shared-memory

A self-hosted MCP server that gives Claude Code sessions a shared, persistent memory plus a reusable snippet library, behind your own OIDC login. Includes a Web UI for reviewing, editing, and deleting what's been stored.

Works with any OIDC-compliant identity provider — Authentik (the worked example below), Microsoft Entra ID, Keycloak, Okta, Auth0, Zitadel, Google Workspace. Anything that publishes a /.well-known/openid-configuration.

Status: Phase 2 — memory with hybrid (vector + FTS + tags) search, OIDC-authed Web UI, MCP endpoint with JWKS-validated bearer tokens. Rich Web UI lands in Phase 3.

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Architecture

┌─────────────────┐        ┌───────────────────────┐        ┌─────────────────┐
│  Claude Code    │──MCP──▶│  shared-memory app    │◀──OIDC─│  Your OIDC IdP  │
│  (many sessions)│  HTTP  │  Next.js + MCP route  │        │  (Authentik /   │
└─────────────────┘        │  + Web UI             │        │   EntraID /     │
                           └───────────┬───────────┘        │   Keycloak/...) │
                                       │                    └─────────────────┘
                                       │                          ▲
                                ┌──────▼──────┐         user logs in
                                │ Postgres 16 │         via web browser
                                │  + pgvector │
                                └─────────────┘
                                       ▲
                                 ┌─────┴─────┐
                                 │ embedder  │  (bge-small via Xenova
                                 │ sidecar   │   transformers, on-CPU)
                                 └───────────┘

The same container serves both the MCP endpoint (under /api/mcp) and the Web UI. Users authenticate via your OIDC provider with pre-registered confidential clients. Identity is keyed on the OIDC sub + iss so memories are scoped per user.

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Prerequisites

• A host with Docker and Docker Compose v2 installed (≥ 2.24.0 if you plan to use the external Postgres override).
• An OIDC identity provider you control (Authentik, EntraID, Keycloak, Okta, Auth0, Zitadel, …). The setup walkthrough below uses Authentik because that's what we run; other IdPs need equivalent settings.
• A public DNS record for the chosen hostname pointing at your reverse proxy (HAProxy, nginx, Cloudflare Tunnel, …) or at this host directly.
• A Postgres-friendly disk for the db_data volume.

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Deployment modes

Pick one based on how you handle TLS:

Mode A — Behind an external reverse proxy (DEFAULT)

You already have HAProxy / nginx / Traefik / Cloudflare Tunnel terminating TLS for your domain. The app exposes a plain HTTP port to the host; your proxy forwards traffic to it.

docker compose up -d

The app listens on ${APP_PORT:-3000} on the host. Point your proxy there. See HAProxy example below.

Mode B — Built-in TLS via Caddy

The host directly faces the internet on ports 80/443 and you want auto-managed Let's Encrypt certs.

docker compose --profile tls up -d

Caddy reads APP_HOSTNAME and ACME_EMAIL from .env and proxies to the app on the internal Docker network.

Mode C — AWS Fargate (Terraform)

For deployments where docker-compose on a VM isn't a fit (multi-AZ HA, managed RDS, no host to babysit), the terraform/ directory ships a module that wires the same three components into ECS Fargate behind an ALB:

cd terraform/examples/basic
$EDITOR main.tf terraform.tfvars   # plug in your VPC, RDS, ACM, ECR, OIDC
terraform init && terraform apply

You bring the VPC, RDS Postgres, ACM cert, ECR images, and OIDC clients; the module brings ECS, ALB, EFS (for the embedder model cache), Secrets Manager, IAM, CloudWatch, and Service Connect for app↔embedder discovery. Full walkthrough in terraform/README.md, including the post-apply migrator invocation and DNS setup.

