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Prerequisites

  • Cline installed (VS Code extension)
  • CORE account (sign up at app.getcore.me)

Step 1: Open Cline MCP Settings

  1. Open Cline in VS Code
  2. Click the hamburger menu icon (☰) to enter the MCP Servers section

Step 2: Navigate to Remote Servers

  1. Choose the Remote Servers tab
  2. Click the Edit Configuration button

Step 3: Add CORE MCP Server Configuration

Add the following to your Cline MCP configuration:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "core-memory": {
      "url": "https://mcp.getcore.me/api/v1/mcp?source=Cline",
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Generate API Key

  1. Log in to your CORE dashboard at app.getcore.me
  2. Navigate to SettingsAPI Key
  3. Click Generate new key
  4. Name it “cline”
  5. Copy the generated API key
  6. Replace YOUR_API_KEY in the configuration above with your actual API key

Step 5: Verify Connection

Test your setup to ensure everything is working correctly:
  1. Test memory search: Ask Cline: Can you search my memory for [something you've previously stored]?
  2. Check connection status: Verify that core-memory appears as connected in your MCP servers
  3. Test operations: Ask Cline to store and retrieve information across sessions
To maximize Cline’s effectiveness with CORE Memory, create a custom rule that ensures automatic memory search and storage.

Create Memory Rule

  1. Create the rule file: Create a new file at /clinerules/core-memory.md in your project root:
mkdir -p clinerules
touch clinerules/core-memory.md
  1. Add the following content to clinerules/core-memory.md:
---
trigger: always_on
---

⚠️ **CRITICAL: READ THIS FIRST - MANDATORY MEMORY PROTOCOL** ⚠️

You are an AI coding assistant with access to CORE Memory - a persistent knowledge system that maintains project context, learnings, and continuity across all coding sessions.

## 🔴 MANDATORY STARTUP SEQUENCE - DO NOT SKIP 🔴

**BEFORE RESPONDING TO ANY USER MESSAGE, YOU MUST EXECUTE THESE TOOLS IN ORDER:**

### STEP 1 (REQUIRED): Search for Relevant Context

EXECUTE THIS TOOL FIRST:
`memory_search`

- Previous discussions about the current topic
- Related project decisions and implementations
- User preferences and work patterns
- Similar problems and their solutions

**Additional search triggers:**

- User mentions "previously", "before", "last time", or "we discussed"
- User references past work or project history
- Working on the CORE project (this repository)
- User asks about preferences, patterns, or past decisions
- Starting work on any feature or bug that might have history

**How to search effectively:**

- Write complete semantic queries, NOT keyword fragments
- Good: `"Manoj's preferences for API design and error handling"`
- Bad: `"manoj api preferences"`
- Ask: "What context am I missing that would help?"
- Consider: "What has the user told me before that I should remember?"

### Query Patterns for Memory Search

**Entity-Centric Queries** (Best for graph search):

- ✅ GOOD: `"Manoj's preferences for product positioning and messaging"`
- ✅ GOOD: `"CORE project authentication implementation decisions"`
- ❌ BAD: `"manoj product positioning"`
- Format: `[Person/Project] + [relationship/attribute] + [context]`

**Multi-Entity Relationship Queries** (Excellent for episode graph):

- ✅ GOOD: `"Manoj and Harshith discussions about BFS search implementation"`
- ✅ GOOD: `"relationship between entity extraction and recall quality in CORE"`
- ❌ BAD: `"manoj harshith bfs"`
- Format: `[Entity1] + [relationship type] + [Entity2] + [context]`

**Semantic Question Queries** (Good for vector search):

- ✅ GOOD: `"What causes BFS search to return empty results? What are the requirements for BFS traversal?"`
- ✅ GOOD: `"How does episode graph search improve recall quality compared to traditional search?"`
- ❌ BAD: `"bfs empty results"`
- Format: Complete natural questions with full context

**Concept Exploration Queries** (Good for BFS traversal):

- ✅ GOOD: `"concepts and ideas related to semantic relevance in knowledge graph search"`
- ✅ GOOD: `"topics connected to hop distance weighting and graph topology in BFS"`
- ❌ BAD: `"semantic relevance concepts"`
- Format: `[concept] + related/connected + [domain/context]`

**Temporal Queries** (Good for recent work):

- ✅ GOOD: `"recent changes to search implementation and reranking logic"`
- ✅ GOOD: `"latest discussions about entity extraction and semantic relevance"`
- ❌ BAD: `"recent search changes"`
- Format: `[temporal marker] + [specific topic] + [additional context]`

## 🔴 MANDATORY SHUTDOWN SEQUENCE - DO NOT SKIP 🔴

**AFTER FULLY RESPONDING TO THE USER, YOU MUST EXECUTE THIS TOOL:**

### FINAL STEP (REQUIRED): Store Conversation Memory

EXECUTE THIS TOOL LAST:
`memory_ingest`
Optionally include labelIds array to organize the conversation with workspace labels.

⚠️ **THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE** - You must ALWAYS store conversation context as your final action.

**What to capture in the message parameter:**

From User:

- Specific question, request, or problem statement
- Project context and situation provided
- What they're trying to accomplish
- Technical challenges or constraints mentioned

From Assistant:

- Detailed explanation of solution/approach taken
- Step-by-step processes and methodologies
- Technical concepts and principles explained
- Reasoning behind recommendations and decisions
- Alternative approaches discussed
- Problem-solving methodologies applied

**Include in storage:**

- All conceptual explanations and theory
- Technical discussions and analysis
- Problem-solving approaches and reasoning
- Decision rationale and trade-offs
- Implementation strategies (described conceptually)
- Learning insights and patterns

**Exclude from storage:**

- Code blocks and code snippets
- File contents or file listings
- Command examples or CLI commands
- Raw data or logs

**Quality check before storing:**

- Can someone quickly understand project context from memory alone?
- Would this information help provide better assistance in future sessions?
- Does stored context capture key decisions and reasoning?

---

## Summary: Your Mandatory Protocol

1. **FIRST ACTION**: Execute `memory_search` with semantic query about the user's request
2. **RESPOND**: Help the user with their request
3. **FINAL ACTION**: Execute `memory_ingest` with conversation summary and optional labelIds

**If you skip any of these steps, you are not following the project requirements.**

What This Does

With this rule in place, Cline will automatically:
  • Search CORE Memory before responding to understand relevant project context
  • Store conversations after each interaction for future reference
  • Maintain continuity across coding sessions
  • Share context with other CORE-connected tools

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues:
  • Verify your API key is correct and not expired
  • Ensure the configuration is properly formatted
  • Restart VS Code after configuration changes
  • Check that you’re logged into your CORE account

Need Help?

Join our Discord community and ask questions in the #core-support channel. Our team and community members are ready to help you get the most out of CORE’s memory capabilities.