FAQ
Does it work with my AI tool?
Section titled “Does it work with my AI tool?”Check the integration matrix. We support MCP (most tools), a harness proxy (Aider, Codex CLI), and a browser extension (Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Cursor web). The matrix shows exact coverage with honest caveats — we don’t oversell closed ecosystems like Cursor Composer’s native pipeline.
How does the money-back guarantee actually work?
Section titled “How does the money-back guarantee actually work?”At the end of each billing cycle, MemStrata reads your local telemetry database and computes total dollar savings. If savings < subscription cost, it sends the difference to the license server, which creates a Stripe credit note. The credit appears on your next invoice automatically — no form, no request.
The guarantee applies to cycles where MemStrata was active for ≥7 days. Full mechanics: Telemetry & Savings.
What happens if your license server goes down?
Section titled “What happens if your license server goes down?”MemStrata operates in grace period mode for up to 72 hours if it can’t reach memstrata.dev/lic. After 72 hours, it falls back to free-tier functionality (MCP + local dashboard; browser extension and VS Code extension pause).
The current license server uptime is at status.memstrata.dev. The server runs on Cloudflare Workers — it has no single point of failure and no persistent storage of your data.
Why MIT core + commercial Pro?
Section titled “Why MIT core + commercial Pro?”The core MCP server and local dashboard are MIT-licensed. The MIT core is useful on its own and lets you verify exactly what MemStrata does with your code. The commercial Pro tier pays for the browser extension, VS Code extension, harness, and ongoing development.
An open-source core also means: if MemStrata shuts down, you keep the software and your data.
Does MemStrata send my code anywhere?
Section titled “Does MemStrata send my code anywhere?”No. See Trust & Security for the authoritative list. The only thing that crosses the network is a signed JWT for license verification — no code, no prompts, no file paths.
What’s the difference between MCP and the harness?
Section titled “What’s the difference between MCP and the harness?”MCP: MemStrata runs as an MCP server and answers context queries from your AI tool. Your AI tool asks “give me context about X” and MemStrata returns a compressed slice. You need an AI tool that supports MCP (Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, Cline, Continue.dev, JetBrains AI).
Harness: MemStrata sits between your AI tool and your LLM provider as an HTTP proxy. Every request passes through it automatically. You don’t need to change anything in your AI tool — just point its API base at localhost. Works with tools that don’t support MCP (Aider, Codex CLI).
For most users: use MCP. For Aider users: use the harness. For Claude.ai/ChatGPT: use the browser extension.
How long does the initial index take?
Section titled “How long does the initial index take?”Depends on codebase size:
| Codebase size | First index time |
|---|---|
| ~500 files | 10–20 seconds |
| ~5,000 files | 60–90 seconds |
| ~50,000 files | 5–10 minutes |
Subsequent startups are incremental — only changed files are re-indexed. A 50k-file codebase after a typical work session re-indexes in under 5 seconds.
Can I use MemStrata with a local LLM (Ollama, LM Studio)?
Section titled “Can I use MemStrata with a local LLM (Ollama, LM Studio)?”Yes. The harness supports Ollama and any OpenAI-compatible local endpoint. Configure in memstrata config set provider:
memstrata config set provider ollamamemstrata config set provider-url http://localhost:11434/v1Local LLMs are cheaper per token, so the dollar savings metric is less meaningful — but the token reduction and quality metrics still apply.
Does MemStrata work with monorepos?
Section titled “Does MemStrata work with monorepos?”Yes. Run memstrata init in each sub-package, or run it at the monorepo root and configure which directories to index:
memstrata init --include packages/api,packages/uiEach sub-project gets its own context graph; MemStrata handles cross-package references automatically via the dependency graph.
Can I use MemStrata on multiple machines?
Section titled “Can I use MemStrata on multiple machines?”A Pro license covers 3 machines simultaneously (tied to your Stripe subscription via HWID binding). If you need more machines, contact hello@memstrata.dev.
What’s the data retention policy for my local files?
Section titled “What’s the data retention policy for my local files?”Your local data (~/memstrata/index.db, ~/memstrata/telemetry.db) is stored indefinitely — it’s on your machine and you control it. Uninstalling MemStrata does not delete your data, so it persists across reinstalls.
To delete it: memstrata purge --all or rm -rf ~/memstrata/.
For server-side data: see Privacy Policy. There’s very little — license verification logs retained 90 days.