vestige/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to Vestige will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[2.0.6] - 2026-04-18 — "Composer"

Polish release aimed at new-user happiness. v2.0.5's cognitive stack was already shipping; v2.0.6 makes it feel alive in the dashboard and stays out of your way on the prompt side.

Added

Dashboard visual feedback for six live events

• MemorySuppressed → violet implosion + compounding pulse whose intensity scales with suppression_count (Anderson 2025 SIF visualised).
• MemoryUnsuppressed → rainbow burst + green pulse when a memory is brought back within the 24h labile window.
• Rac1CascadeSwept → violet wave across a random neighbour sample while the background Rac1 worker fades co-activated memories.
• Connected → gentle cyan ripple on WebSocket handshake.
• ConsolidationStarted → subtle amber pulses across a 20-node sample during the FSRS-6 decay cycle (matches feed-entry colour).
• ImportanceScored → magenta pulse on the scored node with intensity proportional to composite score.

Before v2.0.6 all six events fired against a silent graph. Users perceived the dashboard as broken or unresponsive during real cognitive work.

VESTIGE_SYSTEM_PROMPT_MODE environment variable

• minimal (default) — 3-sentence MCP instructions string telling the client how to use Vestige and how to react to explicit feedback. Safe for every audience, every client, every use case.
• full — opt in to the composition mandate (Composing / Never-composed / Recommendation response shape + FSRS-trust blocking phrase). Useful for high-stakes decision workflows; misfires on trivial retrievals, which is why it is not the default.

Advertised in vestige-mcp --help alongside VESTIGE_DASHBOARD_ENABLED.

Fixed

Dashboard intentions page

• IntentionItem.priority was typed as string but the API returns the numeric FSRS-style scale (1=low, 2=normal, 3=high, 4=critical). Every intention rendered as "normal priority" regardless of its real value. Now uses a PRIORITY_LABELS map keyed by the numeric scale.
• trigger_value was typed as a plain string but the API returns trigger_data as a JSON-encoded payload (e.g. {"type":"time","at":"..."}). The UI surfaced raw JSON for every non-manual trigger. A new summarizeTrigger() helper parses trigger_data and picks the most human-readable field — condition / topic / formatted at / in_minutes / codebase/filePattern — before truncating for display. Closes the loop on PR #26's snake_case TriggerSpec fix at the UI layer.

Docs

• README.md — new "What's New in v2.0.6" header up top; v2.0.5 block strengthened with explicit contrast against Ebbinghaus 1885 passive decay and Anderson 1994 retrieval-induced forgetting; new "Forgetting" row in the RAG-vs-Vestige comparison table.
• Intel-Mac and Windows install steps replaced with a working cargo build --release -p vestige-mcp snippet. The pre-built binaries for those targets are blocked on upstream toolchain gaps (ort-sys lacks Intel-Mac prebuilts in the 2.0.0-rc.11 release pinned by fastembed 5.13.2; usearch 2.24.0 hit a Windows MSVC compile break tracked as usearch#746).

Safety

No regressions of merged contributor PRs — v2.0.6 only touches regions that are non-overlapping with #20 (resource URI strip), #24 (codex integration docs), #26 (snake_case TriggerSpec), #28 (deep_reference query relevance), #29 (older glibc feature flags), #30 (VESTIGE_DASHBOARD_ENABLED), #32 (dream eviction), and #33 (keyword-first search).

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[2.0.5] - 2026-04-14 — "Intentional Amnesia"

Every AI memory system stores too much. Vestige now treats forgetting as a first-class, neuroscientifically-grounded primitive. This release adds active forgetting — top-down inhibitory control over memory retrieval, based on two 2025 papers that no other AI memory system has implemented.

Scientific grounding

• Anderson, M. C., Hanslmayr, S., & Quaegebeur, L. (2025). "Brain mechanisms underlying the inhibitory control of thought." Nature Reviews Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/s41583-025-00929-y. Establishes the right lateral PFC as the domain-general inhibitory controller, and Suppression-Induced Forgetting (SIF) as compounding with each stopping attempt.
• Cervantes-Sandoval, I., Chakraborty, M., MacMullen, C., & Davis, R. L. (2020). "Rac1 Impairs Forgetting-Induced Cellular Plasticity in Mushroom Body Output Neurons." Front Cell Neurosci. PMC7477079. Establishes Rac1 GTPase as the active synaptic destabilization mechanism — forgetting is a biological PROCESS, not passive decay.

