ai-memory/companions/ai-memory-macos

AI Memory (macOS menu bar)

Self-contained macOS accessory app that ships the ai-memory runtime, governs the LaunchAgent, and opens the surfaces the tool already has. It is a wrapper, not a second operator console.

This companion is not a root Cargo workspace member. Durable memory stays in the user data directory so replacing the .app does not rewrite wiki, SQLite, config, models, or logs.

In the .app (replaceable)	In the user data dir (survives updates)
Swift menu bar UI	wiki, SQLite, config.toml
ai-memory binary	hook spool, auth.json, capture-mode
bundled hooks/	downloaded embedding models
LaunchAgent template	rendered plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
	logs in ~/Library/Logs/ai-memory/

Data directory: ~/Library/Application Support/ai-memory (the binary’s existing macOS default). Optional override in Settings writes AI_MEMORY_DATA_DIR into the LaunchAgent plist only.

This app does not replace ai-memory status, /web, or hand-editing config.toml. Those stay the real tools; the menu opens them.

Build

From the repository root (needs a Rust toolchain and Xcode / Swift 6):

chmod +x companions/ai-memory-macos/build.sh
./companions/ai-memory-macos/build.sh
open "companions/ai-memory-macos/dist/AI Memory.app"

build.sh compiles ai-memory with Cargo, compiles the Swift menu extra, and stages:

AI Memory.app/Contents/Resources/runtime/
  ai-memory
  hooks/
  packaging/launchd/com.github.akitaonrails.ai-memory.plist

Drag the .app to /Applications for a stable LaunchAgent path. Notarization, Developer ID, and a Homebrew cask are out of this companion’s first version.

Use

1. Open the app (menu bar extra; no Dock icon).
2. Install & Start Server — runs bundled ai-memory init if config.toml is missing, renders the existing launchd template, and launchctl bootstraps com.github.akitaonrails.ai-memory.
3. The status item turns green when GET /admin/status succeeds.
4. Open Web UI, Show Status… (bundled ai-memory status), Open Config, Open Data Directory, Open Logs.

Updates: replace /Applications/AI Memory.app. The data dir is untouched. If the helper path inside the bundle changed, Restart Server re-renders the plist.

Tests

swift test --package-path companions/ai-memory-macos

Root cargo t / cargo tf do not cover this package.

Open in Xcode

Open companions/ai-memory-macos/Package.swift. swift run from the package directory will not include the staged runtime; use build.sh (or set AI_MEMORY_MENU_RUNTIME at the tarball-equivalent runtime/ directory) to govern the service.