_{Install Page · Live Demo · Scene Table · rendered with Hyperframes}

Install · Quickstart · Dashboard · Benchmark · IDE Integrations · HTTP API · ECP Spec · Contributing

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EngramX v3.0 "Spine" shipped 2026-04-24 — the biggest release since v1.0. The spine is now extensible: any MCP server becomes an EngramX provider via a 10-line plugin file. Pre-mortem mistake-guard warns before you repeat a bug. Bi-temporal mistake memory — refactored-away mistakes stop firing. Anthropic Auto-Memory bridge reads Claude Code's own consolidated memory. SSE-streaming packets render progressively. engram gen dual-emits AGENTS.md + CLAUDE.md by default. 89.1% measured real-world token savings on 87 source files — reproducible in one command. 878 tests, CI green on Ubuntu + Windows × Node 20 + 22. Zero cloud, zero telemetry. See CHANGELOG.md for the full diff.

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EngramX — the cached context spine for AI coding agents.

Your AI coding agent keeps re-reading the same files. Every Read, every Edit, every cat re-pays for context you've already paid for.

EngramX is the spine. It intercepts every file read at the tool boundary, answers from a pre-assembled context packet held in three layers of cache — a knowledge graph the agent has already "paid" to build, a per-provider SQLite cache of external lookups, and an in-memory LRU of recent queries — and hands the agent a single ~500-token response instead of a raw file.

The agent gets what it needs. You stop paying for context you've already paid for. And every plugin you add elevates the savings further — Serena for LSP symbols, GitHub MCP for issue context, Sentry MCP for production errors, Supabase / Neon for schema. Each one closes another context leak the agent would otherwise burn tokens researching.

Measured savings on a reproducible benchmark: 89.1%. Not estimated. 85 of 87 real source files saved tokens. Best case 98.4% (18,820 tokens → 306).

One command to everything

npm install -g engramx
cd ~/my-project
engram setup

That's the install. engram setup runs engram init (builds the graph), engram install-hook (wires the Sentinel into your AI tool), detects your IDE, dual-emits AGENTS.md + CLAUDE.md, then runs engram doctor to verify everything green. Under 30 seconds on most projects. Works in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot Chat, JetBrains Junie, Aider, Zed, Continue — any agent that reads AGENTS.md or uses MCP.

The next session you open starts with the spine pre-loaded: project brief already in context, file reads intercepted, a live HUD showing cumulative savings, bi-temporal mistakes waiting to warn you, and any plugins you've added already answering their domains.

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I'm not a developer — what does this actually do?

Short answer: your AI coding assistant stops charging you for the same information twice.

Long answer:

1. You ask your AI assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, whatever) to help with a file.
2. The assistant tries to read that file. Normally it reads the whole thing, pays for every byte in tokens, and throws most of it away.
3. EngramX catches the read, answers with a cached summary (the 50–200 lines the agent actually needs, plus context from your git history, past mistakes, library docs, and anything else useful), and lets the agent work from that.
4. Your monthly AI bill drops. Multi-hour sessions stop hitting rate limits. The agent stops re-introducing bugs you already fixed — because EngramX remembers what broke.

It runs on your laptop. It doesn't send your code anywhere. It's Apache 2.0. There's no account, no login, no cloud. You install it once and forget it's there.

Want even bigger savings? Install a plugin. Each one closes a different context leak — see Plugins multiply the savings below. Drop a 10-line .mjs file in ~/.engram/plugins/ and the next session uses it.

Want out? Clean uninstall is one command:

npm uninstall -g engramx     # 3.0.1+ auto-runs preuninstall hook-cleanup

If you installed 3.0.0 and ran npm uninstall before the 3.0.1 patch shipped, your Claude Code hooks may be orphaned. Run engram repair-hooks --scope user (install 3.0.1 first if needed) or see the CHANGELOG.md for the manual jq-based recovery one-liner.

