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Engram

Engram is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Ranked local code-graph context for AI coding agents. It has 143 GitHub stars, is released under the Apache-2.0 license and runs locally with npx -y engramx.

github.com/NickCirv/engram (opens in a new tab)

Data as of from the GitHub API and the official MCP registry; description from the project's repository. Report an error

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Install Engram

Generated from the server's MCP registry entry. Replace your-value with your own values.

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "engram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "engramx"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ENGRAM_API_TOKEN": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env ENGRAM_API_TOKEN=your-value --transport stdio engram -- npx -y engramx

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "engram": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "engramx"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ENGRAM_API_TOKEN": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "engram_api_token",
      "description": "ENGRAM_API_TOKEN",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "engram": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "engramx"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ENGRAM_API_TOKEN": "${input:engram_api_token}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).

Environment variables

Variables the server reads at startup.

NameRequiredDescription
ENGRAM_API_TOKENsecretNoOptional HTTP bearer token. Auto-generated at ~/.engram/http-server.token if unset.
ENGRAM_MISTAKE_GUARDNoPre-mortem warnings: '1' = warn, '2' = deny. Unset = off, zero overhead.
ENGRAM_ANTHROPIC_MEMORY_PATHNoOverride path to Claude Code's Auto-Memory MEMORY.md.
ENGRAM_MCP_CONFIG_PATHNoOverride path to ~/.engram/mcp-providers.json (plugin MCP server declarations).
ENGRAM_NO_UPDATE_CHECKNoSet to '1' to disable passive update notice. Auto-disabled when $CI is set.

About Engram

A local structural code graph and context toolkit for AI coding agents. Engram indexes source entities, Git relationships and selected project memory, then exposes focused context through a CLI, agent hooks, MCP and an authenticated local dashboard.

  • ai
  • claude-code
  • cursor
  • developer-tools
  • knowledge-graph
  • mcp
  • token-optimization
  • typescript
  • agent-tools
  • context-engineering

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FAQ

Engram FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

How do I install the Engram MCP server?

Add the command npx -y engramx to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.

Is Engram free?

The server is open source under the Apache-2.0 license, so running it is free. It does not declare any required API key.

Is Engram actively maintained?

The most recent commit was on Sep 22, 2026. The latest release is v4.5.0, published Jun 21, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months.