Practical overview
When it fits
Use Ctxvault when an agent application needs locally organized, persistent memory with distinct stores for knowledge, procedures or time-bounded facts, and when developers want to manage those stores through a CLI or documented server API.
Who it is for
- Developers building AI agents that need persistent local knowledge across sessions.
- Teams separating shared reference material from agent-specific or role-specific skills.
- Application builders who need to preserve changing facts and inspect how a stored statement was superseded.
Documented uses
- Create a local document store an agent can query by semantic similarity.
- Keep procedural instructions apart from reference knowledge.
- Record statements with validity windows and retrieve current or historical versions.
- Define which agents can access restricted vaults and how multiple vaults are composed.
Requirements & limits
The repository identifies the project as MIT-licensed open-source software. The README lists Python 3.10 or later and documents installation from PyPI or source.
- The three vault types have different roles: semantic for document knowledge, skill for procedures and episodic for statements with validity and history.
- Semantic vault setup includes adding supported files and indexing them; episodic vaults instead record statements individually.
- Vault access can be public or restricted to specified agents, and vaults are composed explicitly.
- LangChain and Claude appear among repository topics, but the available documentation does not detail or verify particular integrations.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Create and query a semantic vault with the CLI
Set up a local document vault and retrieve material through semantic search.
Before you start
- Python 3.10 or later
- Ctxvault installed from PyPI or source
- Documents in .txt, .md, .pdf or .docx format
Steps
Run
ctxvault init my-vaultfrom the project root.Place supported documents in
.ctxvault/vaults/my-vault/.Run
ctxvault index my-vaultto index the documents.Run
ctxvault query my-vault "transformer architecture"or another query.
Expected outcome
A local semantic vault containing indexed documents that can be queried by meaning.
Guide limitations
- This workflow applies to semantic document vaults; episodic vaults use statement-based recording instead.
- The documented CLI example uses the default project-local vault location.
Install Ctxvault from source
Prepare the project environment and start the Ctxvault CLI.
Before you start
- Python 3.10 or later
- Git
- uv, or Python with pip
Steps
Clone
https://github.com/Filippo-Venturini/ctxvault.For the documented uv route, enter the repository and run the command below.
uv syncRun the command below to start the CLI.
uv run ctxvault
Expected outcome
The source project’s dependencies are installed and the CLI is invoked through uv.
Guide limitations
- The README also documents a separate pip-based source installation route.
- This recipe covers installation and CLI invocation, not a complete application integration.
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 13 October 2026
- Original website title
- Filippo-Venturini/ctxvault · Official homepage title · retained in its source language