Oh

🧾 Oh is a memory framework with a unique ontology-driven approach. An agent's memory becomes typed entities, relations, and facts, each carrying its history and the records it came from. Recall returns the right level of detail for the task, every memory traces back to its source, and anything wrong can be corrected in place. Oh keeps the records and the history; your harness keeps the policy.

Ask your agent to set it up: https://oh.computer

— Ben Guo

Oh is a memory framework for agents with an ontology-driven approach. Every memory keeps its history and the records behind it, so agents recall with context and you can trace and correct what they know.

It is for developers whose agents get asked why. You get a TypeScript SDK, a CLI, and an Agent Skill. All three read and write the same versioned records and the same append-only log of operations. The default store is one SQLite file on your machine: it needs no account and no hosted model, and its search indexes can be deleted and rebuilt.

Website · Versioned specification · Agent Skill

Latest release: v0.14.1 on npm, free and MIT licensed.

Why Oh

• An ontology, not a pile of notes. Every record declares a kind from a versioned ontology (entity, statement, assertion, evidence, context, inquiry, projection), a stable key, the keys it depends on, and its content as canonical JSON, so equal content always has the same SHA-256 digest. Oh checks the shape and the references on every write.
• Every memory keeps its history. A write names the head it expects and fails if another writer moved it first. Accepted operations are digested, chained to their parent, and never rewritten, so oh verify replays the history and compares it with the records.
• Recall at the level of detail the task needs. Search and recall return records with the records they rest on. The progressive memory context reads the same history as summaries your code publishes, and any summary opens back into the originals it covers.
• Correct it in place. A wrong memory gets a new record under the head you reviewed; the old one stays in the history, so later work and earlier answers can both be explained.
• The file you control is the source of truth. Records and operations live in one SQLite file. Sync is a step you call, with a transport you supply, and it applies only a history that extends yours. Keyword and semantic indexes are copies rebuilt from the records.
• Your code keeps the policy. Oh stores and recalls; your application decides which space an agent writes to, what moves from working memory into reviewed memory, and which model answers. See Give an agent working memory.

How it works

flowchart LR
  agent["Your agent<br/>learns, asks, acts"]
  subgraph oh["Oh"]
    direction TB
    records["Records, each with the records it rests on"]
    history["A history of every change"]
    ontology["An ontology that types each record"]
    recall["Recall at the level of detail the task needs"]
  end
  agent -- "remember, ask" --> oh
  oh -- "recall, with its path back to the source" --> agent
  agent -- "correct: a new record, history kept" --> oh

Your agent remembers and asks through the SDK, the CLI, or the Agent Skill. Oh writes each record with its kind and dependencies, appends the operation to the space's history, and answers a question with the records and the records behind them. When an answer is wrong, a correction is one more write under the head you reviewed. Progressive memory context explains how a host publishes summaries over that history and expands them back into the originals.

Find the right documentation

• Install and try it: Install and first run, then Troubleshooting the first run.
• Build on it in TypeScript: Use the SDK, then Call Oh from TypeScript and Search and recall.
• Give an agent memory: Give an agent working memory, Progressive memory context, Memory pages and .oh.md files, and How memory host calls run.
• Hand Oh to a coding agent: the Oh Agent Skill.
• Store data somewhere other than a local file: Direct libSQL store and Fast-forward sync.
• Run semantic search: Local semantic backend lifecycle and Hosted semantic cache V2 lifecycle.

Install and first run

The archive below is 0.14.1, the verified public release.

Bun 1.3.14 or newer is required for the CLI, the SDK, and the SQLite store. The runtime-neutral store interfaces and the direct libSQL store also run on Node 24 and in serverless functions. Install the release from npm:

bun add --global @hraness/oh@latest
oh --help

The same package bytes and their checksum are attached to the immutable GitHub Release: hraness-oh-0.14.1.tgz and SHA256SUMS.

Oh 0.14.1 and newer update their own Bun and npm global installs on macOS and Linux. oh update disable keeps a version; update controls and supported installations has the details.

The package runs wherever Bun runs. Its native SQLite snapshot helper (@hraness/oh/sqlite-snapshot) is prebuilt for macOS on Apple silicon and Intel, Linux x64 and arm64, and Windows x64.

