MemPalace Setup

A guided, skill-first setup for a searchable memory palace. The user may have installed this skill with npx skills add before the MemPalace Python package or MCP server exists; that is the normal bootstrap path.

Setup protocol

1. Inspect before changing anything

• Detect the OS and current agent harness.
• Run mempalace --version, uv --version, and an appropriate Python version check. Do not assume that an installed Python package is reachable on PATH.
• Check for an existing palace and MCP registration. Never reinitialize or rebuild an existing palace just to make setup simpler.

2. Install the CLI when necessary

Prefer an isolated uv tool installation:

uv tool install mempalace

If uv is unavailable, use the PATH-visible Python installation:

python -m pip install mempalace

After installation, run mempalace --version. If it still is not reachable, fix PATH or use the matching uv tool run invocation before continuing.

3. Choose the topology with the user

Ask which outcome they want unless it is already clear:

1. private local palace, one machine, local stdio MCP;
2. shared-brain hub, this machine owns the palace and serves the fleet;
3. client joining an existing hub, this machine connects to a hub owned elsewhere.

Also ask which project or conversation corpus should be initialized, offering the current working directory as the default. A shared-brain client does not initialize a second copy of the owner's palace.

4. Run version-correct initialization

MemPalace provides dynamic, version-correct instructions via the CLI. To get instructions for any operation:

mempalace instructions <command>

Where <command> is one of: help, init, mine, search, status.

Run the appropriate instructions command, then follow the returned instructions step by step.