Added

suppress MCP Tool (NEW — Tool #24)

• Top-down memory suppression. Distinct from memory.delete (which removes) and memory.demote (which is a one-shot hit). Each suppress call compounds: suppression_count increments, and a k × suppression_count penalty (saturating at 80%) is subtracted from retrieval scores during hybrid search.
• Rac1 cascade. Background worker piggybacks the existing consolidation loop, walks memory_connections edges from recently-suppressed seeds, and applies attenuated FSRS decay to co-activated neighbors. You don't just forget "Jake" — you fade the café, the roommate, the birthday.
• Reversible 24h labile window — matches Nader reconsolidation semantics on a 24-hour axis. Pass reverse: true within 24h to undo. After that, it locks in.
• Never deletes — the memory persists and is still accessible via memory.get(id). It's INHIBITED, not erased.

active_forgetting Cognitive Module (NEW — #30)

• crates/vestige-core/src/neuroscience/active_forgetting.rs — stateless helper for SIF penalty computation, labile window tracking, and Rac1 cascade factors.
• 7 unit tests + 9 integration tests = 16 new tests.

Migration V10

• ALTER TABLE knowledge_nodes ADD COLUMN suppression_count INTEGER DEFAULT 0
• ALTER TABLE knowledge_nodes ADD COLUMN suppressed_at TEXT
• Partial indices on both columns for efficient sweep queries.
• Additive-only — backward compatible with all existing v2.0.x databases.

Dashboard

• ForgettingIndicator.svelte — new status pill that pulses when suppressed memories exist.
• 3D graph nodes dim to 20% opacity and lose emissive glow when suppressed.
• New WebSocket events: MemorySuppressed, MemoryUnsuppressed, Rac1CascadeSwept.
• Heartbeat event now carries suppressed_count for live dashboard display.

Changed

• search scoring pipeline now includes an SIF penalty applied after the accessibility filter.
• Consolidation worker (VESTIGE_CONSOLIDATION_INTERVAL_HOURS, default 6h) now runs run_rac1_cascade_sweep after each run_consolidation call.
• Tool count assertion bumped from 23 → 24.
• Workspace version bumped 2.0.4 → 2.0.5.

Tests

• Rust: 1,284 passing (up from 1,237). Net +47 new tests for active forgetting, Rac1 cascade, migration V10.
• Dashboard (Vitest): 171 passing (up from 150). +21 regression tests locking in the issue #31 UI fix.
• Zero warnings, clippy clean across all targets.

Fixed

• Dashboard graph view rendered glowing squares instead of round halos (#31). Root cause: the node glow THREE.SpriteMaterial had no map set, so Sprite rendered as a solid-coloured 1×1 plane; additive blending plus UnrealBloomPass(strength=0.8, radius=0.4, threshold=0.85) then amplified the square edges into hard-edged glowing cubes. The aggressive FogExp2(..., 0.008) swallowed edges at depth and dark-navy 0x4a4a7a lines were invisible against the fog. Fix bundled:
  • Generated a shared 128×128 radial-gradient CanvasTexture (module-level singleton) and assigned it as SpriteMaterial.map. Gradient stops: rgba(255,255,255,1.0) → rgba(255,255,255,0.7) → rgba(255,255,255,0.2) → rgba(255,255,255,0.0). Sprite now reads as a soft round halo; bloom diffuses cleanly.
  • Retuned UnrealBloomPass to (strength=0.55, radius=0.6, threshold=0.2) — gentler, allows mid-tones to bloom instead of only blown-out highlights.
  • Halved fog density FogExp2(0x050510, 0.008) → FogExp2(0x0a0a1a, 0.0035) so distant memories stay visible.
  • Bumped edge color 0x4a4a7a → 0x8b5cf6 (brand violet). Opacity 0.1 + weight*0.5 → 0.25 + weight*0.5, cap 0.6 → 0.8. Added depthWrite: false so edges blend cleanly through fog.
  • Added explicit scene.background = 0x05050f and a 2000-point starfield distributed on a spherical shell at radius 600–1000, additive-blended with subtle cool-white/violet vertex colors.
  • Glow sprite scale bumped size × 4 → size × 6 so the gradient has visible screen footprint.
  • All node glow sprites share a single CanvasTexture instance (singleton cache — memory leak guard for large graphs).
  • 21 regression tests added in apps/dashboard/src/lib/graph/__tests__/ui-fixes.test.ts. Hybrid strategy: runtime unit tests via the existing three-mock.ts (extended to propagate map/color/depthWrite/blending params and added createRadialGradient to the canvas context mock), plus source-level regex assertions on scene.ts and nodes.ts magic numbers so any accidental revert of fog/bloom/color/helper fails the suite immediately.
• apps/dashboard/package.json version stale at 2.0.3 — bumped to 2.0.5 to match the workspace.
• packages/vestige-mcp-npm/.gitignore missing bin/vestige-restore and bin/vestige-restore.exe entries — the other three binaries were already ignored as postinstall downloads.