Oh writes to .oh/oh.sqlite and the default space unless you choose another path or space. oh init, oh put, and oh sync import create that directory, file, and space if they are missing; reading commands stop with No Oh store at .oh/oh.sqlite instead. Keep .oh/ out of source control.

oh init
oh put \
  --kind entity \
  --key entity:ada-lovelace \
  --value '{"name":"Ada Lovelace","role":"mathematician"}'
oh get entity:ada-lovelace
oh search "mathematician"
oh verify

This stores one entity, reads it back, finds it through the keyword index, and replays the log to check it. It needs no account, hosted model, remote database, or semantic-search package. In a terminal each command prints a short result, such as ✓ Saved entity:ada-lovelace (generation 1). Add --json for canonical JSON; oh get entity:ada-lovelace --json prints the record on one line, shown here with line breaks added:

{
  "dependencies": [],
  "key": "entity:ada-lovelace",
  "kind": "entity",
  "recordSha256": "fcfe318e7248366d2408d1fa392268ac16490e72487079956c20db96b8369449",
  "v": 1,
  "value": { "name": "Ada Lovelace", "role": "mathematician" }
}

The digest is the same on every machine because it covers only the record. oh verify --json ends with "operations":1,"records":1,"sqliteIntegrity":"ok".

The CLI may print an occasional note about optional development support on stderr. It never changes stdout or exit codes, CI turns it off, and Optional development support explains how to switch it off yourself.

Choose the store and space

Option	Default	Effect
--db <path>	.oh/oh.sqlite relative to your current directory	Selects the SQLite file for this command.
--space <id>	default	Selects the graph and operation history within that file.
--json	Automatic in a recognized agent environment	Prints canonical JSON instead of terminal text.

Repeat --db and --space on each command when you use a nondefault store. For example, oh get entity:ada-lovelace --db /absolute/path/memory.sqlite --space default reads that file regardless of your current directory. Continue with the TypeScript SDK or working-memory guide when you need to use these records from an application.

Troubleshooting the first run

Symptom	What to check next
No Oh store at ...	Check your current directory and --db path. Run oh init only if you intend to create a store there; reads do not create one.
No record named ... (exit 3)	Run oh list with the same --db and --space as the write, then check the record key.
JSON appears instead of terminal text	An agent environment selects JSON automatically. Set HRANESS_AUDIENCE=human for terminal text, or pass --json when parsing results.
OhConflictError: The expected head does not match the current space head.	Another write moved the head after you read it. Read the new head and records, reconcile your change, and submit it again with the new head. See Handle errors.

oh verify checks saved history and SQLite integrity, not the truth of a fact. If verification fails, preserve the database and error output rather than reinitializing it. See the storage specification for the record and history contracts.

How Oh behaves

Commands print short text for people and canonical JSON with --json. When an agent runs Oh (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, or AI_AGENT is set), JSON is the default; HRANESS_AUDIENCE=human or agent overrides the guess. oh sync export and oh contract always print JSON. A missing oh get or oh tombstone record exits with status 3. A mistyped command or option exits with status 2. A missing store, an integrity failure, or a concurrent head conflict exits with status 1 and leaves the log as it was. Errors name what went wrong and the command to run next; with --json they are one {"ok":false,"error":{...}} object on stdout.

oh contract prints the ontology, graph, schema, and SQLite versions compiled into the installed runtime. Opening a database checks that the contract stored in it matches that runtime, and refuses to open it otherwise.

A space holds one current graph and one append-only chain of operations:

• A record has a stable key, one declared kind, ordered dependencies, any canonical JSON content, and a SHA-256 digest over all of that.
• An operation puts or tombstones (deletes) records in one BEGIN IMMEDIATE transaction. Before the head moves, the store compares the caller’s expected generation and operation digest with the current head and refuses a stale one.
• Each operation’s digest covers its parent operation, the resulting graph revision and record set, the contract, the actor, the timestamp, and the sequence number.
• The SQLite records and the operation log are the source of truth. The FTS5 keyword index and local embedding files are copies that can be rebuilt.
• Sync exchanges size-limited bundles of operations after both sides confirm the same contract. Only a history that extends the other side’s is applied automatically; a divergent history stops with a conflict. Fast-forward sync shows the libSQL and Turso transport. For offline transfer, oh sync export writes a bundle to stdout and oh sync import --file <path> checks it and applies it in one transaction, or not at all.

Version 1 of the ontology names seven core ideas: entity, statement, assertion, evidence, context, inquiry, and projection. The graph format also carries schema, vocabulary, review, rights, edition, and activity records. Meaning specific to an application belongs in registered codecs and versioned schema records, where anyone reading the data can find it.

