Basic Memory Skills - Setup Guide¶
Source: basicmachines-co/basic-memory (9.7K installs across 38 skills)
GitHub: basicmachines-co/basic-memory (3.8K stars)
Skills: 38 skills; top skills: memory-notes (621), memory-continue (617), memory-capture (614)
Category: Agent Operations / Memory & Knowledge Management
First Seen: skills.sh May 31, 2026; catalogued in the Aug 31, 2026 sweep
Quality Tier: 🟢 Production - publisher authority (Basic Machines, YC-backed builder of the Basic Memory MCP) and all three skills.sh security audits Pass (see Security Audit Status)
Basic Machines - the YC-backed company behind the Basic Memory MCP server - publishes a 38-skill suite that teaches agents how to build and maintain a searchable knowledge graph from markdown notes. Each note carries three sections: frontmatter, observations, and relations. The skills encode the full lifecycle: capturing notes, continuing interrupted work, curating the graph, defining schema, reflecting, managing tasks, metadata search, defragmenting the graph, ingesting external content, and onboarding a fresh project.
The suite also includes engineering-workflow skills (code-review, fix-pr-issues, pr-create, adversarial-review) and CLI-facing helpers (bm-setup, bm-remember, bm-status, bm-share) that drive the Basic Memory tooling directly. Originally published as basicmachines-co/basic-memory-skills, the skills now live in the main basic-memory repo.
Installation¶
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory
Or per-skill:
npx skills add https://github.com/basicmachines-co/basic-memory --skill memory-notes
Prerequisites¶
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Basic Memory (optional) | The MCP server at basicmachines-co/basic-memory for live graph storage; the note-writing skills also work against plain markdown |
| Node.js | Recent LTS for the npx skills installer |
Core Skills¶
| Skill | Installs | Use For |
|---|---|---|
| memory-notes | 621 | Writing well-structured notes with frontmatter, observations, and relations that parse into the knowledge graph |
| memory-continue | 617 | Resuming interrupted work by querying prior notes before redoing anything |
| memory-capture | 614 | Capturing decisions, constraints, and context into the graph as work happens |
| memory-curate | 610 | Organizing and pruning the graph to keep signal high |
| memory-schema | 592 | Defining entity types, relations, and tags for a project |
| memory-reflect | 591 | Periodic reflection passes that consolidate notes into higher-level insights |
| memory-tasks | 587 | Task tracking tied to graph entities |
| memory-metadata-search | 582 | Finding notes by frontmatter, tags, and metadata |
| memory-defrag | 580 | Defragmenting the graph - merging duplicates, fixing orphans |
| memory-ingest | 580 | Importing external content (docs, transcripts, code) into the graph |
Plus memory-lifecycle, memory-research, memory-ci-capture, memory-onboarding, the bm-* CLI helpers, and engineering workflow skills (code-review, fix-pr-issues, pr-create, adversarial-review).
Security Audit Status (skills.sh, verified Aug 31, 2026)¶
| Skill | Gen Agent Trust Hub | Socket | Snyk |
|---|---|---|---|
| memory-notes | Pass | Pass | Pass |
All three audits Pass - the basis for the 🟢 Production tier.
CorpusIQ Use Cases¶
| Use Case | How |
|---|---|
| Agent memory discipline | The notes → observations → relations pattern is a portable model for how CorpusIQ-connected agents structure session context and project knowledge |
| Research synthesis | memory-capture + memory-reflect give research sweeps a structured place to land findings and consolidate them |
| Knowledge graph backing | Operators asking CorpusIQ for knowledge management get a reference implementation: graph-first notes with metadata search |
| Code review loops | code-review, fix-pr-issues, and pr-create support agent-driven PR workflows for the docs and MCP repos |
Integration with CorpusIQ¶
CorpusIQ is the connector layer that lets AI assistants read the systems a business already runs on - accounting, payments, CRM, email, files and analytics - and answer with the source named. It is read-only by design: it retrieves data and never writes to, or acts in, a connected system, which is what makes it safe to point at live accounts.
This page is part of the CorpusIQ directory, the reference we maintain for the MCP server and agent-skill ecosystem. Run alongside CorpusIQ, a third-party server like this one can be combined with a company's own business data in a single answer.
Limitations / Verification¶
- Below the 20K-install drafting bar; drafted on publisher authority plus domain relevance: YC-backed vendor, 3.8K stars, cohesive 38-skill suite, and agent memory is a core CorpusIQ operating surface (suite-cohesion precedent: coreyhaines31/makerskills).
- The
memory-*skills reference the Basic Memory toolchain for full graph features; using them against plain markdown captures the note discipline without the graph backend. - The repository is actively consolidating (
basic-memory-skills→basic-memory); install commands here follow the current canonical repo.
Verification after install:
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory --list # 38 skills discovered
Related¶
- Skills Catalog - full quality-tiered directory
- Skills Marketplace - more discovery batches
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