Overview
LocalNest MCP is a local-first MCP server and CLI tool that combines semantic code search, a temporal knowledge graph, and persistent AI memory in one package — giving AI agents scoped access to your codebase with hybrid search, semantic indexing, and cross-session recall that never leaves your machine.
74 MCP tools | Temporal knowledge graph | Multi-hop graph traversal | Agent-scoped memory | Zero cloud dependencies
Use this documentation by intent
- Install and configure LocalNest
- Review configuration and env vars
- Understand the runtime architecture
- Browse tool documentation
- See the current stable package and behavior
- See the release matrix
- Preview 0.1.0 features
Core ideas
- LocalNest only reads from configured roots.
- Lexical search works without indexing; hybrid search benefits from a semantic index.
- Local memory is opt-in and stays on your machine.
- The fastest workflow is usually: find files first, search within them second, read exact lines last.
- Memory results are guidance, not final evidence. Verify with file tools before concluding.
What makes LocalNest different
LocalNest is the only MCP server that covers all three pillars in one local-first package. See the full comparison for detailed benchmarks against Mem0, GitNexus, Graphiti, codebase-memory-mcp, and others.
Key capabilities
- Temporal knowledge graph -- store structured facts as subject-predicate-object triples with time validity. Query what was true at any point in time with
as_of. - Multi-hop graph traversal -- walk relationships 2-5 hops deep via recursive CTEs.
- Nest/Branch hierarchy -- two-level memory taxonomy for organized retrieval.
- Agent-scoped memory -- per-agent isolation with private diary entries. Multiple agents, zero cross-contamination.
- Semantic dedup -- embedding similarity gate (0.92 cosine threshold) prevents near-duplicate memory pollution.
- Conversation ingestion -- import Markdown/JSON chat exports with automatic entity extraction and KG triple creation.
- Hooks system -- pre/post operation callbacks for memory, KG, traversal, ingestion.
- CLI-first architecture -- unified
localnest <noun> <verb>commands. Shell completions for bash, zsh, fish. - 74 MCP tools covering search, memory, KG, nests, traversal, diary, ingest, dedup, and hooks.