Follow a question to its answer

A research application can map familiar work onto Oh records, so each step of a review is a record you can open:

Research object	Oh record kind	What you can inspect
Question	inquiry	The question and its durable investigation trail.
Source	entity	A stable identity for a paper, dataset, person, or system.
Capture	edition	A size-limited source edition or extract under an application profile.
Claim	statement	The proposition, separate from who accepts it.
Citation	evidence	How a passage, table, or observation bears on an assertion.
Artifact	view	A derived brief or answer with addressable inputs.

An attributable assertion sits between a claim and the evidence that bears on it. A small review leaves a path you can walk, where a chat answer leaves one paragraph:

inquiry:primary-endpoint
  → entity:trial-report
  → edition:trial-report-v1
  → statement:endpoint-12-weeks
  → assertion:endpoint-12-weeks
  → evidence:table-2
  → view:review-brief

The homepage trace shows the CLI read and an illustrative evidence record that passes its schema. It models how records point to their sources; it makes no claim about a real study.

For research data there is an optional profile with 14 domain vocabularies, source-preserving imports from Wikidata captures, and research packets that Oh validates before storing. The research profile lists each catalog, the version that added it, and what it covers.

Use the SDK

For a project dependency, pin the same immutable release in package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@hraness/oh": "0.14.1"
  }
}

The base package has no required runtime dependencies. Keyword search, ontology parsing, SQLite storage, replay verification, and sync need no hosted model.

import { Oh } from "@hraness/oh/sdk";

const oh = Oh.open({
  databasePath: ".oh/research.sqlite",
  spaceId: "paper-one",
});

try {
  const head = oh.head();
  oh.put({
    expectedHead: head,
    key: "entity:ada-lovelace",
    kind: "entity",
    value: { name: "Ada Lovelace" },
  });

  const result = await oh.search("Ada", { mode: "keyword" });
  console.log(result.results[0]?.record);
  // Recall fuses several searches and can add records from a date window: spec/v1/recall.md
  console.log((await oh.recall(["Ada", "engine"], { asOf: null })).results.length);
  console.log(oh.verify());
} finally {
  await oh.close();
}

Pass the head you reviewed when concurrent writers matter. After an OhConflictError, read the new head and records, reconcile your change, and submit a new operation; retrying the same call fails the same way.

Call Oh from TypeScript covers every SDK method, batch writes, error classes, and the table of entry points (@hraness/oh/store, @hraness/oh/libsql, @hraness/oh/sqlite, @hraness/oh/sync, @hraness/oh/projection, @hraness/oh/memory, and the rest), with the runtimes each one is tested under.

Use the best configured retrieval

With no mode, search and recall pick the strongest path you have configured: local reranking when a reranker is present, hybrid keyword and semantic search when a semantic backend is present, and keyword search otherwise. Pass mode when you need a particular policy or a reproducible comparison. A backend that is missing adds a diagnostic to the response and leaves the other results in place. Search and recall shows how to add local embeddings, a local reranker, or the hosted cache, and what each costs.

Give Oh to a coding agent

The repository includes an installable Agent Skill at skills/oh. The skill teaches an agent to read the contract and current head, write with the expected generation, verify the replay, and sync only where you tell it to.

Install the skill from this release with the skills CLI:

npx skills add hraness/oh#v0.14.1 --skill oh

The installer sets up the agents it finds, asking you to choose when there are several, and asks whether the skill is for the current project or for all your projects; --global chooses all projects. With Claude Code and Codex selected, it puts the skill in .agents/skills/oh, or ~/.agents/skills/oh for all projects, where Codex reads it, and links .claude/skills/oh or ~/.claude/skills/oh to that folder for Claude Code.

To install it by hand, copy the skills/oh folder from the installed npm package (in a project that depends on Oh, it is inside node_modules) to ~/.claude/skills/oh for Claude Code or ~/.agents/skills/oh for Codex. Run /skills in either agent to check that oh is listed, then ask for it by name: /oh in Claude Code or $oh in Codex. These locations and commands come from the Claude Code and Codex skills documentation, checked October 4, 2026.

You can also give an agent this prompt:

Install @hraness/[email protected] from npm and use its packaged Oh Agent Skill. The
exact npm tarball and SHA256SUMS are mirrored by the immutable v0.14.1 Release at
https://github.com/hraness/oh/releases/tag/v0.14.1. Verify the CLI with
`oh --help` and `oh version`.
Do not create or modify an Oh database until I name its path and ask you to.