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Proof, not promises

Everything above is measured, not estimated. bench/real-world.ts runs the full resolver against real files in this repo and compares the rich-packet token cost to the raw-file-read cost. Reproducible in one command on any project.

Latest run (2026-04-24, 87 source files — full report at bench/results/real-world-2026-04-24.md):

Metric	Value
Baseline tokens (87 files read raw)	163,122
engramx tokens (rich packets)	17,722
Aggregate savings	89.1%
Median per-file savings	84.2%
Files where engramx saved tokens	85 of 87
Best case (src/cli.ts)	98.4% (18,820 → 306)

Reproduce on your own code:

cd your-project
engram init                          # first-time setup for this project
npx tsx /path/to/engram/bench/real-world.ts --project . --files 50

The bench writes a JSON + Markdown report per run into bench/results/. Small projects score lower; dense structural projects score higher. It's real arithmetic on your files — you can audit every number.

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What engramx is not

The "engram" name is contested. To save you a search:

• Not Go-Engram (Gentleman-Programming/engram) — different project, Go binary, salience-gated chat memory. Ships under engram (without the x).
• Not DeepSeek's "Engram" paper — January 2026 academic work on conditional memory. Research artifact, not a product.
• Not MemPalace — adjacent positioning ("knowledge-graph memory," "method-of-loci"), but conversational memory, not code-structural.

engramx is specifically: a local-first context spine for AI coding agents that hooks into your IDE's tool boundary, indexes your code via tree-sitter + LSP, remembers past mistakes, and assembles ~500-token context packets in place of raw file reads. Open source, Apache 2.0, single npm install.

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Dashboard

A zero-dependency web dashboard ships built-in. One command, opens in your browser:

engram ui

The Overview tab: real metrics from your sessions — tokens saved, cost saved at $3/M rate, session-level hit rate, cache performance, graph health.

Activity — live hook events streamed via Server-Sent Events. See every Read / Edit / Write decision (deny = intercepted, passthrough = engram couldn't help). Per-tool breakdown on the right shows where the savings come from.

Files — the heatmap ranks your hot files by interception count. Cursor knows this view.

Graph — Canvas 2D force-directed visualization of the knowledge graph. God nodes are larger and labeled. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, click for details. 300+ nodes at 60fps.

Providers — component health (HTTP / LSP / AST / IDE count) and per-layer cache stats (entries + cross-session hit counts).

Design

• 35KB total — one HTTP response, zero external CDN calls, works offline and on air-gapped machines.
• Zero runtime dependencies — all CSS and JS inlined as TypeScript template literals; SVG charts and Canvas 2D graph hand-rolled (~400 LOC total).
• CSP-hardened — default-src 'self'; connect-src 'self' meta tag plus esc() at every data-to-HTML boundary. Defends against attacker-controlled file paths and labels mined from untrusted repos.
• Live-updating — SSE stream pushes new hook events to the Activity tab within 1 second.

See also the Sessions tab (cumulative breakdown + sparkline) in assets/screenshots/02-sessions.png.

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Benchmark

engramx ships with two benchmarks — use whichever fits your workflow.

Real-world bench (new in v3.0, preferred)

npx tsx bench/real-world.ts --project . --files 50 runs the full resolver against real files in any project and outputs exact token numbers. See the Proof section above for the reproducible 89.1% result on engramx itself.

Structured task bench (CI regression)

Measured across 10 structured coding tasks against a baseline of reading the relevant files directly. No synthetic data. No cherry-picked queries.

Task	Baseline (tokens)	engram (tokens)	Savings
task-01-find-caller	4,500	650	85.6%
task-02-parent-class	2,800	400	85.7%
task-03-file-for-class	3,200	300	90.6%
task-04-import-graph	6,800	900	86.8%
task-05-exported-api	5,500	700	87.3%
task-06-landmine-check	8,200	850	89.6%
task-07-architecture-sketch	14,500	1,600	89.0%
task-08-refactor-scope	9,200	1,100	88.0%
task-09-hot-files	3,800	550	85.5%
task-10-cross-file-flow	12,800	1,400	89.1%
Aggregate	7,130	845	88.1%

Run it yourself: npx tsx bench/runner.ts (structured fixtures) or npx tsx bench/real-world.ts (live resolver on real files).