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Quick start

git clone https://repo.anhonesthost.net/jknapp/shared-memory.git
cd shared-memory
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env — see "Configuration" and "OIDC provider setup" below
docker compose build
docker compose up -d                # Mode A (behind external proxy)
# OR
docker compose --profile tls up -d  # Mode B (built-in TLS)

# tail logs to watch migrations run + app come up
docker compose logs -f migrator app

When app reports Listening on http://0.0.0.0:3000, visit your PUBLIC_URL and click Sign in with OIDC. You should land on /me showing your OIDC session.

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Configuration

All runtime config is in .env at the repo root. Never commit this file. Copy .env.example and fill in the values below.

Variable	Mode	What it is
PUBLIC_URL	both	Full external URL of this app, e.g. https://memory.example.com. Used by Auth.js for callbacks and by the MCP route for resource metadata.
APP_PORT	A	Host port the app listens on for the external proxy. Default 3000.
APP_BIND	A	Interface to bind on. Use 127.0.0.1 to only accept traffic from a proxy on the same host. Default 0.0.0.0.
APP_HOSTNAME	B	Hostname only (no scheme). Caddy uses it for the TLS site block.
ACME_EMAIL	B	Email for Let's Encrypt registration.
OIDC_ISSUER	both	OIDC issuer URL for this app. Authentik uses https://auth.example.com/application/o/<slug>/; other IdPs vary.
OIDC_CLIENT_ID_WEB	both	Client ID of the Web-UI OAuth/OIDC client in your IdP.
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET_WEB	both	Client secret of the Web-UI client.
OIDC_CLIENT_ID_MCP	both	Client ID of the MCP resource-server client in your IdP.
OIDC_AUDIENCE	both	Audience string the MCP access token must carry in its aud claim. Recommended: shared-memory.
POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD / POSTGRES_DB	both	Local Postgres credentials.
NEXTAUTH_SECRET	both	Session-cookie signing key. Generate with openssl rand -base64 32.
EMBEDDER_URL	both	Phase 2 embedder sidecar. Leave empty in Phase 1.
LOG_LEVEL	both	debug / info / warn / error.

Mode column: A = external proxy (default), B = built-in Caddy TLS.

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External Postgres (RDS, Cloud SQL, etc.)

By default the compose stack runs a bundled pgvector/pgvector:pg16 container with its data on a Docker volume. For production deployments you may prefer a managed Postgres (AWS RDS, GCP Cloud SQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, …). An opt-in override file disables the bundled db service and lets the app point at any reachable Postgres.

When to use

• You already have a managed Postgres you trust (point-in-time recovery, automated snapshots, monitoring, IAM, etc.).
• You want to scale the database independently of the app host.
• Compliance / data-residency rules require the DB to live elsewhere.

If none of that applies, the bundled db is fine — keep using docker compose up -d and skip this section.

Connection requirements

• The DB must be reachable from wherever the app runs (security group / firewall / VPC peering / private link as appropriate).
• SSL is strongly recommended. For RDS append ?sslmode=require to the URL.
• The DB user needs enough privileges on first boot to install extensions (pgvector, pg_trgm, pgcrypto). The migrator runs CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS for each — on RDS the user needs the rds_superuser role, or have an admin pre-create the extensions and grant the app's user USAGE on them.

Extension requirements

• pgvector — vector search. RDS Postgres ≥ 15.5 ships pgvector as a trusted extension; 16.x (what this project targets) supports it out of the box. Cloud SQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL also expose it as a flagged / configurable extension.
• pg_trgm — trigram index for hybrid lexical search.
• pgcrypto — gen_random_uuid() for ID generation.

Compose invocation

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.external-db.yml up -d

Set DATABASE_URL in .env to your managed-DB connection string before running this — the POSTGRES_* variables are no longer consulted in this mode. See .env.example for the RDS-style example URL.

Combine with the built-in TLS profile if you want Caddy as well:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.external-db.yml --profile tls up -d

What about backups?