Limits

• Digests detect changed contract, record, operation, and bundle bytes. They do not encrypt data, authenticate an actor, authorize a write, or prove that a research statement is true.
• Oh does not redact record values. Protect the database, filesystem, backups, and any sync destination according to the sensitivity of what you store.
• The optional QMD semantic cache holds text derived from records. Its model and inference stay local, but the cache needs the same care as the records.
• The libSQL sync transport checks the contract and that histories extend each other. You handle credentials, transport security, access control, tenant isolation, backup, retry, and remote availability.
• Divergent histories never merge automatically. Oh reports the conflict and leaves reconciliation to you.
• Derived rows and proofs are disposable output. Publishing one as knowledge takes an application-level review and a new write to the graph.

Read SECURITY.md for the full public threat model.

Benchmarks

Oh measures memory by whether it changed later work: the same reader answers questions about long conversations with different memory in front of it. On all 500 LongMemEval-S questions, completed September 26, 2026, GPT-5 mini answered each question three times and GPT-4o judged the answers with LongMemEval's prompts:

Memory in front of the reader	Mean accuracy	Questions correct in at least two of three runs
Oh semantic retrieval	88.87%	445
BM25 keyword retrieval	86.13%	431
Lab pipeline: the user's own log plus ranked replies and re-reads	93.07%	474

On the two-of-three measure, fixed before the runs, Oh leads BM25 by 2.8 points with a 95% interval from 0.0 to 5.6. The lab pipeline is not part of the package, and its rules were written after the same questions had been inspected; the benchmark report explains how it works and what the study cost.

Earlier studies are kept with their records: the SDK retrieval evaluation (default reranking 80.59% against 69.86% for matched semantic retrieval on 146 development questions), the CloneMem reserved-persona study (local reranking 77.82% against 70.54% for vector retrieval on 861 questions), and the matched framework pilot on 60 questions. Results that did not pass are kept too; the experiment history and reproduction guide lists every study, its dataset digests, and how to rerun it. Retrieval recall, answer quality, and how an agent writes memory are measured separately.

Run the network-free state and projection checks from a checkout:

bun run test:benchmarks
bun run bench:memory state
bun run bench:memory projection

Verify a checkout

bun install --frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts
bun run check

bun run check type-checks the package, runs every test, rebuilds the committed dist/ entry points, and fails if any tracked file changes.

Specification

spec/manifest.json is the machine-readable index of the contracts. The current contract is version 1:

• Canonical JSON and digests
• Ontology
• Schema evolution
• Graph and operations
• SQLite storage
• Store ports, profiles, and direct libSQL authority
• Sync protocol
• Local embedding profile
• Derived projections
• Compatibility and migration

The JSON Schemas describe the exchanged formats. The runtime parsers also enforce canonical ordering, byte limits, references between records, and the exact bytes each digest covers, which JSON Schema cannot express.

Compare with other memory tools

Most agent memory tools extract facts with a model and host them for you. Oh stores what you write, without a model rewriting it, in one SQLite file, and links each record to the records it rests on. The comparison page sets Oh beside the hosted and open-source alternatives with dated sources and the matched benchmark runs.

Who builds on Oh

Use Oh to build an application’s memory layer. Use Wordcell to maintain and query a Markdown knowledge base. Each consumer pins an immutable release and upgrades on its own schedule:

• Wordcell (source) is a Markdown knowledge base that gives agents the decisions behind code. It rebuilds a disposable Oh graph from your Markdown to answer named graph queries with source proofs. The Markdown vault is the only source of truth. wordcell graph rebuild writes a disposable, gitignored .wordcell/oh.sqlite copy of the graph, and no query or rebuild writes back into notes. How Wordcell uses Oh.
• Sponge runs deep research on your own machine. Its earlier hosted library at sponge.computer keeps its research agents’ working memory in a server-side Oh store, separate from the reviewed knowledge in its product database. The hosted library stopped accepting new research on September 12, 2026. How Sponge uses Oh.

Oh and Wordcell explains where one ends and the other begins. Wordcell measures its own search pipeline; Oh’s memory benchmark scores do not carry over to it.

Contribute and license

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before changing a wire format or a migration. Report security issues through the private process in SECURITY.md.

Oh is available under the MIT License. Notices for the bundled third-party code are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.