop

Changes not syncing

Solutions:

• Confirm real-time sync is enabled (default)
• Check basic-memory status for sync status
• Restart sync: basic-memory sync --watch
• Verify file is in the correct project directory

Next Steps