Cursor

Add persistent memory to Cursor with the Mem0 plugin — MCP server, lifecycle hooks, and SDK skill for context-aware coding.

Add persistent memory to Cursor with the Mem0 plugin. Your AI assistant forgets everything between sessions — this plugin fixes that by connecting to Mem0’s cloud memory layer via MCP, automatically capturing learnings at key lifecycle points, and retrieving relevant context before every response.

Prerequisites

Before setting up Mem0 with Cursor, ensure you have:

1. A Mem0 Platform account and API key:

   • Sign up at app.mem0.ai
   • Get your API key (starts with m0-)

2. Cursor installed (cursor.com)

3. Your API key added to your shell profile (persists across sessions):

zsh

echo 'export MEM0_API_KEY="m0-your-api-key"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Already have mem0 configured as an MCP server in Cursor? Remove the existing entry from your Cursor MCP settings before installing to avoid duplicate tools.

Installation

Option A — One-Click Deeplink (MCP Only)

The fastest way to get started. Click the link below to install the Mem0 MCP server directly in Cursor:

Install Mem0 MCP in Cursor

Option B — npx (MCP Only)

npx mcp-add \
  --name mem0-mcp \
  --type http \
  --url "https://mcp.mem0.ai/mcp" \
  --clients "cursor"

Option C — Manual Configuration (MCP Only)

Add the following to your .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mem0": {
      "url": "https://mcp.mem0.ai/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Token ${env:MEM0_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option D — Cursor Marketplace (Full Plugin)

Install from the Cursor Marketplace for the complete experience including lifecycle hooks, the Mem0 SDK skill, and automatic memory capture.

Start a new Cursor session and ask: “List my mem0 entities” or “Search my memories for hello”. If the mem0 tools appear and respond, you’re all set.

What’s Included

Component	Marketplace Install	Deeplink / Manual / npx
MCP Server (9 memory tools)	Yes	Yes
Lifecycle Hooks	Yes	No
Mem0 SDK Skill	Yes	No

Available MCP Tools

Once installed, the following tools are available in every Cursor session:

Tool	Description
add_memory	Save text or conversation history for a user/agent
search_memories	Semantic search across memories with filters
get_memories	List memories with filters and pagination
get_memory	Retrieve a specific memory by ID
update_memory	Overwrite a memory’s text by ID
delete_memory	Delete a single memory by ID
delete_all_memories	Bulk delete all memories in scope
delete_entities	Delete a user/agent/app/run entity and its memories
list_entities	List users/agents/apps/runs stored in Mem0

Lifecycle Hooks (Marketplace Install)

When installed via the Cursor Marketplace, Mem0 hooks into Cursor’s lifecycle:

Hook	Event	What it does
Session start	sessionStart	Loads prior memories and displays status banner
User prompt	beforeSubmitPrompt	Searches relevant memories before each message; skips short prompts
Pre-tool (2 handlers)	preToolUse	Blocks MEMORY.md writes, enforces user_id/app_id on mem0 tool calls
Post-tool (2 handlers)	postToolUse	Tracks stats, scans bash errors for related memories
Pre-compact	preCompact	Stores a session summary before context compaction

Example Workflow

# Session 1: Debugging a performance issue
You: The API endpoint /users is taking 3 seconds. Help me optimize it.

# Cursor agent searches memories, proceeds with investigation.
# After completing the task, Mem0 stores:
#   - Learning: "N+1 query in UserService.getAll() — fixed with eager loading"
#   - Decision: "Added database index on users.email column"
#   - Preference: "User prefers query-level fixes over caching"

# Session 2 (next week): Similar issue
You: The /orders endpoint is also slow, same pattern as before.

# Agent searches memories, retrieves the optimization learnings.
# Immediately checks for N+1 queries and missing indexes.

Troubleshooting

• “Connection failed” — Verify MEM0_API_KEY is set: echo $MEM0_API_KEY
• Duplicate tools — If you had a previous MCP config for mem0, remove it before installing the plugin
• No tools appearing — Go to Cursor Settings > MCP and verify the mem0 server shows as connected
• Hooks not running — Hooks require the Marketplace install (Option D). Deeplink/manual installs only provide MCP tools.

Mem0 MCP Setup

Detailed MCP configuration for all clients

Claude Code Integration

Add Mem0 memory to Claude Code workflows