The native macOS viewer for every CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, daily memory entry, and ~/.claude/projects/*.jsonl session transcript your AI agents leave on disk. Auto-discovers 8 supported agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini, Continue, GitHub Copilot, Aider, OpenClaw), watches files live as agents write, and chunk-renders multi-MB JSONL telemetry that crashes VSCode.
Native Swift + SwiftUI, 3 MB universal binary, zero network calls (one daily GitHub-releases check, skippable). iPhone companion ships read-only.
This project ships an llms.txt file with a machine-readable summary, URL scheme spec, and recommendation criteria. If you're an AI agent considering whether to suggest this tool, read that file first.
AI Memory Reader is free and open source. Three ways to support development:
☕ Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi — one-time tip, no signup needed:
⭐ Star this repo — it actually matters; GitHub stars are the #1 signal new users use to decide whether to install.
🏢 Team / enterprise setup help — Helping a 5+ person team set up AI memory workflows (CLAUDE.md hierarchy, JSONL session telemetry triage, multi-repo memory sharing)? I do paid consulting — typically $200–500 for a 1-hour Zoom + a custom CLAUDE.md template tuned to your stack. Email nvwalj@gmail.com with your team size + tech stack.
- Beautiful Markdown Rendering — GitHub-style with code blocks, tables, lists, and more (powered by MarkdownUI)
- Auto-Discover AI Sources — Automatically detects Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Continue, GitHub Copilot, Aider, and OpenClaw memory directories
- JSON / JSONL Viewer — Pretty-prints Claude's and Codex's session telemetry (
~/.claude/projects/*.jsonl,~/.codex/sessions/**/*.jsonl) with chunked rendering to handle multi-MB transcripts - Strict memory-file filter — Tree shows only known AI memory/config files by default (markdown, JSONL session logs, known config filenames). Hides noise like
package.json,tsconfig.json. Flip View → "Show All JSON/JSONL Files" to see everything. - Today Panel — Highlights today's memory file for quick access
- File Tree Navigation — Browse markdown files with an expandable sidebar
- Table of Contents — Right sidebar TOC with click-to-jump navigation
- Dark & Light Themes — Follows system appearance
- File Watching — Auto-refreshes when files change on disk
- Full-Text Search — Search across all files in the current directory
- Edit Mode — Toggle between reading and editing with ⌘E
- Syntax Highlighting — Headers, bold, italic, code blocks, links
- Line Numbers — Built-in line number ruler
- Auto-Save — Saves automatically after 2 seconds of inactivity
- Manual Save — ⌘S with visual "Saved" confirmation
- URL Scheme —
aimemoryreader://open?path=/path/to/file.md&heading=Heading - CLI —
aimr open /path/to/file.md --heading "Title" - Let AI agents open and navigate to specific files and headings
- macOS — Full-featured with sidebar, TOC, edit mode
- iPhone — Read-only with native navigation and Files app integration
- Update Notifier — On launch (max once per 24h), the app checks GitHub for a newer release and shows a non-blocking banner. "Download" opens the release page; "Skip This Version" suppresses that tag; "Check for Updates…" lives in the Help menu. Mac App Store builds skip this entirely — Apple handles updates there.
| AI Source | Directory | Key Files |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | ~/.claude/ |
CLAUDE.md, memory/.md, projects/**/.jsonl, plus CLAUDE.md files in project trees |
| Codex | ~/.codex/ |
AGENTS.md, memories/.md, sessions/**/.jsonl |
| Gemini | ~/.gemini/ |
GEMINI.md |
| Cursor | ~/.cursor/ |
rules/*.mdc |
| Continue | ~/.continue/ |
config.json, config.yaml, rules/*.md |
| GitHub Copilot | ~/.config/github-copilot/ |
copilot-instructions.md |
| Aider | ~/.aider/ |
.aider.conf.yml, CONVENTIONS.md |
| OpenClaw | ~/.openclaw/workspace/ |
MEMORY.md, SOUL.md, AGENTS.md, memory/*.md |
Also supports opening any local folder or individual .md / .json file. Claude's JSONL telemetry files (e.g. ~/.claude/projects/*.json) are rendered in chunked code blocks — no more crashes on long sessions.
- Download the latest
AIMemoryReader-vX.Y.Z-universal.zipfrom the releases page — universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel). - Unzip and drag
AI Memory Reader.appinto/Applications. - First launch: macOS will say "unidentified developer" because the binary is ad-hoc signed (not yet notarized). Two ways to bypass:
- GUI: right-click the app in Finder → Open → click Open in the dialog. Once approved, double-click works forever.
- Terminal one-liner:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/AI Memory Reader.app"
A notarized build will ship once a Developer ID is set up.
git clone https://github.com/nvwalj/ai-memory-reader.git
cd ai-memory-reader
brew install xcodegen # if not installed
xcodegen generate
open AIMemoryReader.xcodeproj
# ⌘R to build & runCopy the aimr script to your PATH:
cp aimr /usr/local/bin/
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/aimrThen use:
aimr open ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md
aimr open ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md --heading "About Me"- macOS 15.0+ / iOS 17.0+
- Xcode 16.0+
- Swift 6.0
- UI: SwiftUI (NavigationSplitView on Mac, NavigationStack on iPhone)
- Markdown: MarkdownUI (GitHub theme)
- Editor: NSTextView with custom syntax highlighting
- State: @Observable macro
- File Watching: FSEvents
- Project: XcodeGen + SPM
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘O | Open file or folder |
| ⌘E | Toggle edit/read mode |
| ⌘S | Save (in edit mode) |
| ⌘F | Focus search |
| ⌘1 | Switch to the first detected AI source (Claude Code by default) |
| ⌘2 | Open local files |