Claude Code plugin · self-compounding memory

Knowledge doesn't sit. It compounds.

Cortex is a personal memory layer for Claude Code. Every session automatically records commits, findings, and decisions, which can later be distilled into refined notes and retrieved with mixed-language semantic search. The vault is plain markdown + git as the source of truth; the vector store is just a rebuildable derived index. Built for anyone who wants working memory to compound across sessions instead of resetting every time.

01 · SessionEnd hook
Capture
Every session ends with a full report, saved to the vault’s Raw/.
02 · /cortex:distill
Distill
Extract hard-won lessons, conventions, and key decisions into Notes.
03 · broadcast
Fuse
Compound new knowledge into related existing pages, llm-wiki style.
04 · /cortex:query
Recall
Mixed-language semantic search, checked before every answer.
03 · broadcast

Notes don't wait to be asked.
They rewrite themselves.

When a session surfaces something that touches an existing page, broadcast fuses it in place — new sections, corrected assumptions, sharpened caveats. The vault edits itself the way a wiki does, not the way a folder does.

Notes/Nginx/ssl-renewal.mdbroadcast · today
## SSL certificate management
Certs expire every 90 days, auto-renewed via certbot.
## Reload gotchas
Always run `nginx -t` before `nginx -s reload` —
a bad config makes reload fail silently (incident 2026-07-05).
## Common errors
This note just rewrote itself from a new session
cortex-vec search

Ask, don't dig

Hybrid retrieval (BM25 + vector) — mixed-language queries hit the right passage directly, without you remembering which file it's in.

cortex-vec search "nginx reload fails silently"
Notes/Nginx/ssl-renewal.md0.91
...always run nginx -t before reload — a bad config makes reload fail silently...
Raw/2026/07/05/session.md0.78
...nginx reload at 3am didn't take effect, traced to a leftover server block in config...
obsidian-native

Your vault is a living graph,
not a filing cabinet.

Cortex writes straight into Obsidian vault format — this is the shape wikilinks actually grow into. Try dragging a node.

drag nodes · hover to highlight links
Notes Projects Raw
6 skills

Skills that trigger themselves

cortex-query

When the user wants to search the vault ("查 cortex", "之前有記過"), or when the request names a topic the SessionStart hook listed for this vault.

check cortex for nginx noteshave I written about this beforewhat did I write about cortex-vec
cortex-broadcast

After a Raw has been distilled, to fuse it into related existing pages ("broadcast", "compound this into the vault"), or auto-dispatched at the end of the distill flow.

broadcastprocess broadcast queue
cortex-distill

When the user wants to distill Raw session records into Notes/Projects ("提煉", "整理 raw", "distill").

distill this week's rawdistill raw records
cortex-evolve

When the user wants to save knowledge to the vault ("存到 cortex", "記一下"), or when the session-suggest hook recommends saving.

save to cortexnote this decision downremember this
cortex-takeoff · using-cortex

When context is running low and work needs to hand off to a later session ("交接", "takeoff", "交棒"). Produces temporary hand-off batons — one per work line — that are never committed or indexed. When the user refers to earlier work ("上次的", "之前那個", "we discussed"), asks to resume a previous session, or names a topic the SessionStart hook listed — routes the request to cortex-query. Stays out of the way otherwise.

reference

Commands & history

5 slash commands

/cortex:broadcastRun broadcast on a distilled Raw — update related existing pages conversationally
/cortex:distillDistill raw session records into refined Notes and Projects
/cortex:evolveSave knowledge to the cortex vault (Notes or Projects) and update index
/cortex:genesisInitialize cortex vault — set up config, vault structure, and rebuild index
/cortex:takeoffCreate, resume, or clear a session hand-off baton (one per work line)

changelog

1.3.22026-08-06
Added — `PRIVACY.md` (and `PRIVACY.zh-TW.md`), documenting every data flow in
1.3.12026-08-05
Added — `cortex-vec` is published to PyPI. A `publish-cortex-vec` workflow
1.3.02026-08-05
Added — Multi-baton takeoff: a repo now holds one baton per work line, keyed by
Full history →