You Don't Need to Spend Most of Your Day Thinking About Memory to Have a Memory-Powered AI Assistant - AutoMem Blog

People keep asking “how do I actually test this thing?”

Here’s the honest answer: It’s free and takes about 15 minutes if you’ve never done anything like this before.

If you already know Docker? Five minutes. If the word “terminal” makes you nervous? Still doable — I’ll walk you through it.

This might be your first time running open source software. That’s totally fine. By the end of this, you’ll have a working AI memory system running on your own computer. No monthly fees. No data going to some company’s servers. Just you.

What You’re About to Do

You’re going to:

Install a free program called Docker
Download AutoMem from GitHub
Run it
Connect it to Claude or ChatGPT

That’s it. No coding. No configuration files. No cloud accounts.

Step 1: Install Docker

Docker is a tool that runs software in isolated containers. You don’t need to understand how it works — just install it.

Download Docker Desktop:

Mac: Download for Mac
Windows: Download for Windows
Linux: Download for Linux

Install it like any other program. Open it once to make sure it’s running. You’ll see a whale icon in your menu bar or system tray.

Step 2: Open a Terminal

This is where beginners usually get scared. Don’t be.

A terminal is just a text-based way to tell your computer what to do. You type commands, hit enter, stuff happens.

How to open it:

Mac: Press Cmd + Space, type “Terminal”, hit Enter
Windows: Press Windows key, type “PowerShell”, hit Enter
Linux: You probably already know this one

You’ll see a window with a blinking cursor. That’s it. You’re in.

Step 3: Download AutoMem

Copy this command and paste it into your terminal:

git clone https://github.com/verygoodplugins/automem.git

Hit Enter. You’ll see some text scroll by. That’s it downloading.

Don’t have git?

Mac: It’ll prompt you to install developer tools. Say yes.
Windows: Download git here first.

Now move into the folder you just downloaded:

cd automem

Step 4: Start AutoMem

One command:

make dev

The first time you run this, Docker downloads some stuff. Takes a couple minutes. Go get coffee.

When it’s done, you’ll see some log output. AutoMem is now running on your computer.

Want to check it’s working? Open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:8001/health

You should see {"status": "ok"}. That means it’s alive.

Step 5: Connect to Claude Desktop

Now the good part — making Claude remember things.

One-Click Plugin Install:

Or manually: Open Claude Desktop settings and add this MCP server configuration.

Where’s the config file?

Mac: Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, paste: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/
Windows: Press Windows + R, paste: %APPDATA%\Claude\

Look for claude_desktop_config.json. If it doesn’t exist, create it.

Add this inside:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "automem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@verygoodplugins/mcp-automem"],
      "env": {
        "AUTOMEM_URL": "http://localhost:8001"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save. Restart Claude Desktop.

Step 6: Test It

Open a new conversation in Claude and say:

“Remember that my favorite programming language is Python and I prefer dark mode in all my apps.”

Then start a new conversation and ask:

“What do you know about my preferences?”

Claude should recall what you told it. Magic? No — just memory working the way it should.

What Did You Just Do?

You ran open source software on your own computer. Specifically:

AutoMem — the memory service
FalkorDB — stores how memories relate to each other
Qdrant — makes searching memories fast

All of this is running locally. Your data never leaves your machine.

It’s Free, Really

No subscriptions. No API costs for basic usage. No “free tier with limits.”

You downloaded code that we made public. You’re running it yourself. That’s open source.

When You’re Done

To stop AutoMem, go back to your terminal and press Ctrl + C.

To start it again later, open terminal, cd back to the automem folder, and run make dev again. Your memories are saved — they’ll still be there.

What’s Next?

Once you’re comfortable with this local setup:

Want access from your phone? Deploy to Railway (still free tier available)
Want to hack on it? The code is right there in the folder you downloaded
Found a bug? Open an issue

You Just Learned Something

If this was your first time:

Opening a terminal
Cloning a repo
Running Docker containers

Congrats. You now know more about software than most people ever will. And you did it to give your AI a memory. Pretty good reason if you ask me.

Go try it.

– Jack