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[2.0.4] - 2026-04-09 — "Deep Reference"

Context windows hit 1M tokens. Memory matters more than ever. This release removes artificial limits, adds contradiction detection, and hardens security.

Added

cross_reference Tool (NEW — Tool #22)

• Connect the dots across memories. Given a query or claim, searches broadly, detects agreements and contradictions between memories, identifies superseded/outdated information, and returns a confidence-scored synthesis.
• Pairwise contradiction detection using negation pairs + correction signals, gated on shared topic words to prevent false positives.
• Timeline analysis (newest-first), confidence scoring (agreements boost, contradictions penalize, recency bonus).

retrieval_mode Parameter (search tool)

• precise — top results only, no spreading activation or competition. Fast, token-efficient.
• balanced — full 7-stage cognitive pipeline (default, no behavior change).
• exhaustive — 5x overfetch, deep graph traversal, no competition suppression. Maximum recall.

get_batch Action (memory tool)

• memory({ action: "get_batch", ids: ["id1", "id2", ...] }) — retrieve up to 20 full memory nodes in one call.

Changed

• Token budget raised: 10K → 100K on search and session_context tools.
• HTTP transport CORS: permissive() → localhost-only origin restriction.
• Auth token display: Guarded against panic on short tokens.
• Dormant state threshold: Aligned search (0.3 → 0.4) with memory tool for consistent state classification.
• cross_reference false positive prevention: Requires 2+ shared words before checking negation signals.

Stats

• 23 MCP tools, 758 tests passing, 0 failures
• Full codebase audit: 3 parallel agents, all issues resolved

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[2.0.0] - 2026-02-22 — "Cognitive Leap"

The biggest release in Vestige history. A complete visual and cognitive overhaul.

Added

3D Memory Dashboard

• SvelteKit 2 + Three.js dashboard — full 3D neural visualization at localhost:3927/dashboard
• 7 interactive pages: Graph (3D force-directed), Memories (browser), Timeline, Feed (real-time events), Explore (connections), Intentions, Stats
• WebSocket event bus — tokio::broadcast channel with 16 event types (MemoryCreated, SearchPerformed, DreamStarted/Completed, ConsolidationStarted/Completed, RetentionDecayed, ConnectionDiscovered, ActivationSpread, ImportanceScored, Heartbeat, etc.)
• Real-time 3D animations — memories pulse on access, burst particles on creation, shockwave rings on dreams, golden flash lines on connection discovery, fade on decay
• Bloom post-processing — cinematic neural network aesthetic with UnrealBloomPass
• GPU instanced rendering — 1000+ nodes at 60fps via Three.js InstancedMesh
• Text label sprites — distance-based visibility (fade in <40 units, out >80 units), canvas-based rendering
• Dream visualization mode — purple ambient, slow-motion orbit, sequential memory replay
• FSRS retention curves — SVG R(t) = e^(-t/S) with prediction pills at 1d/7d/30d
• Command palette — Cmd+K navigation with filtered search
• Keyboard shortcuts — G Graph, M Memories, T Timeline, F Feed, E Explore, I Intentions, S Stats, / Search
• Responsive layout — desktop sidebar + mobile bottom nav with safe-area-inset
• PWA support — installable via manifest.json
• Single binary deployment — SvelteKit build embedded via include_dir! macro

