Crate palace 

Local-first memory for AI assistants.

palace-rs stores verbatim text as drawers in one SQLite file, embeds it locally with ONNX Runtime, and retrieves it with hybrid (vector + BM25) search. A temporal knowledge graph keeps facts with validity windows. The same crate powers the palace CLI and MCP server.

Using it as a library

Turn off the default cli feature to leave out the CLI dependencies:

[dependencies]
palace-rs = { version = "0.19", default-features = false }

The library is imported as palace:

use palace::{db, knowledge_graph, store};

let conn = db::open_in_memory()?;
store::add_drawer(
    &conn,
    "wing_code",
    "backend",
    "We use SQLite with WAL mode for concurrent reads.",
    None,
    "architecture.md",
    0,
    "example",
    4.0,
)?;
knowledge_graph::add_triple(
    &conn,
    "Palace",
    "stores_data_in",
    "SQLite",
    Some("2026-04-01"),
    None,
    1.0,
    None,
    None,
)?;
assert_eq!(store::count_drawers(&conn)?, 1);

Starting points:

• db opens a palace (db::open for a file, db::open_in_memory for tests).
• store adds, updates, and lists drawers.
• palace::Palace wraps a palace for search, including palace::Palace::search_with_provenance for scored, cited results.
• knowledge_graph adds and queries facts.
• embedder embeds text with the active local model.

Modules

backend

Backend contracts for storage implementations.

backends

cli

CLI entry point using clap.

closet

Closet layer: compact topical pointers to verbatim drawers.

config

Configuration system for Palace.

convo_miner

Conversation file ingestor.

db

Database layer: SQLite with WAL mode and schema migrations.

dialect

AAAK dialect — compressed memory format for Palace.

embedder

Text embedding using ONNX Runtime and the models in crate::embedding_models.

embedding_eval

Known-item retrieval probes for comparing embedding models on a palace.

embedding_migration

Switching a palace to another embedding model without losing search.

embedding_models

Registry of embedding models Palace can run.

entity_detector

Lightweight entity detection for drawer metadata.

export

Palace export / import — portable JSON snapshots of all drawers.

feedback

Feedback through public GitHub Discussions.

gain

Aggregation and rendering for palace gain.

general_extractor

Extract typed memories from text using regex heuristics.

hall_router

Route drawer content into broad palace halls.

hook_sessions

Per-session activity recorded by the agent hooks.

hooks

Cursor hook response builders for automatic, model-independent memory use.

i18n

Locale metadata for entity detection.

install

knowledge_graph

Temporal Entity-Relationship Knowledge Graph.

layers

4-Layer Memory Stack.

manifest_entities

Detect project entities from common package manifests.

mcp_server

MCP Server — stdio JSON-RPC tool loop for AI coding assistants.

migrate

SQLite-to-SQLite migration helpers for older palace files.

miner

Project file ingestor.

normalize

Conversation format normalizer.

onboarding

Interactive first-run wizard.

origin

Corpus-origin detection for project and conversation mining.

palace

High-level facade for embedding the memory palace as a library.

palace_graph

Palace graph traversal.

preference

Preference sentence detection for improved agent memory recall.

query_intent

Lightweight query intent classification for adaptive retrieval.

query_rewriter

Query rewriting — normalises raw agent queries before embedding/BM25 lookup.

query_sanitizer

Query cleanup for agent-originated memory searches.

ranker

Hybrid retrieval: BM25 keyword scoring plus optional vector similarity.

remote

Remote MCP proxy transport.

reranker

Optional local reranking for top hybrid candidates.

room_detector

Room detection from folder structure and filename patterns. Writes and reads palace.yaml for a project. Port of room_detector_local.py.

searcher

Semantic search over the palace.

split

Split concatenated Claude Code mega-transcript files into per-session files.

store

Drawer CRUD and vector search.

sweep

Message-level transcript sweeper.

time_query

Relative time in queries: “two weeks ago”, “last Tuesday”, “in March”.

usage

Local usage telemetry for Palace MCP calls.

watcher

Incremental file watcher — re-mines changed files into the palace.

wings

Wing names: which wing a write lands in, and renaming or merging a wing.