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Plugins multiply the savings

The 89.1% number is engramx with its 9 built-in providers. Every MCP server you plug in closes another context gap the agent would otherwise burn tokens researching. And because every provider is budget-capped and the resolver is budget-weighted + mistakes-boost reranked, more plugins = more relevant context without packet bloat.

Plugin	Closes this gap	Install
Serena (LSP symbols, 20+ languages)	Cross-file references engramx's AST can't resolve precisely — kills the grep-then-read loop	cp docs/plugins/examples/serena-plugin.mjs ~/.engram/plugins/
GitHub MCP (issues, PRs, commits)	Recent PR discussion & issue history for the file being edited	engram plugin install github
Sentry MCP (production errors)	"What broke in prod for this file" — cuts the open-dashboard → paste-trace loop	engram plugin install sentry
Supabase / Neon (schema, RLS)	Database schema context when editing queries / migrations / ORM models	engram plugin install supabase
Context7 (library docs)	Always-current API surface for your actual imports	shipped as a built-in
Anthropic Auto-Memory	Claude Code's own consolidated project memory	shipped — auto-detected when ~/.claude/projects/…/memory/MEMORY.md exists

Writing a plugin is ~10 lines — see docs/plugins/README.md for the full spec + examples.

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What It Does

engram sits between your AI agent and the filesystem. When the agent reads a file, engram checks its knowledge graph. If the file is covered with sufficient confidence, it blocks the read and injects a compact context packet instead. The packet is assembled from up to 9 built-in providers plus any plugins you've added, all pre-cached at session start.

The 9 built-in providers (v3.0):

Provider	Source	Confidence	Latency
engram:ast	Tree-sitter parse (10 languages)	1.0	<50ms
engram:structure	Regex heuristics (fallback)	0.85	<50ms
engram:mistakes	Past failure nodes (bi-temporal — stale mistakes filtered out)	—	<10ms
anthropic:memory	Claude Code's auto-managed MEMORY.md index (v3.0)	0.85	<10ms
engram:git	Co-change patterns, churn, authorship	—	<100ms
mempalace	Decisions, learnings, project context	—	<5ms cached
context7	Library API docs for detected imports	—	<5ms cached
obsidian	Project notes, architecture docs	—	<5ms cached
engram:lsp	Live diagnostics captured as mistake nodes	—	on-event

External providers cache into SQLite at SessionStart. Per-read resolution is a cache lookup, not a live call. If a provider is unavailable it is skipped silently — you always get at least the structural summary. Plus: any MCP server becomes a provider via a 10-line plugin file — see Plugins multiply the savings above.

The 9 hook handlers:

Hook	What it does
PreToolUse:Read	Blocks the read if file is covered. Delivers structural summary as the block reason.
PreToolUse:Edit	Passes through. Injects known mistakes as landmine warnings alongside the edit.
PreToolUse:Write	Same as Edit — advisory injection only, never blocks writes.
PreToolUse:Bash	Catches cat | head | tail | less | more <single-file> and delegates to the Read handler.
SessionStart	Injects a compact project brief (god nodes, graph stats, top landmines, git branch). Bundles MemPalace context in parallel.
UserPromptSubmit	Extracts keywords from the prompt, runs a budget-capped pre-query, injects results before the agent responds.
PostToolUse	Observer only. Writes to .engram/hook-log.jsonl for hook-stats.
PreCompact	Re-injects god nodes and active landmines right before Claude compresses the conversation. Survives compaction.
CwdChanged	Auto-switches project context when you navigate to a different repo mid-session.

