Your AI finally remembers.
You explain your codebase to Claude. Architecture, constraints, patterns. Then you hit the context limit. New session. Claude forgets everything.
Session 1 Session 2
───────────────────────────────────────────────────
You: "Our auth uses JWT..." You: /catchup
Claude: *learns* Claude: "I remember:
↓ - Auth uses JWT with refresh
/wrap - Convention: validate at boundaries
↓ What should we work on?"
[Memory] ────────────────►
Persistent, project-scoped memory with semantic search. Conventions, decisions, snippets — stored locally, never forgotten.
| Capability | hive-mcp | Typical MCP servers |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Graph | Structural edges - how knowledge relate? | Flat key-value or vector-only |
| Session Continuity | /wrap crystallizes, /catchup reconstructs — zero-down re-explaining across sessions |
Manual copy-paste or lost |
| Multi-Agent Coordination | Lings (planners) + drones (executors) with file claims, hivemind shouts, and a continuous production belt | Single-agent only |
| Scoped Memory | Hierarchical Context Retrieval (HCR) - project scoping - with TTL decay | Global namespace or none |
| Extension Architecture | requiring-resolve stubs with noop fallbacks - plug your extensions and play |
Monolithic |
Option A: Automated with hive-mcp-cli (Recommended)
# Requires Go 1.21+
go install github.com/hive-agi/hive-mcp-cli/cmd/hive@latest
go install github.com/hive-agi/hive-mcp-cli/cmd/hive-setup-mcp@latest
# Register and let Claude guide setup
claude mcp add hive-setup --scope user -- hive-setup-mcp
claude
# Ask: "Help me setup hive-mcp"Option B: Manual
export HIVE_MCP_DIR="$HOME/hive-mcp"
export BB_MCP_DIR="$HOME/bb-mcp"
git clone https://github.com/hive-agi/hive-mcp.git "$HIVE_MCP_DIR"
git clone https://github.com/hive-agi/bb-mcp.git "$BB_MCP_DIR"
claude mcp add hive --scope user -- "$HIVE_MCP_DIR/start-bb-mcp.sh"claude mcp list | grep -q "hive" && echo "OK" || echo "FAILED"ollama pull nomic-embed-text # Local embeddings
docker compose up -d # Chroma vector DB| Requirement | Version | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Latest | claude.ai/download |
| Babashka | 1.3+ | babashka.org |
| Java | 17+ | apt install openjdk-17-jdk |
Optional:
- Emacs 28.1+ for swarm vterm UI and buffer integration. See Emacs Configuration.
- Headless mode works without Emacs (but WIP for stability of headless - recommended to use Emacs as a dependency).
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
memory |
Persistent entries with semantic search, TTL decay, scoping |
kg |
Knowledge Graph — edges, subgraphs |
agent |
Spawn/kill/dispatch lings and drones |
wave |
Parallel drone dispatch with validation |
hivemind |
Shout/ask coordination between agents |
session |
Wrap, catchup, whoami, context store |
workflow |
Forge belt, FSM-driven production cycles |
kanban |
Task management with plan-to-kanban |
magit |
Git operations — status, stage, commit, push |
cider |
Clojure nREPL eval, doc, completions |
preset |
Agent presets — list, search, generate headers |
analysis |
Kondo lint, SCC metrics, complexity hotspots |
lsp |
Code analysis — callers, calls, namespace graph |
project |
Projectile — files, search, hierarchy scan |
emacs |
Eval elisp, buffers, notifications |
olympus |
Grid layout control for multi-agent UI |
agora |
Multi-agent deliberation and debates |
config |
Runtime configuration management |
migration |
KG/memory backup, restore, backend switching |
multi |
Meta-facade — batch operations |
Each tool is a consolidated namespace with subcommands (e.g., memory add, memory query, kg traverse).
Claude ──MCP──► hive-mcp (Clojure)
│
├── Memory (Chroma vectors + scoped entries)
├── Knowledge Graph (DataScript, Datalevin, or Datahike)
├── Swarm (lings + drones + hivemind)
├── Workflows for AIs (building blocks for repeatable behavior)
└── Extension Registry (requiring-resolve stubs)
│
└──► [optional] your extensions (e.g., plug openclaw, langchain, whatever etc)
hive-mcp uses a plugin architecture based on the IAddon protocol with automatic classpath discovery. Creating a new addon takes one command:
clojure -Sdeps '{:deps {io.github.hive-agi/hive-mcp {:git/tag "vX.Y.Z" :git/sha "..."}}}' \
-Tnew create :template hive-agi/addon :name com.example/my-addonThis generates a complete project with:
- IAddon protocol implementation (defrecord with 8 lifecycle methods)
- META-INF classpath manifest (auto-discovered at startup, zero core changes)
- Unit tests (12 tests covering lifecycle, tools, health)
- REPL-ready development setup
| Type | Use case |
|---|---|
| Native | Clojure code in the same JVM — direct function calls |
| MCP Bridge | Proxy to external MCP servers via stdio/sse |
| External | Non-MCP integrations (REST APIs, CLI tools) |
Addons are discovered via META-INF/hive-addons/*.edn manifest files on the classpath (same pattern as Java's ServiceLoader). Manifests declare dependencies, and addons are loaded in topological order. No changes to hive-mcp core code needed.
See the Creating Addons wiki guide and ADR-0007 for architecture details.
See CLAUDE.md for project conventions, tool patterns, and memory usage guidelines.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Wiki | Complete guides |
| Installation | Detailed setup |
| Troubleshooting | Common issues |
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| bb-mcp | Lightweight Babashka MCP wrapper (~50MB RAM) |
| lsp-mcp | Clojure-LSP bridge addon (analysis, callers, references) |
| basic-tools-mcp | File read/write/glob/grep tools addon |
| hive-dsl | DSL verb compiler for batch operations |
| hive-test | Test utilities for hive-mcp addons |
| olympus-web-ui | Web dashboard for swarm monitoring |
| hive-mcp-cli | Go CLI for automated setup |