Connect, save once, search once. Three steps is enough to see AiAkiv working.
Client-by-client setup (Claude, Codex, Cursor, and the rest) is covered as recipes in the playbook. This page only covers the shape that's the same on every client.
0. Account and project
- Sign in at
app.aiakiv.comwith your email. - Create a team (who owns the memory) and one project inside it (the coordinates writes go to). Where saving currently points is called the active target. Details in Teams and projects.
If you're just trying it out alone, the default project is enough.
1. Connect AiAkiv (MCP) to your AI client
AiAkiv attaches to AI clients over MCP (Model Context Protocol). Once it's attached, AiAkiv's tools show up inside the client. The main ones, by what they do:
| Tool (role) | What it does |
|---|---|
| Save | Writes a memory |
| Search | Reads memories back |
| Check target | Shows where saving currently goes |
| Fetch full text | Pulls the original text of an event found by search |
How you connect differs per client → see the playbook. (The actual tool call names are listed in For AI agents.)
Letting your AI attach it (MCP registry)
AiAkiv is listed in the official MCP registry
(registry.modelcontextprotocol.io) as com.aiakiv/memory. If your client
can search the registry, look up aiakiv or memory and let it register the
connection itself, meaning you don't have to copy the address by hand. You
still approve one sign-in afterwards.
This doesn't work in ChatGPT. The ChatGPT app can't search the registry, can't write MCP settings itself, and, decisively, can't open our sign-in window (it receives the "authentication required" response and then tells you to put a token in an environment variable). In ChatGPT you add the address under Settings → Connectors, and if there's no sign-in option you paste a project API key issued from the console. Full steps in the playbook.
What the two methods differ in, when to use which, and how to handle a key: Authentication.
2. First save: you command it with ak
AiAkiv does not save just anything. It saves only when you explicitly
command it with ak. Simply saying "remember this" won't do it: that's the
guard that keeps stray chatter out of your graph.
ak save this: we're switching the combat system from real-time to turn-based.
Reason: web input latency and a mismatch with roguelike grammar. Commit a1b2c3d.
The conventions that make a memory worth having (record a decision as four parts, always call the same thing by the same name) are in Saving.
3. First search: just ask
ak how did the combat system design change?
AiAkiv finds related events by meaning (hybrid), and gives each result why it matched (reason) and how things connect (the link map). It finds things even when no keyword overlaps.
Getting real use out of search. Narrowing by author with @, asking causal and
time-based questions. Is in Searching.
Checklist
- [ ] Signed in at
app.aiakiv.com, team and project created - [ ] MCP connected in your client (playbook)
- [ ] Checked the active target
- [ ] Saved one memory with
ak ... - [ ] Found it again by searching
Once that all works, go for the mechanics → Core concepts.