palaia
Health Warn
- License — License: MIT
- Description — Repository has a description
- Active repo — Last push 0 days ago
- Low visibility — Only 9 GitHub stars
Code Fail
- process.env — Environment variable access in packages/openclaw-plugin/src/context-engine.ts
- exec() — Shell command execution in packages/openclaw-plugin/src/hooks/capture.ts
- os.homedir — User home directory access in packages/openclaw-plugin/src/hooks/capture.ts
- fs module — File system access in packages/openclaw-plugin/src/hooks/capture.ts
Permissions Pass
- Permissions — No dangerous permissions requested
This tool provides a local, persistent memory store for AI agents. It uses local databases like SQLite or PostgreSQL to store knowledge, allowing agents to remember context across sessions and perform semantic searches.
Security Assessment
Overall Risk: High. The scan found several concerning security issues. The tool accesses the user's home directory and uses shell command execution (exec) within its capture hooks, which could potentially be exploited or behave unexpectedly. It also has file system access and reads environment variables. While the tool is designed to run locally, these combinations of system-level access require careful scrutiny, as a malicious prompt or unexpected behavior could leverage the shell execution and file system access to compromise your machine. No hardcoded secrets or dangerous repository permissions were detected.
Quality Assessment
The project is actively maintained with a recent push as of today. It is distributed under the standard MIT license, which is great for open-source adoption. However, it currently has extremely low community visibility, with only 9 GitHub stars. This indicates that very few external developers have reviewed or vetted the codebase. The documentation is thorough and clearly explains its features and limitations.
Verdict
Use with caution. While actively maintained, the low community visibility and presence of shell execution plus home directory access make it a high-risk install that should be sandboxed or carefully reviewed before integrating into your workflow.
Palaia — Local, crash-safe memory for AI agents. Semantic vector search (fastembed/OpenAI/Ollama). SQLite + sqlite-vec or PostgreSQL + pgvector. MCP server for Claude Desktop & Cursor. Multi-agent. Auto-capture.
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The Knowledge System for AI Agent Teams
Your agents forget. palaia doesn't.
What palaia Does
AI agents are stateless by default. Every session starts from scratch — no memory of past decisions, no shared knowledge between agents, no context that survives a restart.
palaia gives your agents a persistent, searchable knowledge store. They save what they learn. They find it again by meaning, not keyword. They share it across tools and sessions — automatically.
What palaia Is Not
- Not a chatbot or prompt manager
- Not a cloud service (everything runs locally)
- Not a vector database you manage yourself (it manages itself)
- Not limited to one tool — works across OpenClaw, Claude Code, and any MCP client
What You Get
| Capability | What it means |
|---|---|
| Agents remember across sessions | Knowledge survives restarts, tool switches, and team handoffs |
| Find anything by meaning | Hybrid BM25 + vector search across 6 embedding providers |
| Zero-config local setup | SQLite with native SIMD vector search — no separate database process |
| Works everywhere via MCP | OpenClaw and Claude Code: paste a prompt, done. Claude Desktop, Cursor, any MCP host: manual config. |
| Multi-agent ready | Private, team, and public scopes — agents see what they should |
| Agent isolation | --isolated mode for strict per-agent memory boundaries |
| Crash-safe by default | SQLite WAL mode survives power loss, kills, OOM |
| Fast | Embed server keeps model in RAM — CLI queries ~1.5s, MCP/Plugin <500ms |
| WebUI memory explorer | palaia ui — browse, search, create entries in the browser. Localhost only. |
| Scales when needed | Swap to PostgreSQL + pgvector for distributed teams, no code changes |
Comparison
| Feature | palaia | claude-mem | Mem0 | OpenClaw Built-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local-first | Yes | Yes | No (cloud) | Yes |
| Cross-tool (MCP) | Yes (any MCP client) | No (Claude Code only) | No | No (OpenClaw only) |
| Native Vector Search | sqlite-vec / pgvector | ChromaDB (separate) | Cloud | No |
| Structured Types | memory/process/task | decisions/bugfixes | No | No |
| Multi-Agent Scopes | private/team/public | No | Per-user | No |
| Smart Tiering | HOT/WARM/COLD | No | No | No |
| Embedding Providers | 6 (configurable) | 1 (fixed) | Cloud | None |
| Open Source | MIT | AGPL-3.0 | Partial | MIT |
| Crash-safe (WAL) | Yes | Partial | N/A | No |
Install
Recommended: Paste into your agent
Both OpenClaw and Claude Code support fully autonomous setup. Copy the prompt below and paste it directly into your agent's chat — the agent handles everything from there.
