> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://tinyhumans.gitbook.io/tinycortex/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://tinyhumans.gitbook.io/tinycortex/readme.md).

# Introduction

## Introduction

## TinyCortex 🧠

**TinyCortex** is a local-first AI memory engine, shipped as the open-source Rust crate [`tinycortex`](https://crates.io/crates/tinycortex). It gives your agents a memory that works the way a brain does: it **intelligently forgets noise** so the model only reasons over what matters.

Every AI memory system you have used does the same thing — store everything, retrieve by similarity, hope for the best. The outcome is an agent that drowns in stale context: responses degrade and costs inflate. TinyCortex takes the opposite approach. Low-value memories **decay** over time, while the knowledge your users recall and interact with is **reinforced** and rises to the top. There is no manual cleanup and no context-window anxiety.

The engine ingests content, canonicalizes and chunks it, scores what is worth keeping, and **compresses** it into a hierarchical summary tree. Retrieval then serves a focused, explainable slice of long-term history — vector, keyword, graph, and tree search combined — instead of a noisy dump of everything ever stored.

{% hint style="info" %}
This documentation covers the **open-source Rust crate**. The hosted TinyCortex platform (managed API, language SDKs) is a separate product in **closed alpha** — [reach out](mailto:founders@tinyhumans.ai) for access. Crate-only vs. hosted-only capabilities are called out throughout.
{% endhint %}

### Quickstart

```bash
cargo add tinycortex
```

```rust
use tinycortex::memory::{InMemoryMemoryStore, MemoryInput, MemoryQuery, MemoryStore};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    let store = InMemoryMemoryStore::new();

    store
        .insert(MemoryInput::new("preferences", "User prefers dark mode"))
        .await?;

    let hits = store.search(MemoryQuery::text("theme preference")).await?;
    for hit in hits {
        println!("{:.3}  {}", hit.score, hit.record.content);
    }
    Ok(())
}
```

See [**Getting Started**](/tinycortex/getting-started.md) for the full walkthrough, or jump to the [**Architecture Overview**](/tinycortex/concepts/architecture.md) to understand how the engine fits together.

### Why TinyCortex

* **Intelligent noise filtering** — memories that are not accessed decay; frequently recalled knowledge becomes durable. The store stays lean on its own.
* **Interaction-aware** — views, replies, reactions, and authored content all signal what matters.
* **Local-first & inspectable** — markdown files are the source of truth; SQLite, vectors, summary trees, and a git ledger are rebuildable derived indexes.
* **Explainable retrieval** — every hit carries a score breakdown across graph, vector, keyword, and freshness signals.
* **Provenance & safety** — every item carries source identity and a security `taint` (internal vs. external-sync).

### Where to go next

| If you want to…                                         | Read                                                               |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Install and run your first store                        | [Getting Started](/tinycortex/getting-started.md)                  |
| Understand the layered design                           | [Architecture Overview](/tinycortex/concepts/architecture.md)      |
| Learn the vocabulary (namespaces, taint, decay, recall) | [Core Concepts](/tinycortex/concepts/core-concepts.md)             |
| See how memories are compressed into a tree             | [Memory Tree & Compression](/tinycortex/the-engine/memory-tree.md) |
| Query memory                                            | [Retrieval](/tinycortex/the-engine/retrieval.md)                   |
| Read the generated API reference                        | [docs.rs/tinycortex](https://docs.rs/tinycortex)                   |

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