Configuration

Technical reference for the Memory Builder configuration system that processes YAML profiles into JSONL entities for Anthropic’s memory MCP server. Configure build behavior, validation rules, and output generation.

Settings

The builder.yaml file contains the settings required to build the Memory System configuration file used by Anthropic’s memory MCP server.

Build

Controls profile processing order, file inclusion, error handling behavior, and output generation.

build:
  process:
    additionalProfiles: false
    commonProfilesFirst: true
    stopOnCriticalError: true
  outputPath: ./graph.json
  profiles:
    - creative.yaml
    - developer.yaml
    - engineer.yaml
    - humanist.yaml
    - researcher.yaml
  profilesPath:
    common: ./profiles/common
    domain: ./profiles
  relations:
    - extends
    - inherits
    - overrides

Options

process.additionalProfiles - When true, processes additional profile files beyond the main profile list
process.commonProfilesFirst - When true, processes common infrastructure files before individual profiles
process.stopOnCriticalError - When true, halts build on any file processing error
outputPath - Relative path to generated memory system graph file, resolved from tool directory
profiles - Explicit list of profile files to process, see related tutorial
profilesPath.common - Relative path to shared infrastructure profiles directory
profilesPath.domain - Relative path to individual profile files directory
relations - Array of valid relation types for validation

File Processing Order

Common infrastructure files (if process.commonProfilesFirst: true)
Explicit profile files in profiles list order
Additional discovered profile files (if process.additionalProfiles: true)

Error Handling Strategy

The stopOnCriticalError setting determines build behavior:

true: Stop immediately on file processing errors
false: Continue processing remaining files, skip failed ones

Logging

Controls console output verbosity and progress reporting.

logging:
  showFileDetails: true
  showProgress: true

Options

showFileDetails - Shows individual file processing status
showProgress - Displays build progress messages

Path

Defines directory locations for external dependencies and tool integration using absolute paths required for Anthropic’s filesystem MCP server.

path:
  conversations: /Users/username/github/claude/.claude/data/conversations
  diary: /Users/username/github/claude/.claude/data/diary
  tool: /Users/username/github/claude/.claude/tools/memory

Note

Replace /Users/username/github/claude with your actual local repository path.

Options

conversations - Absolute path to conversation logs storage directory
diary - Absolute path to diary entries storage directory
tool - Absolute path to builder tool directory containing templates and configuration

Note

The conversations and diary directory paths support flexible location configuration including network shares, NAS servers accessed through SMB/NFS mounts, or cloud storage mount points.

Profile YAML files can reference these paths using {path.conversations}, {path.diary} and {path.tool} placeholders.

Memory System Builder