Ten safety invariants enforced at runtime:

1. Any handler error → passthrough (Claude Code is never blocked)
2. 2-second per-handler timeout
3. Kill switch (.engram/hook-disabled) respected by every handler
4. Atomic settings.json writes with timestamped backups
5. Never intercept outside the project root
6. Never intercept binary files or secrets (.env, .pem, .key, id_rsa, etc.)
7. Never log user prompt content (privacy invariant, asserted in tests)
8. Never inject more than 8,000 chars per hook response
9. Stale graph detection — file mtime newer than graph mtime → passthrough
10. Partial-read bypass — explicit offset or limit on Read → passthrough

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Install

npm install -g engramx

Requires Node.js 20+. Zero native dependencies. No build tools. Local SQLite via sql.js WASM — no Rust, no Python, no system libs.

Prefer a designed walkthrough? Open docs/install.html — three-step install, benefits matrix, IDE coverage, FAQ. Local file, opens in any browser. Brand-matched terminal-mono aesthetic.

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Quickstart

One command, zero friction:

cd ~/my-project
engram setup                     # init + install-hook + adapter detect + doctor

engram setup runs the whole first-run flow interactively (or pass -y for defaults, --dry-run to preview). It is idempotent — safe to re-run, and skips any step already done.

_{Prefer the individual commands?}

cd ~/my-project
engram init                      # scan codebase → .engram/graph.db (~40ms, 0 tokens)
engram install-hook              # wire the Sentinel into Claude Code
engram ui                        # open the web dashboard in your browser

Diagnostics + self-update:

engram doctor                    # component health + remediation hints (0=ok, 1=warn, 2=fail)
engram update                    # check + upgrade via detected pkg manager (no telemetry)
engram update --check            # check only, dry-probe the registry

Set ENGRAM_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 to disable the passive "newer version available" hint on every CLI invocation. $CI does the same automatically.

Open a Claude Code session. When the agent reads a well-covered file you will see a system-reminder with the structural summary instead of file contents. After the session:

engram hook-stats                # what was intercepted, tokens saved (CLI)
engram ui                        # same data, richer view, real-time updates
engram hook-preview src/auth.ts  # dry-run: see what the hook would inject for one file

Full recommended setup (one-time per project):

npm install -g engramx
cd ~/my-project
engram init --with-skills        # also index ~/.claude/skills/ into the graph
engram install-hook              # wire Sentinel into Claude Code
engram hooks install             # auto-rebuild graph on every git commit

Experience tiers — each works standalone:

Tier	What you run	What you get
Graph only	engram init	CLI queries, MCP server, engram gen for CLAUDE.md
+ Sentinel	engram install-hook	Automatic Read interception, Edit warnings, session briefs, HUD
+ Context Spine	Configure providers.json	Rich packets from 9 built-ins + any MCP plugin per read
+ Skills index	engram init --with-skills	Graph includes your ~/.claude/skills/
+ Git hooks	engram hooks install	Graph rebuilds on every commit, stays current
+ HTTP server	engram server --http	REST API on port 7337 for external tooling

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IDE Integrations

IDE	Integration	Setup
Claude Code	Hook-based interception (native, automatic)	engram install-hook
Cursor	MDC snapshot + native MCP	engram gen-mdc · docs/integrations/cursor-mcp.md
Continue.dev	@engram context provider	docs/integrations/continue.md
Zed	Context server (/engram)	engram context-server
Aider	Context file generation	engram gen-aider
Windsurf (Codeium)	.windsurfrules snapshot + MCP	engram gen-windsurfrules
Neovim	MCP via codecompanion / avante	docs/integrations/neovim.md
Emacs	MCP via gptel-mcp	docs/integrations/emacs.md

Per-IDE setup guides are in docs/integrations/.

