IWE - Memory system for you and your AI agents

Turn your thinking into queryable context

IWE turns a directory of markdown files into a knowledge graph — a connected structure you browse from your editor and your AI queries from the command line. Same files, same links, two interfaces. No cloud, no database, no lock-in. Version everything with git.

Write in Markdown, structure with links, give AI agents the tools to navigate your knowledge. IWE itself has no built-in AI — it works alongside Claude, Codex, Gemini, and any tool that speaks the Model Context Protocol.

What You Get

Plain markdown, full ownership. Your notes are .md files in a local directory. Read them, edit them, git push them. Nothing proprietary.
A graph, not a folder tree. Link notes together and the same note can belong to multiple topics without copying the file. (How linking works)
IDE features for your editor. Real LSP integration with VS Code, Neovim, Zed, and Helix — search, refactor, rename, autocomplete.
Structured access for AI agents. CLI tools and an MCP server give agents parent context and structural navigation over the same notes you edit by hand — retrieval by structure, not similarity guessing.
Fast. Built in Rust, processes 20,000 files in under a second.

How It Works

IWE treats your notes as a connected structure. You organize them with two types of links:

Nesting — a link on its own line means "this topic includes that subtopic." Your notes form a tree you can browse and refactor. IWE calls these inclusion links.
Cross-references — regular inline links connect notes across topics, creating a web of relationships.
Multiple parents — the same note can live under several places at once. A "Meditation" note can belong to both "Health" and "Productivity" without duplicating the file.
Context from parents — when you retrieve a note, IWE can include context from the notes above it in the hierarchy.

This structure makes retrieval powerful — whether you're browsing in your editor or an agent is querying via CLI, ask for a topic and get its full context in a single call.

Working with AI

IWE gives AI agents structured access to your notes through two interfaces: a CLI for scripting and shell-based workflows, and an MCP server for native connection with AI tools. Both expose the same operations — search, retrieve, create, refactor — so you can choose whichever fits your setup.

IWE pairs search with structure: built-in fuzzy and similarity search finds the entry point, and the graph turns a hit into usable context — parent context, children, cross-references, link-safe refactoring. It also composes cleanly with any external tooling you already use (ripgrep, full-text, vector): whatever finds the note, IWE supplies the context around it.

Integration Server (MCP)

IWE includes a server (iwec) that lets AI tools like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf work directly with your notes using the Model Context Protocol. The server watches your files for changes, so edits you make in your editor are reflected immediately.

Command-Line Tools

The CLI lets you (and AI agents) work with your notes from the terminal or in scripts.

Example: preparing context for an AI conversation

iwe find --fuzzy auth

iwe retrieve --key authentication --expand-includes 2

iwe tree --key oauth

Available commands:

Command	What it does
`find`	Search notes with fuzzy matching
`retrieve`	Get a note with its children and parent context
`tree`	Show the hierarchy from any starting point
`squash`	Flatten a subtree into one document
`new`	Create a note (accepts content from stdin)
`extract`	Pull a section into its own note
`inline`	Merge a linked note back into its parent
`rename`	Rename a note; all links update automatically
`delete`	Remove a note and clean up references

More information: Working with AI · CLI Reference · MCP Server

Editor Integration

IWE gives your editor IDE-like features for markdown notes. It works with VS Code, Neovim, Zed, Helix, and any editor that supports the Language Server Protocol (LSP).

Search — find notes by title or content
Navigate — go to definition, find references (backlinks)
Preview — hover over links to see content
Auto-complete — link suggestions as you type
Inlay hints — show parent references and link counts
Extract — pull sections into new notes
Inline — embed note content back into parent
Rename — rename files with automatic link updates
Format — normalize documents, update link titles
Transform — pipe text through external commands
Templates — create notes from templates (daily notes, etc.)
Outline conversion — switch between headers and lists

More information: Editor Features

Quick Start

Install the CLI and LSP server:

Using Homebrew (macOS/Linux):
```
brew tap iwe-org/iwe
brew install iwe
```
Or using Cargo:
```
cargo install iwe iwes iwec
```
Or from conda-forge (community-maintained — thanks, salim-b):
```
conda install -c conda-forge iwe
```
Initialize your workspace:
```
cd ~/notes
iwe init
```
Pick your path:

Set up your editor — VS Code · Neovim · Helix · Zed

Connect your AI agent — point it at the MCP server. iwec serves the directory it runs in, so set the working directory to your notes:
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "iwe": {
      "command": "iwec",
      "cwd": "~/notes"
    }
  }
}
```

Documentation

Getting Started — Installation and setup
Usage Guide — Editor features and workflows
CLI Reference — Command-line tools
Working with AI — AI agent integration
MCP Server — Native AI tool integration via Model Context Protocol
Configuration — Settings and customization
Examples — Example projects and case studies

Get Involved

IWE is open source and community-driven. Join the discussions, report issues, or contribute to the documentation.

Community: Twitter/X · Reddit · Discussions

Editor plugins: VS Code · Neovim · Zed

Agentic skills: iwe-org/skills — agentic AI skills for knowledge graph management. Contributors welcome.

Building on IWE: projects already embed IWE — as an agent-memory backend, as the graph layer of an LLM wiki engine, in research tooling. The practical integration surfaces today are the CLI and the MCP server; the liwe library is published but not yet API-stable, so pin your version if you build against it. A declared, stable integration surface is on the roadmap — if you're building on IWE, tell us what you depend on, so we know what not to break.

License

Apache License 2.0

iwe