You give up the db_data volume (which you'd back up with whatever volume backup story you already use) and inherit your managed provider's backup story instead — RDS automated snapshots + point-in-time recovery, Cloud SQL automated backups, Azure server-level backups, etc. In practice this is the main reason to switch: pushing backup-and-restore to a managed service that already does it well.

AWS Fargate / managed deploy

For a fully-managed deployment (Fargate app + RDS DB, no Docker host of your own), see terraform/README.md for an opinionated Terraform module that wires it all up.

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OIDC provider setup

You need two OAuth2 / OIDC clients on your identity provider:

• Web UI client — confidential, used when a human signs in through the browser to the Web UI
• MCP resource-server client — public (PKCE), used by Claude Code or any other MCP client to obtain access tokens scoped to the MCP endpoint

Reusing one client for both works, but the two-client setup keeps token audiences cleanly separated and matches the rest of this doc.

The walkthrough below uses Authentik because that's what we run. The shape is the same on any OIDC provider; the UI labels differ:

Concept here	Authentik	Microsoft Entra ID	Keycloak
OAuth2 client	Provider + Application	App registration	Client
Redirect URI list	Provider's "Redirect URIs / Origins"	App's "Redirect URIs"	Client's "Valid Redirect URIs"
Audience claim	Scope mapping or property mapping	"Expose an API" + scope	Client scope with audience mapper

A. Web UI provider

Admin → Applications → Providers → Create → OAuth2/OpenID Provider

• Name: shared-memory-web
• Authorization flow: default-provider-authorization-explicit-consent (or your standard auth flow)
• Client type: Confidential
• Client ID: auto-generated → copy to .env as OIDC_CLIENT_ID_WEB
• Client Secret: auto-generated → copy to .env as OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET_WEB
• Redirect URIs / Origins:

  https://memory.example.com/api/auth/callback/oidc
  

  (replace with your PUBLIC_URL)
• Signing Key: select your authentik Self-signed Certificate
• Scopes: openid, profile, email

Save. Then Admin → Applications → Applications → Create:

• Name / Slug: shared-memory (the slug becomes the path in the issuer URL)
• Provider: shared-memory-web
• Launch URL: https://memory.example.com/

The slug is what makes OIDC_ISSUER end with .../application/o/shared-memory/.

B. MCP resource-server provider

The MCP endpoint validates access tokens issued by Authentik for a specific audience (OIDC_AUDIENCE). This second provider exists so Claude Code's tokens carry aud: shared-memory (or whatever value you chose).

Admin → Applications → Providers → Create → OAuth2/OpenID Provider

• Name: shared-memory-mcp
• Authorization flow: same as above
• Client type: Public (Claude Code runs PKCE without a static secret) or Confidential if you prefer to issue a secret to each Claude Code install — both work. Phase 1 expects Public.
• Client ID: auto-generated → copy to .env as OIDC_CLIENT_ID_MCP
• Redirect URIs: Claude Code prints the exact value when it first connects to the MCP endpoint. Paste it into Authentik then.
• Scopes: openid, profile, email
• Signing Key: same cert as the Web provider

Setting the aud claim

The MCP endpoint requires the access token's aud claim to equal OIDC_AUDIENCE. Authentik does not always emit aud by default. The reliable pattern:

1. Create a scope mapping (Customisation → Property Mappings → Create → Scope Mapping) named aud-shared-memory with expression:

   return {"aud": "shared-memory"}
   

2. On the MCP provider, add this scope mapping under Scopes and tick it so it's emitted for the default scope.

If you skip this, the MCP route will return 401 with error_description="claim invalid: aud". Check docker compose logs app for the exact failure.

Then create an Application for the MCP provider (same as Step A), slug e.g. shared-memory-mcp.

C. Assign users

For each Authentik user who should have access, add them to the bound group on both applications (or set the applications' authentication policy to permit them). Anyone not granted access will fail at the Authentik login prompt, never reaching the app.

