wm — Working Memory for AI Coding Assistants
wm automatically captures tacit knowledge from your coding sessions and surfaces relevant context for each new task. It's the memory layer that helps AI assistants learn how you work.
Supported platforms:
- Claude Code - Full support via plugin
- OpenAI Codex CLI - Alpha support via skill (agent-invoked)
The Problem
LLMs have amnesia. Every conversation starts fresh. The patterns you've established, the constraints you've discovered, the preferences you've revealed—all forgotten.
You end up repeating yourself:
- "Remember, we always use X pattern here"
- "Don't forget the constraint about Y"
- "I prefer Z approach for this kind of problem"
The Solution
wm runs silently in the background:
- Extract: After each conversation turn, captures tacit knowledge—the wisdom that emerges from how you work, not just what you say
- Compile: Before each new prompt, filters accumulated knowledge for relevance and injects it as context
The result: AI assistants that remember your patterns across sessions.
What Gets Captured
Tacit knowledge is the unspoken wisdom in how someone works:
- Rationale behind decisions (WHY this approach, not just WHAT was done)
- Paths rejected and why (the judgment in pruning options)
- Constraints discovered through friction
- Preferences revealed by corrections
- Patterns followed without stating
Not captured:
- What happened ("Fixed X", "Updated Y")
- Explicit requests or questions
- Tool outputs or code snippets
- Content from CLAUDE.md (already explicit)
Quickstart: Claude Code
Prerequisites
Option 1: Homebrew (macOS)
brew tap cloud-atlas-ai/wm
brew install wm
Option 2: Cargo (all platforms)
cargo install wm
Option 3: From Source
git clone https://github.com/cloud-atlas-ai/wm.git
cd wm
cargo install --path .
Install the Claude Code Plugin
claude plugin install wm
Initialize in Your Project
cd /your/project
wm init
This creates a .wm/ directory to store accumulated knowledge.
Quickstart: OpenAI Codex CLI (Alpha)
Codex support uses agent skills that can be invoked at decision points. Most features work, but session auto-discovery is limited due to Codex's different session storage format.
What works:
- ✅ Manual knowledge capture/review (state.md, working_set.md)
- ✅ Dive prep with context gathering
- ✅ Compress and pause operations
- ⚠️ Distill requires manual transcript paths (no auto-discovery yet)
# 1. Install the binary (choose one)
brew install cloud-atlas-ai/wm/wm # macOS
cargo install wm # All platforms
# 2. Install the skills
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
ln -s /path/to/wm/plugin ~/.codex/skills/wm
# Or download agents individually:
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills/wm/agents
BASE_URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cloud-atlas-ai/wm/main/plugin/agents"
curl -L -o ~/.codex/skills/wm/agents/dive-prep.md $BASE_URL/dive-prep.md
curl -L -o ~/.codex/skills/wm/agents/review.md $BASE_URL/review.md
curl -L -o ~/.codex/skills/wm/agents/distill.md $BASE_URL/distill.md
curl -L -o ~/.codex/skills/wm/agents/compress.md $BASE_URL/compress.md
curl -L -o ~/.codex/skills/wm/agents/pause.md $BASE_URL/pause.md
Available Agent Skills:
| Skill | Support | When to Use |
|---|
$wm:dive-prep | ✅ Full | Prepare focused work session with intent, context, and workflow |
$wm:review | ✅ Full | Review accumulated knowledge and current context |
$wm:compress | ✅ Full | Synthesize state.md to higher-level abstractions |
$wm:pause | ✅ Full | Pause/resume operations (extract, compile, or both) |
$wm:distill | ⚠️ Manual | Batch extract (requires manual transcript paths) |
Typical Workflows:
# Session start - prepare dive context
$wm:dive-prep --intent fix
# Mid-session - review what wm knows
$wm:review
# Maintenance - compress accumulated knowledge
$wm:compress
# Sensitive work - pause extraction
$wm:pause extract
# Manual extraction from Codex session (since auto-discovery isn't supported yet)
# Find your sessions:
ls ~/.codex/sessions/2026/01/*/rollout-*.jsonl
# Extract from specific transcript:
wm extract --transcript ~/.codex/sessions/2026/01/06/rollout-<timestamp>-<uuid>.jsonl
Why limited session discovery?
Codex stores sessions in ~/.codex/sessions/YYYY/MM/DD/ with different naming and structure than Claude Code's ~/.claude/projects/<project-id>/. Auto-discovery support for Codex sessions is tracked in #11.
Manual Commands:
All CLI commands work normally: wm init, wm show state, wm show working, etc.