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How It Compares

	engram	Continue @RepoMap	Cursor .cursorrules	Aider repo-map	@199-bio/engram
Interception model	Hook-based, automatic on every Read	Fetched at @-mention time	Static file, manual	Per-session map	MCP server, called explicitly
Cache strategy	SQLite at SessionStart, <5ms per read	No cache — live fetch	No cache	Per-session only	No cache
Persistent memory	Decisions, mistakes, patterns across sessions	No	Manual text file	No	No
Multiple providers	8 (AST, git, mistakes, MemPalace, Context7, Obsidian, LSP)	Repo structure only	No	Repo structure only	Graph query only
Mistake tracking	LSP diagnostics → mistake nodes, ⚠️ on Edit	No	No	No	No
Survives compaction	Yes (PreCompact hook)	No	Yes (static file)	No	No
LLM cost	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Native deps	Zero	No	No	No	No

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Install + Configuration

npm install -g engramx

providers.json (optional — auto-detection works for most setups):

{
  "providers": {
    "mempalace": { "enabled": true },
    "context7": { "enabled": true },
    "obsidian": { "enabled": true, "vault": "~/vault" },
    "lsp": { "enabled": true }
  }
}

Hook scope options:

engram install-hook                  # default: .claude/settings.local.json (gitignored)
engram install-hook --scope project  # .claude/settings.json (committed)
engram install-hook --scope user     # ~/.claude/settings.json (global)
engram install-hook --dry-run        # preview changes without writing
engram install-hook --auto-reindex   # also keep the graph fresh after every Edit/Write/MultiEdit (#8)

Kill switch (if anything goes wrong):

engram hook-disable    # touches .engram/hook-disabled — all handlers pass through
engram hook-enable     # removes the kill switch
engram uninstall-hook  # surgical removal, preserves other hooks in settings.json

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CLI Reference

Core:

engram init [path]               # scan codebase, build knowledge graph
engram init --with-skills        # also index ~/.claude/skills/
engram query "how does auth"     # query the graph (BFS, token-budgeted)
engram query "auth" --dfs        # DFS traversal
engram gods                      # most connected entities
engram stats                     # node/edge counts, confidence breakdown
engram bench                     # token reduction benchmark (10 tasks)
engram stress-test               # full stress test suite
engram path "auth" "database"    # shortest path between concepts
engram learn "chose JWT..."      # add a decision or pattern to the graph
engram mistakes                  # list known landmines

Code generation:

engram gen                       # auto-detect target (CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules / AGENTS.md)
engram gen --target claude       # write to CLAUDE.md
engram gen --target cursor       # write to .cursorrules
engram gen --target agents       # write to AGENTS.md
engram gen --task bug-fix        # task-aware view (general | bug-fix | feature | refactor)
engram gen --memory-md           # write structural facts to Claude's native MEMORY.md
engram gen-mdc                   # generate Cursor MDC rules
engram gen-aider                 # generate Aider context file
engram gen-ccs                   # generate CCS-compatible output

Sentinel:

engram intercept                 # hook entry point (called by Claude Code, reads stdin)
engram install-hook              # install hooks into Claude Code settings
engram uninstall-hook            # remove engram entries
engram hook-stats                # summarize .engram/hook-log.jsonl
engram hook-stats --json         # machine-readable output
engram hook-preview <file>       # dry-run Read handler for a specific file
engram hook-disable              # kill switch
engram hook-enable               # remove kill switch

Infrastructure:

engram watch [path]              # live file watcher — incremental re-index on save
engram reindex <file>            # re-index one file (editor/hook/CI primitive, issue #8)
engram reindex-hook              # PostToolUse hook entry point (reads JSON from stdin, always exits 0)
engram dashboard [path]          # live terminal dashboard
engram hud-label [path]          # JSON label for Claude HUD --extra-cmd integration
engram hooks install             # install post-commit + post-checkout git hooks
engram hooks status              # check git hook installation
engram hooks uninstall           # remove git hooks
engram server --http             # start HTTP REST server on port 7337
engram context-server            # start Zed context server
engram tune --dry-run            # auto-tune provider weights (preview mode)
engram db status                 # schema version, migration state
engram init --from-ccs           # import from CCS-format context file

Claude HUD integration:

Add --extra-cmd="engram hud-label" to your statusLine command to see live savings:

engram 48.5K saved 75%

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HTTP API

Start the server with engram server --http (default port 7337).