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Connecting Claude Code

Two paths, in order of preference:

A. OAuth flow (recommended — picks up your IdP credentials)

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user \
  --client-id <OIDC_CLIENT_ID_MCP> \
  --callback-port 33418 \
  shared-memory https://memory.example.com/api/mcp

What happens:

1. Claude Code hits /api/mcp, gets 401 with our WWW-Authenticate header
2. It reads /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource, finds your OIDC issuer
3. It opens an authorize URL in your browser and starts a local listener on the --callback-port you specified
4. You authenticate with your IdP in the browser
5. The IdP redirects back to http://localhost:33418/callback?code=…, Claude Code's listener catches it, exchanges the code for an access token, and stores it

--callback-port is required because your IdP only accepts pre-registered redirect URIs. Pick any free port; just make sure the matching URI is in your MCP client's Redirect URIs list. Authentik users with the regex pattern from the setup step (^http://(127\.0\.0\.1|localhost):\d+/.*$) can use any port without re-registering.

B. Manual-paste fallback (when loopback isn't reachable)

Sealed containers, devboxes without port forwarding, etc. The redirect URI in this case is hosted by this server:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user \
  --client-id <OIDC_CLIENT_ID_MCP> \
  --callback-port 0 \
  shared-memory https://memory.example.com/api/mcp

When the loopback listener times out, Claude Code prompts you to paste the callback URL. Open the authorize URL Claude Code printed in your browser, sign in, and your IdP redirects to https://memory.example.com/auth/cli-callback?code=…. That page shows the code and the full URL with copy buttons — paste either back into Claude Code's prompt to complete the flow.

The manual-fallback URI must be registered on your MCP client too: https://memory.example.com/auth/cli-callback.

C. Static bearer token (no browser at all)

For fully headless / CI scenarios, mint a long-lived HMAC token at https://memory.example.com/connect and pass it via --header. See the /connect page for the exact claude mcp add command it generates for you.

Why no zero-config plugin yet

Claude Code plugins can ship an MCP server entry that handles OAuth without any flags — but only when the auth server supports Dynamic Client Registration (RFC 7591). Authentik is tracking DCR in goauthentik/authentik#8751; once it ships we'll publish a plugin so the entire flow above collapses to /plugin install shared-memory. Other IdPs that already support DCR (Asana-style) can wire this up sooner.

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Identifying the current project (.shared-memory-project)

When Claude Code calls memory.write / memory.search / etc., the server needs to know which project the call belongs to. Resolution order, first match wins:

1. Explicit project argument on the tool call.
2. .shared-memory-project file at the repo root — a single line of plain text containing the project key. Claude is instructed to read this first when a project context is present, before inferring or asking. This is the recommended path for any repo: commit the file, and every collaborator's Claude Code automatically attaches memories to the same shared project.
3. X-Project-Key request header — per-MCP-registration default, set at claude mcp add time with --header "X-Project-Key: foo". Useful when a machine works in one project across many repos.
4. Inference — repo name / git remote slug / working-directory basename, as a last resort.

Adding .shared-memory-project to your repo

echo "your-project-key" > .shared-memory-project
git add .shared-memory-project
git commit -m "chore: declare shared-memory project key"

The key must match the regex ^[a-zA-Z0-9._\-/]+$ (same constraint as the ProjectKey Zod schema — alphanumerics plus ., _, -, /). Pick something stable; renaming later is fine but breaks the implicit link with any pre-existing memories you wrote against the old key.

Why a flat-text file, not JSON

Matches the family of .python-version, .nvmrc, .tool-versions — easy to grep, easy to author by hand, easy to read from any client without a parser. If we ever need richer metadata (display name, default tags, etc.) we'd graduate to a structured format, but the single-key case is the 95%.

