YAMS — Yet Another Memory System
Persistent memory for LLMs and apps. Content‑addressed storage with dedupe, compression, full‑text and vector search.
## Features
- SHA‑256 content‑addressed storage
- Block‑level dedupe (Rabin)
- Full‑text search (SQLite FTS5) + semantic search (embeddings)
- WAL‑backed durability, high‑throughput I/O, thread‑safe
- Portable CLI and MCP server
- Extensible with Plugin Support
## Links
- SourceHut: https://sr.ht/~trvon/yams/
- GitHub mirror: https://github.com/trvon/yams
- Docs: https://yamsmemory.ai
- Discord: https://discord.gg/n7maE5MuhY
## Install
Supported platforms: Linux x86_64/ARM64, macOS x86_64/ARM64
### Build with Meson (Recommended)
```bash
# 1. Resolve dependencies
conan install . -of build/release -s build_type=Release -b missing
# 2. Configure
meson setup build/release \
--prefix /usr/local \
--native-file build/release/build-release/conan/conan_meson_native.ini \
--buildtype=release
# 3. Build
meson compile -C build/release
# 4. (Optional) Install
sudo meson install -C build/release
```
Dependencies quick ref:
- Linux: libssl-dev sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev protobuf-compiler libncurses-dev ninja-build cmake
- macOS (Homebrew): openssl@3 protobuf sqlite3 ncurses ninja cmake
- Export `OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=$(brew --prefix openssl@3)` if CMake cannot locate OpenSSL
Common build options (Meson): `-Dbuild-tests=true|false`, `-Denable-tui=true|false`, `-Denable-onnx=enabled|disabled|auto`, `-Dplugin-onnx=true|false`, `-Dyams-version=...`.
Fast iteration: set `FAST_MODE=1` when running `meson setup --reconfigure` to disable ONNX & tests in CI (SourceHut) or locally.
Media metadata: install `mediainfo` + dev package (e.g. `libmediainfo-dev`) or FFmpeg (`ffprobe`) to enable richer video parsing.
Further build documentation:
- GCC specifics / quick reference: `docs/BUILD-GCC.md`
- Developer build system & internal ONNX Runtime path: `docs/developer/build_system.md`
ONNX embeddings (experimental):
- The ONNX plugin is experimental and may not work as intended.
- Conan: default profiles enable `yams/*:enable_onnx=True`. With custom profiles, pass `-o yams/*:enable_onnx=True` to `conan install`.
- Plain CMake: configure with `-DYAMS_ENABLE_ONNX=ON` and ensure `onnxruntime` is discoverable (e.g., via `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH`).
- Verify configure logs include: `ONNX Runtime found - enabling local embedding generation` (and not disabled).
- Internal newer ORT (GenAI headers) path: run Conan with `-o yams/*:use_conan_onnx=False` and configure with `-DYAMS_BUILD_INTERNAL_ONNXRUNTIME=ON` (see developer build doc for details).
Note: Plain CMake without Conan may miss dependencies; prefer Conan builds.
## Quick Start
```bash
export YAMS_STORAGE="$HOME/.local/share/yams"
yams init --non-interactive
# add
echo hello | yams add - --tags demo
# search
yams search hello --limit 5
# get
yams list --format minimal --limit 1
```
## CLI Cheat Sheet
```bash
# set storage per-run
yams --data-dir /tmp/yams add -
# list (minimal for pipes)
yams list --format minimal
# fuzzy search
yams search database --fuzzy --similarity 0.8
# delete preview
yams delete --pattern "*.log" --dry-run
```
## Plugins (ONNX Provider)
YAMS loads optional plugins via a stable C‑ABI host with a simple trust policy.
- Trust file: `~/.config/yams/plugins_trust.txt` (one absolute path per line; default deny)
- Discovery order:
- `YAMS_PLUGIN_DIR` (exclusive override)
- `$HOME/.local/lib/yams/plugins`
- `/usr/local/lib/yams/plugins`, `/usr/lib/yams/plugins`
- `${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/yams/plugins`
- Disable plugin subsystem: start daemon with `--no-plugins`.
ONNX plugin build/install/runtime:
- Prerequisite: onnxruntime (headers + shared libraries) must be available at build and runtime.
- Build: `yams_onnx_plugin` is built when `onnxruntime` is found and ONNX is enabled.
- Install: plugin installs under `${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/yams/plugins` (e.g., `/usr/local/lib/yams/plugins`).
- Packaging: set `-DYAMS_PACKAGE_PLUGINS=ON` (default) and run `cpack` to include the plugin in binary packages.
- Discovery: daemon logs a line on startup with plugin scan directories (useful for troubleshooting).
Usage (CLI):
```bash
# scan, trust, load
yams plugin scan
yams plugin trust add /usr/local/lib/yams/plugins
yams plugin load /usr/local/lib/yams/plugins/libyams_onnx_plugin.so
```
First‑time setup with `yams init`:
- The init dialog asks whether to enable plugins; if yes, it creates and trusts `~/.local/lib/yams/plugins`.
- Non‑interactive: pass `--enable-plugins`.
Dev overrides:
- Set `YAMS_PLUGIN_DIR` to your build output (e.g., `.../build/.../plugins/onnx`) to have the daemon scan it.
Behavior:
- If a trusted plugin advertises `model_provider_v1`, the daemon prefers it for embeddings. Otherwise it falls back to the legacy registry or mock/null providers (env: `YAMS_USE_MOCK_PROVIDER`, `YAMS_DISABLE_ONNX`).
## MCP
```bash
yams serve # stdio transport
```
MCP config (example):
```json
{
"mcpServers": { "yams": { "command": "/usr/local/bin/yams", "args": ["serve"] } }
}
```
## Troubleshooting
Conan: create default profile
```bash
conan profile detect --force
```
PDF support issues: build with `-DYAMS_ENABLE_PDF=OFF`.
Plugins not listed by `yams plugin list`:
- Ensure the ONNX plugin exists in a scanned directory (install prefix or `~/.local/lib/yams/plugins`).
- Ensure the directory is trusted (`yams plugin trust add ` or via `yams init`).
- Ensure onnxruntime shared libs are resolvable by the loader (e.g., `ldd libyams_onnx_plugin.so`).
- Check the daemon startup log for: `Plugin scan directories: dir1;dir2;...` to confirm discovery paths.
Monitor with `yams stats --verbose` and `yams doctor`.