Installation

Engrams is a standalone Rust binary. It runs entirely locally in your workspace with zero daemon or server overhead.

Step 1 — Install the CLI

Choose the installation method that fits your operating system:

Via Installer Script (macOS & Linux)

curl -fsSL https://engrams.sh/install | bash

Via Homebrew (macOS)

Install the CLI using Homebrew by tapping the official repository:

brew install stevebrownlee/engrams/engrams

From Source (Rust Toolchain Required)

If you have Rust installed, you can compile and install directly from source:

cargo install --git https://github.com/stevebrownlee/engrams.git

Step 2 — Initialize your project

Navigate to your project root directory and run:

engrams init

This command initializes the local SQLite database at engrams/context.db and outputs the resolved path.

Step 3 — Configure your AI Tool

To allow your AI assistant to read from and write to Engrams, you must add instructions to its system prompt. See the detailed AI Tool Setup guide to set up Cursor, Zoo Code, Antigravity, Zed, or Claude Code.

Verify the installation

Run a test command in your terminal to verify Engrams is working:

engrams product-context get

It should output a default empty JSON or database path indicating it was resolved correctly.

Where is the database stored? By default, engrams looks for the closest workspace root (indicated by .git, Cargo.toml, or package.json) and stores the database at <workspace>/engrams/context.db. You can override this by passing the --db <PATH> or --workspace <PATH> flags.

Next: Quick Start →