Engine Upgrades

• HyDE query expansion — template-based Hypothetical Document Embeddings: classify_intent (6 types) → expand_query (3-5 variants) → centroid_embedding. Wired into semantic_search_raw
• fastembed 5.11 — upgraded from 5.9, adds Nomic v2 MoE + Qwen3 reranker support
• Nomic Embed Text v2 MoE — opt-in via --features nomic-v2 (475M params, 305M active, 8 experts, Candle backend)
• Qwen3 Reranker — opt-in via --features qwen3-reranker (Candle backend, high-precision cross-encoder)
• Metal GPU acceleration — opt-in via --features metal (Apple Silicon, significantly faster embedding inference)

Backend

• Axum WebSocket — /ws endpoint with 5-second heartbeat, live stats (memory count, avg retention, uptime)
• 7 new REST endpoints — POST /api/dream, /api/explore, /api/predict, /api/importance, /api/consolidate, GET /api/search, /api/retention-distribution, /api/intentions
• Event emission from MCP tools — emit_tool_event() broadcasts events for smart_ingest, search, dream, consolidate, memory, importance_score
• Shared broadcast channel — single tokio::broadcast::channel(1024) shared between dashboard and MCP server
• CORS for SvelteKit dev — localhost:5173 allowed in dev mode

Benchmarks

• Criterion benchmark suite — cosine_similarity 296ns, centroid 1.3µs, HyDE expand 1.4µs, RRF fusion 17µs

Changed

• Version: 1.8.0 → 2.0.0 (both crates)
• Rust edition: 2024 (MSRV 1.85)
• Tests: 651 → 734 (352 core + 378 mcp + 4 doctests)
• Binary size: ~22MB (includes embedded SvelteKit dashboard)
• CognitiveEngine moved from main.rs binary crate to lib.rs for dashboard access
• Dashboard served at /dashboard prefix (legacy HTML kept at / and /graph)
• McpServer now accepts optional broadcast::Sender<VestigeEvent> for event emission

Technical

• apps/dashboard/ — new SvelteKit app (Svelte 5, Tailwind CSS 4, Three.js 0.172, @sveltejs/adapter-static)
• dashboard/events.rs — 16-variant VestigeEvent enum with #[serde(tag = "type", content = "data")]
• dashboard/websocket.rs — WebSocket upgrade handler with heartbeat + event forwarding
• dashboard/static_files.rs — include_dir! macro for embedded SvelteKit build
• search/hyde.rs — HyDE module with intent classification and query expansion
• benches/search_bench.rs — Criterion benchmarks for search pipeline components

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[1.8.0] - 2026-02-21

Added

• session_context tool — one-call session initialization replacing 5 separate calls (search × 2, intention check, system_status, predict). Token-budgeted responses (~15K tokens → ~500-1000 tokens). Returns assembled markdown context, automationTriggers (needsDream/needsBackup/needsGc), and expandable memory IDs for on-demand retrieval.
• token_budget parameter on search — limits response size (100-10000 tokens). Results exceeding budget moved to expandable array with tokensUsed/tokenBudget tracking.
• Reader/writer connection split — Storage struct uses Mutex<Connection> for separate reader/writer SQLite handles with WAL mode. All methods take &self (interior mutability). Arc<Mutex<Storage>> → Arc<Storage> across ~30 files.
• int8 vector quantization — ScalarKind::F16 → I8 (2x memory savings, <1% recall loss)
• Migration v7 — FTS5 porter tokenizer (15-30% keyword recall) + page_size 8192 (10-30% faster large-row reads)
• 22 new tests for session_context and token_budget (335 → 357 mcp tests, 651 total)

