If you already have an ACADEMY_API_KEY or other StudioMeyer Bearer token: skip ahead. If not, sign up at https://memory.studiomeyer.io and grab a key from the dashboard. Free tier covers 1000 learnings, 100 entities, 200 calls per day — plenty for testing the always-on flow.

Add the server to your client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://memory.studiomeyer.io/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_TOKEN": "sk_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Code (or Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc). The 53 tools should show up in the tool list.

In your next conversation, simply prompt:

Start a memory session.

The model calls nex_session_start. Because your knowledge graph is brand new, the response includes an elicitation block with three short questions: what's your main project, what's your role, what language do you prefer. Answer them. The model stores your answers via nex_learn and nex_entity_create automatically — that's enough to put real data into the graph.

The server is now in mode 2 of 3: it has data but no profile snapshot. The instructions block has switched from FIRST-RUN to "ONE-TIME SETUP REMAINING".

Spend 2-3 minutes telling your assistant what you're working on. Mention concrete things — projects, services, decisions you've made, people on your team. Each fact you share gets stored as a learning or entity observation if your model is following the policy. You can verify it's working:

Show me the top entities in my knowledge graph.

The model calls nex_entity_search (or nex_profile generate) and lists what it has captured.

This is the magic step. Tell the model:

Save my knowledge profile.

The model calls nex_profile(action: "save"). The server synthesizes your top entities, key facts, active topics, and knowledge gaps into a single context snapshot, stores it in nex_context_snapshots with a 24-hour expiry, and primes it for auto-injection.

From this moment on, every time you start a new session and the model calls nex_context, your profile is automatically prepended to the session. The model walks in already knowing who you are, what you're working on, and what matters.

The server has now switched to mode 3 of 3: ALWAYS-ON. The instruction block delivered to the model on every connect now reads:

BEFORE answering from your own knowledge, run nex_search(query) on any factual question about the user's projects, decisions, or domain. WHEN the user shares a fact, insight, mistake, or preference → nex_learn it. WHEN a person, project, tool, or concept is mentioned that isn't in the graph yet → nex_entity_create + nex_entity_observe. WHEN an important architectural or strategic decision is made → nex_decide it.

The model treats memory as the default surface, not as a thing it might ask permission to use.

Open a fresh conversation in any MCP-compatible client (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Claude Desktop). Don't say anything about memory — just ask a project-related question:

What's the most important thing I'm working on right now?

If the model answers with concrete details (project name, recent decisions, active topics) without you having had to mention "look it up in memory", the always-on switch is doing its job. If it answers vaguely from chat-context only, run nex_profile save again — the snapshot may have expired (24h auto-refresh, but the first one only sticks once you've called save explicitly).

What the snapshot contains

Inspect what's been auto-loaded with:

Show me my knowledge profile.

The model calls nex_profile(action: "generate") and shows you exactly what gets injected on every session: top 15 entities by observation count, 20 key facts above 0.7 confidence, recently accessed topics, and entities with thin observation coverage (knowledge gaps). All scored, all sourced, all tenant-isolated.

This is what we mean when we say persistent memory: the AI walks into every conversation already briefed.

Keeping it warm

The snapshot expires after 24 hours by design — stale top-entities would be worse than no top-entities. You don't need to manually refresh; calling nex_profile save is idempotent and takes about 200ms. Most users wire it into their pre-commit hook or set up a daily cron. If you forget, the server's instructions politely remind you on the next session that the snapshot is missing.

What's next

Phase 4.2 covers project tags — what to do when you have multiple unrelated projects and you don't want them bleeding into each other's snapshots. Phase 4.4 covers importing your existing ChatGPT and Claude.ai history so years of context become searchable from day one. If you skip those for now, you still have working always-on memory after this recipe.