Add memory to Cline

Cline is a coding agent in VS Code, and it speaks MCP, so giving it persistent memory is a few lines of JSON. Add the server, reload, and Cline can store and recall named memory across sessions.

What you get

Persistent memory that survives across Cline sessions: named values you store once and recall later, shared memory for multi-agent work, temporal memory for facts that change over time, and no vector database to run. It is fifteen tools in total, and they show up as tools Cline calls directly during a task. For the concepts underneath, see the MCP integration overview.

Prerequisites

• An AgentRAM API key. Create one free.
• The Cline extension installed in VS Code, and Node.js 18+ (node -v).

Add the server

Open the Cline panel in VS Code (the Cline icon in the sidebar), click the MCP Servers icon at the top of the panel, then click Configure MCP Servers. That opens cline_mcp_settings.json. Add AgentRAM under the mcpServers object:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agentram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "agentram-mcp"],
      "env": { "AGENTRAM_API_KEY": "agentram_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

Save the file. Cline picks the server up and its tools appear in the MCP Servers panel. Cline also has a marketplace and a Remote Servers tab for hosted endpoints, but for AgentRAM the JSON above is the direct route.

The exact labels in the Cline panel can shift between versions; if you cannot find the button, open the panel menu and look for MCP Servers, then Configure. The server command and env var stay the same.

Quick start

Reload the VS Code window so Cline picks up the server, then in the Cline chat try:

Store my test command as "npm run test:ci" under the key test_cmd.

Later, in a new session:

Recall test_cmd from AgentRAM.

It reads the value back instead of starting from nothing. To see the temporal side, ask it to store a fact that changes, like a plan or a status, update it later, and then ask for the history.

Smoke test and troubleshooting

• Tools do not appear. Fully restart VS Code (not just a reload) after editing the config, then open the Cline MCP Servers panel and confirm agentram is listed with its tools.
• 401 or auth error. Check AGENTRAM_API_KEY is set correctly in the config and starts with agentram_.
• npx cannot find agentram-mcp. Node is older than 18, or you are offline. Check node -v.
• Still stuck? Check the agentram entry in the MCP Servers panel for an error message, and confirm the JSON in cline_mcp_settings.json is valid.