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remindb for Gemini CLI

Drops remindb into Gemini CLI as an MCP server. The agent picks up the full remindb__Memory* tool suite, backed by a compiled SQLite view of whatever workspace you point it at.

How it works

The extension ships a gemini-extension.json with an inlined mcpServers entry. On activation, Gemini CLI spawns remindb serve over stdio and merges its tools into the session.

GEMINI.md ships alongside the manifest as context for the model when the extension is active.

Installation

1. Install the remindb binary

It needs to be on $PATH:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/radimsem/remindb/main/install.sh | bash

On Windows:

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/radimsem/remindb/main/install.ps1 | iex

Verify:

remindb --version

2. Compile your workspace

remindb needs a SQLite file built from a source tree before the agent can read from it. The source is whatever workspace you want Gemini to remember — a code repo, a docs tree, a notes directory.

mkdir -p ~/.cache/remindb
remindb compile ~/code/my-project --db ~/.cache/remindb/my-project.db

Drop a .remindb/ignore at the workspace root if you need to exclude noise (build outputs, vendored deps, generated files). The same file is honored by serve's background rescan and the MemoryCompile tool.

3. Point remindb at your workspace

The extension's gemini-extension.json declares an env block for the spawned server. You install from a local clone (step 4), so the cleanest setup is to write the two absolute paths straight into that clone's manifest before installing — the workspace mapping then travels with the extension instead of living in your shell:

// ~/code/remindb/plugins/gemini-cli/gemini-extension.json
"env": {
    "REMINDB_DB": "/home/you/.cache/remindb/my-project.db",
    "REMINDB_SOURCE": "/home/you/code/my-project"
}

Replace /home/you with your $HOME — use absolute paths. Re-run the step-4 re-install (uninstall + install) after editing, and again whenever you swap the paths for a different workspace.

The bundled manifest ships these as ${REMINDB_DB} / ${REMINDB_SOURCE} passthroughs instead, so the alternative is to leave the manifest untouched and export the pair in the shell before launching Gemini with the extension installed — otherwise the first activation falls back to a stray memory.db in cwd:

export REMINDB_DB=$HOME/.cache/remindb/my-project.db
export REMINDB_SOURCE=$HOME/code/my-project

Add them to your shell rc (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, fish config) to make it permanent.

4. Install the extension

gemini extensions install accepts a GitHub URL or a local path, but its URL form has no subdirectory selector. The plugin lives at plugins/gemini-cli/ inside the remindb repo, so clone first and install from that subdirectory:

git clone https://github.com/radimsem/remindb.git ~/code/remindb
gemini extensions install ~/code/remindb/plugins/gemini-cli

Pin to a release tag:

git -C ~/code/remindb checkout v0.1.0
gemini extensions install ~/code/remindb/plugins/gemini-cli

Update later with git pull and a re-install (local-path installs aren't tracked by gemini extensions update):

git -C ~/code/remindb pull
gemini extensions uninstall remindb
gemini extensions install ~/code/remindb/plugins/gemini-cli

Confirm the server is connected:

gemini mcp list

You should see remindb with the full Memory* tool suite.

Seed remaining context

Step 2 only compiled REMINDB_SOURCE. Gemini loads GEMINI.md from two places outside that path: the global ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md (where /memory add and save_memory write) and project-root or ancestor GEMINI.md files above your cwd. Anything else outside the workspace won't be in the DB either.

Ask Gemini in your first session to fold them in. Use absolute paths — MemoryCompile doesn't expand ~:

remindb__MemoryCompile(path="/home/you/.gemini/GEMINI.md", message="seed: global memory")
remindb__MemoryCompile(path="/home/you/code/parent/GEMINI.md", message="seed: ancestor memory")

Re-run whenever a file changes — after /memory add or an external edit.

Skills

The agent-side skills (remind for reads, memoize for writes) teach Gemini how to call the Memory* tools effectively. Install them through vercel-labs/skills:

npx skills@latest add radimsem/remindb/skills -a gemini-cli

Refresh them later — independent of remindb update — with:

npx skills@latest update

Tools exposed

The plugin surfaces the full remindb Memory* tool suite under the remindb__ namespace. See the main README for the canonical tool list and per-tool token-savings benchmarks.

License

MIT — same as remindb.