Changed

• Tool count: 18 → 19
• EmbeddingService::init() changed from &mut self to &self (dead model_loaded field removed)
• CLAUDE.md updated: session start uses session_context, 19 tools documented, development section reflects storage architecture

Performance

• Session init: ~15K tokens → ~500-1000 tokens (single tool call)
• Vector storage: 2x reduction (F16 → I8)
• Keyword search: 15-30% better recall (FTS5 porter stemming)
• Large-row reads: 10-30% faster (page_size 8192)
• Concurrent reads: non-blocking (reader/writer WAL split)

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[1.7.0] - 2026-02-20

Changed

• Tool consolidation: 23 → 18 tools — merged redundant tools while maintaining 100% backward compatibility via deprecated redirects
• ingest → smart_ingest — ingest was a duplicate of smart_ingest; now redirects automatically
• session_checkpoint → smart_ingest batch mode — new items parameter on smart_ingest accepts up to 20 items, each running the full cognitive pipeline (importance scoring, intent detection, synaptic tagging, hippocampal indexing). Old session_checkpoint skipped the cognitive pipeline.
• promote_memory + demote_memory → memory unified — new promote and demote actions on the memory tool with optional reason parameter and full cognitive feedback pipeline (reward signal, reconsolidation, competition)
• health_check + stats → system_status — single tool returns combined health status, full statistics, FSRS preview, cognitive module health, state distribution, warnings, and recommendations
• CLAUDE.md automation overhaul — all 18 tools now have explicit auto-trigger rules; session start expanded to 5 steps (added system_status + predict); full proactive behaviors table

Added

• smart_ingest batch mode with items parameter (max 20 items, full cognitive pipeline per item)
• memory actions: promote and demote with optional reason parameter
• system_status tool combining health check + statistics + cognitive health
• 30 new tests (305 → 335)

Deprecated (still work via redirects)

• ingest → use smart_ingest
• session_checkpoint → use smart_ingest with items
• promote_memory → use memory(action="promote")
• demote_memory → use memory(action="demote")
• health_check → use system_status
• stats → use system_status

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[1.6.0] - 2026-02-19

Changed

• F16 vector quantization — USearch vectors stored as F16 instead of F32 (2x storage savings)
• Matryoshka 256-dim truncation — embedding dimensions reduced from 768 to 256 (3x embedding storage savings)
• Convex Combination fusion — replaced RRF with 0.3 keyword / 0.7 semantic weighted fusion for better score preservation
• Cross-encoder reranker — added Jina Reranker v1 Turbo (fastembed TextRerank) for neural reranking (~20% retrieval quality improvement)
• Combined: 6x vector storage reduction with better retrieval quality
• Cross-encoder loads in background — server starts instantly
• Old 768-dim embeddings auto-migrated on load

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[1.5.0] - 2026-02-18

Added

• CognitiveEngine — 28-module stateful engine with full neuroscience pipeline on every tool call
• dream tool — memory consolidation via replay, discovers hidden connections and synthesizes insights
• explore_connections tool — graph traversal with chain, associations, and bridges actions
• predict tool — proactive retrieval based on context and activity patterns
• restore tool — restore memories from JSON backup files
• Automatic consolidation — FSRS-6 decay runs on a 6-hour timer + inline every 100 tool calls
• ACT-R base-level activation with full access history
• Episodic-to-semantic auto-merge during consolidation
• Cross-memory reinforcement on access
• Park et al. triple retrieval scoring
• Personalized w20 optimization

Changed

• All existing tools upgraded with cognitive pre/post processing pipelines
• Tool count: 19 → 23

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[1.3.0] - 2026-02-12

Added

• importance_score tool — 4-channel neuroscience scoring (novelty, arousal, reward, attention)
• session_checkpoint tool — batch smart_ingest up to 20 items with Prediction Error Gating
• find_duplicates tool — cosine similarity clustering with union-find for dedup
• vestige ingest CLI command for memory ingestion via command line

Changed

• Tool count: 16 → 19
• Made get_node_embedding public in core API
• Added get_all_embeddings for duplicate scanning

