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Slowave installs in a single command and configures every detected AI coding client automatically. This guide walks you from a fresh install to your first agent task with active memory in about five minutes. By the end, your agent will activate Slowave at the start of each task, remember durable facts as it works, and commit a session outcome — all without any changes to how you normally prompt it.

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Prerequisites

  • Python 3.11 or later (for pipx install) or Homebrew (for the Homebrew tap)
  • At least one supported AI coding client already installed on your machine
No LLM API key required. Slowave’s memory core uses local embeddings and deterministic operations. It never calls an external LLM for retrieval or maintenance.

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Installation and setup

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Supported clients

slowave setup only configures clients it detects on your machine. Detection checks whether each client’s config directory exists.

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Your first agent task

Once setup completes, your agent will automatically follow the Slowave lifecycle. Here’s what happens during a typical task:

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Open the dashboard

After a few tasks, open the local dashboard to inspect what Slowave has learned about your project:
The dashboard opens in your browser and lets you review memories, retrievals, feedback history, procedures, activity logs, and system health — all stored locally.

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What to do next

Installation reference

Full reference for per-client setup, manual steps, files modified, service management, runtime data location, and removal.

How it works

Deep-dive into the five-verb MCP lifecycle, memory types, background consolidation, and how salience and feedback evolve memory over time.
The default embedding model downloads from Hugging Face on first use (approximately 45 MB). It is cached locally after that, and all subsequent runs work offline.