how-it-works

Agent skill for Claude Code, Codex & Cursor from thedotmack/claude-mem · updated Oct 3, 2026

How to install how-it-works

$ npx skills add https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem --skill how-it-works

What how-it-works does

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?".

SKILL.md

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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.

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