Agent Skills
Agent skills are ready-made instructions that help your AI assistant use Basic Memory well. They teach it when to save something, how to organize it, and how to pick up where you left off.
Pick the install path for the assistant you use:
- Claude (claude.ai and Claude Desktop): upload
basic-memory.zip. - ChatGPT: upload
basic-memory-chatgpt.zip. - Coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and others): install from the terminal with
npx.
Install in Claude
Skills work in claude.ai and Claude Desktop on the Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans.
Before you start: turn on code execution in Settings → Capabilities → Code execution and file creation. Skills need it to run. On Enterprise, an organization owner must also enable Skills in Organization settings → Plugins & skills.
- Download basic-memory.zip. Don't unzip it.
- Open Customize → Skills and click +.
- Choose Create skill → Upload a skill and select
basic-memory.zip. - Turn the skill on.
basic-memory.zip is one combined skill: core Basic Memory guidance, plus the other skills that work with the hosted connector (notes, search, continue, capture, quest, comark, and more) as references Claude reads when it needs them. Claude takes one skill per upload, so this is the easiest way to get everything at once. If you only want one skill, upload its ZIP from Individual skills instead.
See Claude's walkthrough with screenshots.
Install in ChatGPT
Uploading skills is available on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Healthcare, and Edu. A workspace admin must allow skill uploading.
- Download basic-memory-chatgpt.zip. Don't unzip it.
- Open Plugins and select the Skills tab.
- Click Create → Upload from your computer and select
basic-memory-chatgpt.zip. - Wait for ChatGPT to finish scanning it.
basic-memory-chatgpt.zip is the same combined skill as basic-memory.zip, plus an agents/openai.yaml file that gives it a name and card in ChatGPT. ChatGPT takes one skill per upload; for a single skill, upload its -chatgpt.zip from Individual skills instead.
See the ChatGPT skills walkthrough.
Install in a coding agent
Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other coding agents can install skills from the terminal with npx. It ships with Node.js; install Node.js first if needed.
Install every Basic Memory skill:
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills -g
The -g flag installs the skills for your user account, so they're available in every project. Leave it off to install them into the current project only.
Or install one skill:
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills --skill memory-onboarding -g
List the available skills:
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills --list
Skills activate automatically when your request matches what they teach. You can also invoke one by name:
- Claude Code:
/memory-notes - Codex:
$memory-notes
Install by hand
If you'd rather not use npx, download basic-memory-skills.zip and unzip it into your agent's skills folder. It holds every skill as its own folder. For Claude Code:
unzip basic-memory-skills.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/
basic-memory-skills-chatgpt.zip is the same bundle with agents/openai.yaml metadata in each skill, for Codex and other OpenAI tools.
basic-memory-skills.zip and basic-memory-skills-chatgpt.zip are folders of many skills for unzipping by hand, and Claude and ChatGPT will reject them as uploads. basic-memory.zip and basic-memory-chatgpt.zip are a single skill made for uploading.Individual skills (optional)
Most people should install the combined skill above. If you want just one skill, download its ZIP here and upload it the same way. Don't unzip it first.
| Skill | Purpose | Claude | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|---|
| memory-onboarding | Guided setup: interview, design, and build a complete knowledge system from scratch. | memory-onboarding.zip | memory-onboarding-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-quest | Finish Memory Quest Mission 8 by saving your Memory Master note. | memory-quest.zip | memory-quest-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-notes | Core note format: frontmatter, observations, relations, memory:// URLs. | memory-notes.zip | memory-notes-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-capture | Capture the state of a working thread into a single coherent note. | memory-capture.zip | memory-capture-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-continue | Resume prior work by rebuilding context from the knowledge graph. | memory-continue.zip | memory-continue-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-tasks | Structured task tracking that survives context compaction. | memory-tasks.zip | memory-tasks-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-schema | Schema lifecycle: infer, validate, create definitions, detect drift. | memory-schema.zip | memory-schema-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-curate | Find orphan notes, propose relations, merge duplicates, build hub notes. | memory-curate.zip | memory-curate-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-comark | Write notes that render as charts, tables, boards, and live dashboards. | memory-comark.zip | memory-comark-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-lifecycle | Status transitions through folder-based organization, archive-never-delete. | memory-lifecycle.zip | memory-lifecycle-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-metadata-search | Query notes by custom frontmatter fields (equality, range, array filters). | memory-metadata-search.zip | memory-metadata-search-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-ingest | Process transcripts, emails, and documents into structured notes. | memory-ingest.zip | memory-ingest-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-research | Web research synthesized into knowledge entities. | memory-research.zip | memory-research-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-reflect | Fold recent activity into the notes each topic belongs in, and write a dated reflection note. Installed on its own. | memory-reflect.zip | memory-reflect-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-defrag | Split bloated notes, consolidate scattered facts, retire stale content. Plans first; deletes only when told. Installed on its own. | memory-defrag.zip | memory-defrag-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-literary-analysis | Analyze a complete literary work into a structured knowledge graph. Requires local Basic Memory. | memory-literary-analysis.zip | memory-literary-analysis-chatgpt.zip |
| memory-okf | Find and fix what blocks an OKF v0.2 export: non-.md notes, reserved names, and reserved frontmatter. | memory-okf.zip | memory-okf-chatgpt.zip |
Skills marked Requires local Basic Memory work with files on your computer or the bm command line, so they need a local Basic Memory install rather than only the hosted connector. Skills marked Installed on its own use only the note tools and work in the cloud too, but they're meant to run on a schedule or on request, so you install them separately. Neither kind is part of the combined basic-memory.zip skill.
Use a skill
Skills activate automatically when your request matches what they teach. You can also name the skill directly:
"Use memory-onboarding to help me set up Basic Memory."
"Use memory-notes to write up what we just discussed."