Skills + CLI

Skills are the recommended way to integrate Remind into your workflow. A skill is just a markdown file with instructions that tell an AI agent how to use Remind via the CLI. Any agent that can run shell commands can use them — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or your own custom setup.

Why Skills?

Skills + CLI give you:

• Project-local memory — The database lives at .remind/remind.db in your project. Each project has its own isolated memory. You can gitignore it or commit it.
• No server needed — No MCP server to run. The CLI is a self-contained binary.
• Composable — Skills are just markdown. Extend the bundled skill, write your own, or fork it for a custom workflow.
• Agent-agnostic — Any agent that can run shell commands can use Remind skills. Not locked to any IDE or platform.

Installing the base skill

remind skill-install

This creates .claude/skills/remind/SKILL.md in your project. The bundled skill teaches your agent the core workflow:

• remind remember — Store experiences
• remind recall — Retrieve memories
• remind end-session — Consolidate at session end
• Plus topics, ingest, decisions/questions, and maintenance commands — see the installed SKILL.md for the full command table.

The bundled skill

Remind ships one built-in skill: remind. It covers base memory operations (remember, recall, consolidation), topics, auto-ingest, and CLI maintenance. Install it with remind skill-install (no arguments installs all bundled skills; today that is only remind).

Example session capture:

remind remember "Chose WebSocket over polling: lower latency, simpler client" \
  -t decision -e module:notifications -e tool:websocket

remind remember "WebSocket endpoint at /ws/notifications: JWT auth, JSON events" \
  -t fact -e module:notifications

remind recall "notifications WebSocket" -k 10
remind end-session

Writing your own skills

A skill is a markdown file that instructs an agent how to use Remind for a specific workflow. The bundled remind skill is a starting point; Remind is a primitive — you can build anything on top.

Skill structure

A minimal skill file might look like this (save as .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md):

Header and workflow outline

# My Custom Skill

> **Important**: The `remind` CLI tool is available in this environment.

## When to use
Describe when this skill should be activated.

## Workflow

### Phase 1: Load context
(Shell commands in the next block)

### Phase 2: Do the thing
(Your workflow-specific instructions here)

### Phase 3: Capture results
(Shell commands in the block after Phase 2)

Phase 1 — load context

remind recall "<relevant topic>" -k 10
remind decisions

Phase 3 — capture results

remind remember "What was learned" -t observation -e concept:topic
remind end-session

Example: Code review skill

Outline

# Code Review with Memory

## Workflow
1. Recall prior decisions and patterns for the module under review
2. Review the code against known conventions and prior recall context
3. Remember any new patterns, anti-patterns, or decisions discovered
4. If the review surfaces a question, capture it

Before reviewing

remind recall "code patterns and conventions" -k 10
remind recall "review" --entity module:<module-name>
remind decisions

After reviewing

remind remember "Found repeated error handling pattern in auth module — \
  should extract to middleware" -t observation -e module:auth
remind remember "Team convention: always use Result types for DB operations" \
  -t preference -e project:backend

Ideas for custom skills

• Onboarding — New to a codebase? A skill that systematically explores and remembers architecture decisions.
• Research — Ingest papers or articles, capture key findings, consolidate themes.
• Journaling — Daily standup-style summaries that consolidate into project knowledge.
• Debugging — Remember what you've tried, what worked, and what didn't.
• Architecture Decision Records — Structured decision capture that builds a knowledge graph.

Skills vs MCP

	Skills + CLI	MCP Server
Database location	.remind/remind.db in project	~/.remind/{name}.db centralized
Requires server	No	Yes
Agent requirement	Can run shell commands	MCP client support
Best for	Project-scoped memory, custom workflows	Cross-project memory, IDE integration
Composability	Write any skill, mix and match	Fixed tool set

Both use the same underlying Remind system. You can even use both — Skills for project-local work, MCP for cross-project knowledge.