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/health	Server health + graph stats
POST	/query	Query the knowledge graph
GET	/gods	Most connected entities
GET	/stats	Node/edge counts, confidence breakdown
POST	/path	Shortest path between two concepts
GET	/mistakes	Known failure nodes
POST	/learn	Add a decision or pattern
POST	/init	Trigger a graph rebuild
GET	/hook-stats	Hook interception log summary

All responses are JSON. The server is local-only by default — bind address is 127.0.0.1.

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MCP Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "engram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "engramx", "serve", "/path/to/your/project"]
    }
  }
}

MCP Tools (6):

• query_graph — search the knowledge graph with natural language
• god_nodes — core abstractions (most connected entities)
• graph_stats — node/edge counts, confidence breakdown
• shortest_path — trace connections between two concepts
• benchmark — token reduction measurement
• list_mistakes — known failure modes from past sessions

Shell wrapper (for Bash-based agents):

cp scripts/mcp-engram ~/bin/mcp-engram && chmod +x ~/bin/mcp-engram
mcp-engram query "how does auth work" -p ~/myrepo

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ECP Spec

engram v1.0 ships the first draft of the Engram Context Protocol (ECP v0.1) — an open specification for how AI coding tools should package and exchange structured context packets.

The spec defines the wire format, provider negotiation, budget constraints, and confidence scoring used by engram internally. Any tool can implement the spec to produce or consume engram-compatible context packets.

License: CC-BY 4.0
Spec: docs/specs/ecp-v0.1.md

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Programmatic API

import { init, query, godNodes, stats } from "engramx";

const result = await init("./my-project");
console.log(`${result.nodes} nodes, ${result.edges} edges`);

const answer = await query("./my-project", "how does auth work");
console.log(answer.text);

const gods = await godNodes("./my-project");
for (const g of gods) {
  console.log(`${g.label} — ${g.degree} connections`);
}

---

Architecture

src/
├── cli.ts                 CLI entry point
├── core.ts                API surface (init, query, stats, learn)
├── serve.ts               MCP server (6 tools, JSON-RPC stdio)
├── server.ts              HTTP REST server (port 7337)
├── hooks.ts               Git hook install/uninstall
├── autogen.ts             CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules / MDC generation
├── graph/
│   ├── schema.ts          Types: nodes, edges, confidence, schema versioning
│   ├── store.ts           SQLite persistence (sql.js WASM, zero native deps)
│   └── query.ts           BFS/DFS traversal, shortest path
├── miners/
│   ├── ast-miner.ts       Tree-sitter AST extraction (10 languages, confidence 1.0)
│   ├── git-miner.ts       Change patterns from git history
│   ├── session-miner.ts   Decisions/patterns from AI session docs
│   └── skills-miner.ts    ~/.claude/skills/ indexer (opt-in)
├── providers/
│   ├── context-spine.ts   Provider assembly + budget management
│   ├── mempalace.ts       MemPalace integration
│   ├── context7.ts        Context7 library docs
│   ├── obsidian.ts        Obsidian vault
│   └── lsp.ts             LSP diagnostic capture
└── intelligence/
    └── token-tracker.ts   Cumulative token savings measurement

Supported languages (AST): TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java, C, C++, Ruby, PHP.

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Privacy

Everything runs locally. No data leaves your machine. No telemetry. No cloud dependency. The only network call is npm install. Prompt content is never logged (asserted in 579 tests).

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Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/NickCirv/engram.

Run engram init on a real codebase and share what it got right and wrong. The benchmark suite (engram bench) is the fastest way to see the difference on your own code.

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License

Apache 2.0