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HAProxy example

If you run HAProxy at the edge (TLS terminator + reverse proxy), a minimal config for this app looks like:

frontend https_in
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/haproxy/certs/memory.example.com.pem alpn h2,http/1.1
    http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Proto https
    http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Host  %[req.hdr(host)]
    http-request set-header X-Forwarded-For   %[src]

    acl host_memory hdr(host) -i memory.example.com
    use_backend shared_memory if host_memory

backend shared_memory
    option forwardfor
    # Replace 127.0.0.1 with the IP of the host running docker compose.
    # Port is APP_PORT from .env (default 3000).
    server app1 127.0.0.1:3000 check inter 5s

Things to verify:

• PUBLIC_URL in .env matches the public URL HAProxy serves (scheme + host).
• HAProxy is sending X-Forwarded-Proto, X-Forwarded-Host, and X-Forwarded-For (the snippet above does). Auth.js reads these to build the OIDC callback URL — without them, the callback may point at http://...:3000 and Authentik will reject it.
• The Authentik Web-UI provider's Redirect URI is the public callback, not the internal one. E.g. https://memory.example.com/api/auth/callback/oidc.

If your HAProxy lives on a different host than Docker, change 127.0.0.1 to the Docker host's address (and confirm APP_BIND=0.0.0.0 so the port listens on all interfaces).

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Local development (no TLS)

For development against a local IdP, you can skip Caddy and run the app directly:

pnpm install
cp .env.example .env  # set PUBLIC_URL=http://localhost:3000 etc.
docker compose up -d db embedder
pnpm db:migrate
pnpm dev

The OIDC client you use locally must accept http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/oidc as a redirect URI.

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Troubleshooting

• 401 claim invalid: aud from /api/mcp — your MCP client isn't emitting an aud claim matching OIDC_AUDIENCE. On Authentik this is a scope mapping; on EntraID it's the API "Application ID URI"; on Keycloak it's a client-scope audience mapper. See Setting the aud claim above for the Authentik recipe; other IdPs need the equivalent in their UI.
• Auth.js callback fails with OAUTH_CALLBACK_ERROR — your PUBLIC_URL doesn't match the redirect URI your IdP is configured with. They must be exactly equal, scheme and trailing slash included.
• Caddy can't get a cert — confirm DNS points to your host and ports 80/443 are reachable. Uncomment the staging CA line in Caddyfile while testing to avoid hitting the production rate limit.
• pg_isready healthcheck loops — check that POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD / POSTGRES_DB are all set in .env.
• /settings/groups is empty even though I'm in groups — your IdP isn't emitting a groups claim. On Authentik, edit the OIDC provider and add the built-in authentik default OAuth Mapping: OpenID 'profile' (or a custom property mapping that returns {"groups": [g.name for g in request.user.ak_groups.all()]}), then sign out and back in. On EntraID, add a "groups" optional claim under Token configuration → Optional claims; tick "Emit groups as group names" if you want names (we treat GUIDs as opaque strings). Keycloak: add a Group Membership mapper with "Full group path" off and the token claim name groups.

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Project layout

shared-memory/
├── apps/web/                        # Next.js app (UI + MCP endpoint)
│   ├── app/
│   │   ├── page.tsx                 # landing
│   │   ├── me/page.tsx              # auth debug page
│   │   ├── api/auth/[...nextauth]/  # NextAuth handler
│   │   ├── api/mcp/                 # MCP streamable-HTTP endpoint
│   │   ├── api/health/              # /api/health for compose healthcheck
│   │   └── .well-known/oauth-protected-resource/  # RFC 9728
│   ├── auth.ts                      # NextAuth + Authentik provider config
│   ├── lib/
│   │   ├── env.ts                   # Zod env validation
│   │   ├── auth/jwt.ts              # MCP bearer JWT verification (JWKS)
│   │   ├── db/                      # Drizzle schema + client
│   │   └── mcp/                     # MCP dispatcher + tools
│   ├── drizzle/0000_init.sql        # initial migration (manual SQL)
│   ├── scripts/migrate.ts           # migration runner
│   └── Dockerfile
├── packages/schemas/                # shared Zod schemas (UI ↔ MCP)
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Caddyfile
└── .env.example

License

MIT.