Basic Memory Skills - Setup Guide¶
Source: basicmachines-co/basic-memory (9.7K installs across 38 skills)
GitHub: basicmachines-co/basic-memory (3.8K stars)
Skills: 38 skills; top skills: memory-notes (621), memory-continue (617), memory-capture (614)
Category: Agent Operations / Memory & Knowledge Management
First Seen: skills.sh May 31, 2026; catalogued in the Aug 31, 2026 sweep
Quality Tier: 🟢 Production - publisher authority (Basic Machines, YC-backed builder of the Basic Memory MCP) and all three skills.sh security audits Pass (see Security Audit Status)
Basic Machines - the YC-backed company behind the Basic Memory MCP server - publishes a 38-skill suite that teaches agents how to build and maintain a searchable knowledge graph from markdown notes. Each note carries three sections: frontmatter, observations, and relations. The skills encode the full lifecycle: capturing notes, continuing interrupted work, curating the graph, defining schema, reflecting, managing tasks, metadata search, defragmenting the graph, ingesting external content, and onboarding a fresh project.
The suite also includes engineering-workflow skills (code-review, fix-pr-issues, pr-create, adversarial-review) and CLI-facing helpers (bm-setup, bm-remember, bm-status, bm-share) that drive the Basic Memory tooling directly. Originally published as basicmachines-co/basic-memory-skills, the skills now live in the main basic-memory repo.
Installation¶
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory
Or per-skill:
npx skills add https://github.com/basicmachines-co/basic-memory --skill memory-notes
Prerequisites¶
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Basic Memory (optional) | The MCP server at basicmachines-co/basic-memory for live graph storage; the note-writing skills also work against plain markdown |
| Node.js | Recent LTS for the npx skills installer |
Core Skills¶
| Skill | Installs | Use For |
|---|---|---|
| memory-notes | 621 | Writing well-structured notes with frontmatter, observations, and relations that parse into the knowledge graph |
| memory-continue | 617 | Resuming interrupted work by querying prior notes before redoing anything |
| memory-capture | 614 | Capturing decisions, constraints, and context into the graph as work happens |
| memory-curate | 610 | Organizing and pruning the graph to keep signal high |
| memory-schema | 592 | Defining entity types, relations, and tags for a project |
| memory-reflect | 591 | Periodic reflection passes that consolidate notes into higher-level insights |
| memory-tasks | 587 | Task tracking tied to graph entities |
| memory-metadata-search | 582 | Finding notes by frontmatter, tags, and metadata |
| memory-defrag | 580 | Defragmenting the graph - merging duplicates, fixing orphans |
| memory-ingest | 580 | Importing external content (docs, transcripts, code) into the graph |
Plus memory-lifecycle, memory-research, memory-ci-capture, memory-onboarding, the bm-* CLI helpers, and engineering workflow skills (code-review, fix-pr-issues, pr-create, adversarial-review).
Security Audit Status (skills.sh, verified Aug 31, 2026)¶
| Skill | Gen Agent Trust Hub | Socket | Snyk |
|---|---|---|---|
| memory-notes | Pass | Pass | Pass |
All three audits Pass - the basis for the 🟢 Production tier.
CorpusIQ Use Cases¶
| Use Case | How |
|---|---|
| Agent memory discipline | The notes → observations → relations pattern is a portable model for how CorpusIQ agents structure session context and project knowledge |
| Research synthesis | memory-capture + memory-reflect give research sweeps a structured place to land findings and consolidate them |
| Knowledge graph backing | Operators asking CorpusIQ for knowledge management get a reference implementation: graph-first notes with metadata search |
| Code review loops | code-review, fix-pr-issues, and pr-create support agent-driven PR workflows for the docs and MCP repos |
Limitations / Verification¶
- Below the 20K-install drafting bar; drafted on publisher authority plus domain relevance: YC-backed vendor, 3.8K stars, cohesive 38-skill suite, and agent memory is a core CorpusIQ operating surface (suite-cohesion precedent: coreyhaines31/makerskills).
- The
memory-*skills reference the Basic Memory toolchain for full graph features; using them against plain markdown captures the note discipline without the graph backend. - The repository is actively consolidating (
basic-memory-skills→basic-memory); install commands here follow the current canonical repo.
Verification after install:
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory --list # 38 skills discovered
Related¶
- Skills Catalog - full quality-tiered directory
- Skills Marketplace - more discovery batches
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