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[1.2.0] - 2026-02-12

Added

• Web dashboard — Axum-based on port 3927 with memory browser, search, and system stats
• memory_timeline tool — browse memories chronologically, grouped by day
• memory_changelog tool — audit trail of memory state transitions
• health_check tool — system health status with recommendations
• consolidate tool — run FSRS-6 maintenance cycle
• stats tool — full memory system statistics
• backup tool — create SQLite database backups
• export tool — export memories as JSON/JSONL with filters
• gc tool — garbage collect low-retention memories
• backup_to() and get_recent_state_transitions() storage APIs

Changed

• Search now supports detail_level (brief/summary/full) to control token usage
• Tool count: 8 → 16

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[1.1.3] - 2026-02-12

Changed

• Upgraded to Rust edition 2024
• Security hardening and dependency updates

Fixed

• Dedup on ingest edge cases
• Intel Mac CI builds
• NPM package version alignment
• Removed dead TypeScript package

---

[1.1.2] - 2025-01-27

Fixed

• Embedding model cache now uses platform-appropriate directories instead of polluting project folders
  • macOS: ~/Library/Caches/com.vestige.core/fastembed
  • Linux: ~/.cache/vestige/fastembed
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\vestige\cache\fastembed
• Can still override with FASTEMBED_CACHE_PATH environment variable

---

[1.1.1] - 2025-01-27

Fixed

• UTF-8 string slicing issues in keyword search and prospective memory
• Silent error handling in MCP stdio protocol
• Feature flag forwarding between crates
• All GitHub issues resolved (#1, #3, #4)

Added

• Pre-built binaries for Linux, Windows, and macOS (Intel & ARM)
• GitHub Actions CI/CD for automated releases

---

[1.1.0] - 2025-01-26

Changed

• Tool Consolidation: 29 tools → 8 cognitive primitives
  • recall, semantic_search, hybrid_search → search
  • get_knowledge, delete_knowledge, get_memory_state → memory
  • remember_pattern, remember_decision, get_codebase_context → codebase
  • 5 intention tools → intention
• Stats and maintenance moved from MCP to CLI (vestige stats, vestige health, etc.)

Added

• CLI admin commands: vestige stats, vestige health, vestige consolidate, vestige restore
• Feedback tools: promote_memory, demote_memory
• 30+ FAQ entries with verified neuroscience claims
• Storage modes documentation: Global, per-project, multi-Claude household
• CLAUDE.md templates for proactive memory use
• Version pinning via git tags

Deprecated

• Old tool names (still work with warnings, removed in v2.0)

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[1.0.0] - 2025-01-25

Added

• FSRS-6 spaced repetition algorithm with 21 parameters
• Bjork & Bjork dual-strength memory model (storage + retrieval strength)
• Local semantic embeddings with fastembed v5 (BGE-base-en-v1.5, 768 dimensions)
• HNSW vector search with USearch (20x faster than FAISS)
• Hybrid search combining BM25 keyword + semantic + RRF fusion
• Two-stage retrieval with reranking (+15-20% precision)
• MCP server for Claude Desktop integration
• Tauri desktop application
• Codebase memory module for AI code understanding
• Neuroscience-inspired memory mechanisms:
  • Synaptic Tagging and Capture (retroactive importance)
  • Context-Dependent Memory (Tulving encoding specificity)
  • Spreading Activation Networks
  • Memory States (Active/Dormant/Silent/Unavailable)
  • Multi-channel Importance Signals (Novelty/Arousal/Reward/Attention)
  • Hippocampal Indexing (Teyler & Rudy 2007)
• Prospective memory (intentions and reminders)
• Sleep consolidation with 5-stage processing
• Memory compression for long-term storage
• Cross-project learning for universal patterns

Changed

• Upgraded embedding model from all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (384d) to BGE-base-en-v1.5 (768d)
• Upgraded fastembed from v4 to v5

Fixed

• SQL injection protection in FTS5 queries
• Infinite loop prevention in file watcher
• SIGSEGV crash in vector index (reserve before add)
• Memory safety with Mutex wrapper for embedding model

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[0.1.0] - 2025-01-24

Added

• Initial release
• Core memory storage with SQLite + FTS5
• Basic FSRS scheduling
• MCP protocol support
• Desktop app skeleton