mori

git for cognition

mori keeps local history for documents, chats, and notes. You stage files, commit them onto branches, and later look them up with log, recall, and find. STTP is the structured memory format Locus uses; mori compiles files into it so you don't write it by hand. The history is stored in a SurrealKV file inside the repo.

mori is the cognition VCS. Locus is the engine.

Status

Apache-2.0. 0.2.0 is a local CLI for now: no remote and no forge. Install from crates.io or GitHub Releases.

Install

cargo install mori-cli is the usual path. The crates.io package is mori-cli; the binary it installs is still mori. You need a recent stable Rust toolchain.

cargo install mori-cli

The install script downloads the matching GitHub Release archive and puts mori in ~/.local/bin.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EntasisLabs/mori/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

~/.local/bin needs to be on PATH. Set MORI_INSTALL_DIR to choose another directory. /usr/local/bin is the other common choice:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EntasisLabs/mori/main/scripts/install.sh | sudo env MORI_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin bash

MORI_VERSION=v0.2.0 installs that tag instead of the latest release. The script supports Linux x86_64, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), and Windows x86_64 from Git Bash. The Linux archive is built on Ubuntu 24.04; on an older glibc, use cargo install mori-cli.

To build from a clone:

git clone https://github.com/EntasisLabs/mori
cd mori
cargo install --path .

cargo build --release writes target/release/mori and does not install it. rust-toolchain.toml selects the stable channel.

There is no daemon. Each command opens the store, does one thing, and disconnects.

Usage

mori init
mori add notes.md
mori add thread.json --kind chat
mori status
mori compile notes.md
mori commit -m "save the notes"
mori log
mori recall "notes"
mori find --contains notes
mori show <commit> --raw

add detects the kind from the file. Set --kind to document, chat, note, context, or sttp to override detection. auto is the default. Pass - to read stdin.

compile prints STTP and does not store it. With no paths, it compiles whatever is staged.

commit requires -m. log lists commits on the current branch, newest first, 20 by default (-n changes the limit). show takes a commit id or a unique prefix.

recall ranks stored context against the query (8 hits by default). find filters without ranking. log, status, recall, and find print the summary. The STTP text stays in the store until you ask for it with compile, show --raw, or recall --raw.

Notes

note stages a freeform thought with no file. Each note is one index entry (kind note) and stays there until commit. Later notes append.

mori note -m "remember to check on-call docs before asking for escalation" --tag oncall
mori note -m "also verify pagerduty routing" --session procedures --tag oncall
mori status
mori commit -m "oncall reminders"

--session and --tag work the same way as add. Omit -m and pipe the text, or pass - to read stdin.

echo "verify the rotation calendar" | mori note --tag oncall
mori note - --session procedures

Tags

--tag is a facet on the context, separate from --session. Repeat it, or pass a comma-separated list. Tags are stored with the document and source: tags mori already writes. recall and find require every tag you pass.

mori add notes.md --tag homelab --tag pxe --tag jellyfin
mori add notes.md --tag homelab,pxe,jellyfin
mori commit -m "homelab notes"
mori recall --tag jellyfin
mori recall "boot" --tag pxe --tag homelab
mori find --tag homelab

status, log, and show list the tags you added. A one-word recall query filters on that word. A query with two or more content words is ranked as before.

Excerpts

Summary lines stay the default. --excerpt prints the matching section of each hit, with the file path and heading. Plain text is cut on blank lines. --match is a case-insensitive regular expression: it filters hits, and with --excerpt it chooses the sections. -C keeps that many lines around each match. --full prints the stored text of each hit. --raw still prints STTP.

mori recall "pagerduty escalation" --excerpt
mori recall "api outage" --match "rollback|deployctl"
mori find --tag oncall --match pagerduty
mori recall "pagerduty" --excerpt -C 2
mori recall "pagerduty escalation" --full

Branches

A branch is a name pointing at a commit. log, recall, and find follow every parent from that commit. A merge makes both sides visible. Context committed only on another branch stays out of view. Shared history stays visible on both. Nodes are not copied.

mori branch
mori branch design
mori checkout -b design
mori checkout main

branch with no name lists branches and marks the current one with *. branch <name> creates a branch at the current tip. checkout -b creates that branch and switches to it. checkout refuses when context is staged and you are switching branches.

stash parks the index so you can check out another branch. stash pop restores the newest entry onto an empty index. stash drop discards the newest entry.

mori stash -m "hold the design notes"
mori stash list
mori stash pop
mori stash drop

reset unstages. With no paths it clears the index and leaves stored memory and the stash alone.

mori reset
mori reset notes.md

merge brings another branch into the current one. If the current tip already contains the other branch, mori leaves the pointer where it is. If the other branch contains the current tip, mori moves the pointer forward. Otherwise it writes a merge commit with both parents and no new context. Stored context is additive, so both sides stay visible and there is no content-conflict step.

rebase replays the commits that belong only to the current branch onto another tip. The branch you rebase onto stays where it is. rebase refuses a merge commit, because replaying one would drop a parent.

merge and rebase refuse when context is staged. This history is local to the repo.

mori merge design
mori merge design -m "bring the design notes back"
mori rebase main

Sessions

--session is a label Locus stores on the context. checkout is what changes the branch. The default session is main.

mori init --session design
mori add design.md --session design
mori recall "layout" --session design
mori find --session design

init --session sets the repo default. add --session labels the files in that command. recall and find take --session to limit the search to that label.

Layout

.mori/
  config.json    repo settings, including the default session
  index.json     staged context that is not stored yet
  stash.json     parked index entries, written on the first stash
  kv/            embedded SurrealKV directory

add and compile never open kv/. Commands that read or write memory open it and disconnect before they return.

What gets stored

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.