OpenClaw — copy this prompt into your OpenClaw agent:
Install or update the palaia memory skill from ClawHub to the latest version (even if already present). Read the SKILL.md completely and follow it step by step. Run palaia init, then palaia doctor --fix and resolve all warnings — don't stop until the doctor report is clean. Set up completely.
Claude Code — copy this prompt into Claude Code:
Install palaia for persistent memory in this Claude Code environment.
Run: pip install "palaia[mcp,fastembed]" && palaia init && palaia setup claude-code --global
Then tell me to restart Claude Code so the MCP tools become active.
After restart, read the CLAUDE.md and follow its instructions.
See Claude Code Integration for the full guide.
Manual Setup
OpenClaw:
pip install "palaia[fastembed]"
palaia init
openclaw plugins install @byte5ai/palaia
palaia doctor --fix
Then activate the memory slot in your OpenClaw config:
// openclaw.json
{
plugins: {
slots: { memory: "palaia" }
}
}
Restart the gateway: openclaw gateway restart
Claude Code:
pip install "palaia[mcp,fastembed]"
palaia init
palaia setup claude-code --global
Restart Claude Code after setup.
Other MCP Clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor)
pip install "palaia[mcp,fastembed]"
palaia init
Add to your MCP config:
- Claude Desktop:
~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json - Cursor:
.cursor/mcp.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"palaia": {
"command": "palaia-mcp"
}
}
}
Note: These clients require manual MCP configuration. palaia provides the memory tools, but you need to instruct the agent yourself.
Optional Extras
pip install "palaia[curate]" # Knowledge curation
pip install "palaia[postgres]" # PostgreSQL + pgvector backend
Note: palaia[fastembed] already includes sqlite-vec for native vector search and the embed-server auto-starts on first query. No manual optimization needed.
Upgrading? palaia upgrade — auto-detects install method, preserves extras, runs doctor.
Quick Start
palaia write "API rate limit is 100 req/min" \
--type memory --tags api,limits # Save knowledge
palaia query "what's the rate limit" # Find it by meaning
palaia status # Check health
Documentation
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Getting Started | Installation, first steps, quick tour |
| Storage & Search | SQLite, PostgreSQL, sqlite-vec, pgvector, embedding providers |
| Claude Code | Claude Code integration, setup command, paste-this prompt |
| MCP Server | Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, tool reference, read-only mode |
| Embed Server | Performance optimization, socket transport, daemon mode |
| Multi-Agent | Scopes, agent identity, team setup, aliases |
| Configuration | All config keys, embedding chain, tuning |
| CLI Reference | All commands with flags and examples |
| Migration Guide | Import from other systems, flat-file migration |
| Architecture | Module map, data flows, design decisions |
| SKILL.md | Agent-facing documentation (what agents read) |
| Contributing | Versioning, release process, development setup |
| Changelog | Release history |
Development
git clone https://github.com/byte5ai/palaia.git
cd palaia
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
Links
- palaia.ai — Homepage
- PyPI — Package registry
- ClawHub — Install via agent skill
- OpenClaw — The agent platform palaia is built for
- CHANGELOG — Release history
MIT — (c) 2026 byte5 GmbH
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