mempalace--mempalace/examples/cursor

Cursor IDE Hooks — Example hooks.json Files

Sample configurations for wiring the MemPalace Cursor hooks into the Cursor IDE. These are examples only — they are intentionally not placed at the repo root (/.cursor/hooks.json) because Cursor auto-loads project-level hooks from any trusted workspace, and the repo is regularly opened by contributors. We do not auto-arm hooks on contributor checkout.

Variants

hooks.json — full (recommended)

Three hooks wired:

• sessionStart — calls mempal_wake_hook_cursor.sh, which returns additional_context telling the agent to recall scoped to the wing inferred from the workspace root. Cursor-only — Claude Code has no equivalent.
• stop — calls mempal_save_hook_cursor.sh. Counts stop invocations per conversation and emits a followup_message every MEMPAL_SAVE_INTERVAL (default 15) telling the agent to file the session into the palace and write a diary entry. loop_limit: 1 is defense-in-depth on top of our own loop-count check.
• preCompact — calls mempal_precompact_hook_cursor.sh. Runs mempalace mine synchronously on the transcript before compaction summarises it, then drops a marker so the next stop forces a save followup.

hooks.minimal.json — stop only

Lightest install. Wires just the save hook. Use this if you don't want the sessionStart recall context or the preCompact transcript snapshot.

How to use

The $HOME placeholder is not expanded by Cursor — you must substitute the absolute path before saving the file. Pick one:

Option A — let install.sh do it

Project scope — writes <repo>/.cursor/hooks.json:

hooks/cursor/install.sh --scope project --target /path/to/your/repo

User scope — writes ~/.cursor/hooks.json, applies to every Cursor workspace:

hooks/cursor/install.sh --scope user

The installer copies the hook scripts to ~/.mempalace/hooks/cursor/, substitutes the absolute paths, and merges the entries into your existing hooks.json without clobbering unrelated hooks. See install.sh --help for --dry-run, --uninstall, and --variant.

Option B — copy + edit manually

1. Copy the chosen example to the target location:
   • User scope: ~/.cursor/hooks.json
   • Project scope: <your-repo>/.cursor/hooks.json
2. Replace every $HOME with the absolute path to your home directory (e.g., /Users/you or /home/you).
3. Make sure each hook script is executable (chmod +x ~/.mempalace/hooks/cursor/mempal_*_hook_cursor.sh).
4. Restart Cursor, or wait for it to auto-reload the file.

Why aren't these files at the repo root?

Cursor automatically loads .cursor/hooks.json from any trusted workspace. Placing a real hooks.json at the repo root would arm MemPalace's hooks on every contributor's machine the moment they open the repo in Cursor — which would modify their conversation behaviour without consent and write to ~/.mempalace/hook_state/ without asking. Editor configuration is sacred; opt-in only.

If you actually want MemPalace's hooks armed when working on the MemPalace repo itself, run:

hooks/cursor/install.sh --scope project --target .

That will write ./.cursor/hooks.json for the repo workspace specifically — but it is your decision, not ours, and the file is listed in .gitignore paths Cursor users typically already exclude.

Related: the Cursor plugin

The hooks here are only one half of MemPalace's Cursor integration. The other half is the .cursor-plugin/ folder at the repo root, which packages MemPalace's MCP server, five slash commands, and the model-invocable mempalace skill as a regular Cursor plugin you can drop into ~/.cursor/plugins/local/mempalace.

The two install paths are orthogonal — install whichever you want, in any order:

You want	Install
MCP tools (mempalace_search, mempalace_add_drawer, …) + slash commands	The plugin — see .cursor-plugin/README.md
Auto-save every N turns + sessionStart memory recall	The hooks here — see Option A above
Both	Install the plugin AND run hooks/cursor/install.sh

Hooks are deliberately not bundled into the plugin because Cursor's hooks system is configured per-user/per-project (in ~/.cursor/hooks.json or .cursor/hooks.json), not per-plugin — so the installer here owns that file with idempotent merge semantics, while the plugin owns the MCP+commands+skill side.

See also

• hooks/cursor/README.md — full reference for hooks
• hooks/cursor/STDIN_SHAPE.md — per-event schema with citations
• website/guide/cursor-hooks.md — rendered docs
• .cursor-plugin/README.md — Cursor plugin (MCP + commands + skill)