claude-engram: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

claude-engram CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from 20alexl/claude-engram. It costs 4,702 tokens per session, scanned B, original, MIT.

Instructions for Claude Engram, a persistent-memory system for Claude Code. It uses Claude Code hooks—automatic actions around tool calls—to track work, tests, errors, decisions, and useful past information.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to restore session context, record project discoveries and mistakes, track edits and tests, and manage stored memories across projects.
Why use it?
It helps Claude Code retain relevant context between sessions and warn about repeated edits or recurring problems.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: SessionStart hook event. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions subagents.

This is 20alexl/claude-engram's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on claude-engram itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything claude-engram configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to 20alexl/claude-engram. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/20alexl/claude-engram/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/20alexl/claude-engram

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

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Per session 4,702 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 4,702 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan B 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.04702 $0.04702
Opus 5 $0.02351 $0.02351
Sonnet 5 $0.00940 $0.00940
Haiku 4.5 $0.00470 $0.00470

Measured 9d ago against content hash 3f0d27e4734b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

claude-engram CLAUDE.md scanned grade B with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Reads agent configuration directoriesmediumAgent snooping

.claude/, .codex/, .gemini/ hold keys, settings and other credentials a mod has no legitimate need for.

- Hook installation merges into existing `~/.claude/settings.json` without destroying other hooks.
CLAUDE.md · 251 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 251 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Claude Engram - Persistent Memory for Claude Code

How It Works

Claude Engram intercepts your tool calls via Claude Code hooks and automatically tracks what you do. Most features require zero invocations - they fire through hooks on every edit, bash command, error, and session event.

You also have MCP tools for things that need semantic judgment (saving discoveries, declaring rules, managing archives).

What's Fully Automatic

These happen via hooks. You don't call anything:

What When It Fires What You See
Session restore SessionStart hook Rules, mistakes, checkpoint, handoff
Edit tracking PostToolUse Edit/Write "Edit tracked: file.py (edit #3)"
Loop warnings PreToolUse Edit/Write Warning when same file edited 3+ times (state lives in per-session hook state, so concurrent sessions don't cross-contaminate)
Scored memory injection PreToolUse Edit/Write Top 3 relevant memories for the file
Test tracking PostToolUse Bash "PASS/FAIL Test tracked"
Error auto-logging PostToolUseFailure (all tools) Mistakes auto-saved from any failed tool
Decision capture UserPromptSubmit "let's use X" parsed via semantic + regex scoring
Checkpoint on compact PreCompact Task state saved before context compaction
Context re-injection PostCompact Rules + mistakes + decisions re-injected
Session handoff on stop Stop Saves last_assistant_message + files for next session
Session summary on end SessionEnd Files edited, memory counts
Search spiral detection PostToolUse Bash Warns after 3+ failed search commands
Memory archiving cleanup / session_start Old inactive memories archived, not deleted
Sub-project scoping PreToolUse / PostToolUse Memories scoped to the right sub-project
Data migrations SessionStart (upgrade) Cheap inline check; full migration in background
Pre-edit import check PreToolUse Edit/Write <engram-precheck> when a proposed import won't resolve against the code index (closest-name suggestion)
Blast-radius alert PreToolUse Edit/Write <engram-blast-radius> listing modules that import the file being edited
Outcome feedback loop PreToolUse + PostToolUse Bash Injection kinds correlated with test pass/fail; surfaced via session_mine(reflect)
Schema canary SessionStart Warning when Claude Code's log format stops being recognized (mining would otherwise degrade silently)
Read context PreToolUse Read <engram-read-context>: code-index orientation + the file's most relevant memories, once per file per session
Error deja-vu PostToolUseFailure "Deja vu: TypeError hit in 3 past session(s) - fix: ..." when a fresh failure matches a mined recurring error or stored mistake (identifier-guarded, so an unrelated class never inherits someone else's fix)
Known-good test commands SessionStart The project's top tracked test commands that currently pass — verification starts from what worked, not a guess
Mistake hygiene Background miner Stale auto-captured one-off mistakes (3+ weeks, never recurred, away from current work) move to the archive — banners keep their signal; restorable via memory(restore)
Live mining tick Stop (per turn, debounced) Session index, extractions, search embeddings, and the active code indexes refresh DURING the session — session_mine(search) sees this session's earlier work, not just past sessions. Interval CLAUDE_ENGRAM_LIVE_MINE (default 300s)
Curated-lessons bridge Background miner (opt-in) Dated entries in lesson files sync as protected lesson memories with code-index-joined triggers — a lesson mentioning a module surfaces when editing files that import it. The file stays the source of truth (edits update, removals retire). Off unless lessons_globs is set in ~/.claude_engram/config.json (e.g. ["docs/lessons/*.md"]) — no default path
Project-scoped patterns SessionStart Recurring errors/struggles are attributed to sub-projects and filtered by what the last session touched — a vzip session no longer sees CORTEX errors. Errors unseen for 30 days drop out

Read the full file on GitHub · 251 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 251 lines · 4,702 tokens per session scan B 3f0d27e4734b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

claude-engram CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository 20alexl/claude-engram (16 stars, last pushed 12d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 4,702 tokens to every session, about $0.0235 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (reads agent configuration directories). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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