Hem Vault — Product docs
Portable second brain for coding agents: an Obsidian markdown vault plus MCP tools that give Cursor, Claude, Codex, and Zed durable memory, standing process, and optional delivery workflows.
Open-source repository: ai-mcp-brain. Browse these docs on the Hem Vault site (site/) or as markdown in this folder.
You browse and edit the vault in Obsidian. Agents read and write through MCP under a shared memory policy. Process lives in vault markdown — extend it without changing server code.
Start here
| If you want… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Mental model & architecture | How it works |
| Install on a machine | INSTALL.md — agent one-liner / curl |
| Feature list | Features below |
| Day-to-day how-tos | Guides below |
| Full MCP tool reference | MCP tools |
Features
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Vault & memory | Search, read, remember; project packs keyed to git repos |
| Guidance system | Instructions, soft suggestions, workflows, action registry |
| Tool radar | Catalog tools/SaaS and a newest-first recent log |
| Orchesto & personas | Multi-phase feature delivery; brainstormer; standalone auditor |
Guides
| Guide | Use when |
|---|---|
| Getting started | First install and smoke-check |
| Daily memory | Capture decisions, load project context, search before inventing |
| Orchesto | Setup skill, ship a feature, brainstorm, audit |
| Extending guidance | Add actions, soft prefs, binding rules, playbooks |
What this product is not
- Not semantic RAG (yet) — search is keyword full-text
- Not Orca / orca-cli — Orchesto is this product’s delivery skill; setup lives in the vault
- Not a substitute for tiny one-off edits — Orchesto is for end-to-end plan → validate → review
Repo vs vault
| Lives in | Examples |
|---|---|
| This repo | MCP server, install/inject scripts, vault templates, Orchesto skill template |
| Your vault | Your notes, project packs, instructions, suggestions, workflows |
The vault path defaults to something like ~/Obsidian/My Brain (override with BRAIN_VAULT or config.toml). Prefer a normal home-directory path — avoid iCloud / Mobile Documents if the editor sandbox returns EPERM.