Getting Started

Engram is a real-time sync, semantic search, and AI-access layer for your Markdown notes. Notes stay yours as plain .md files. Pair Engram with Obsidian for the richest capture experience, or work entirely from the Engram web app and AI assistants like Claude — your vaults sync across all of them, and an MCP endpoint lets AI tools read and update your notes with your permission.

How it fits together

┌──────────────────────┐         ┌──────────────────────┐
│  Obsidian            │ ◄────►  │  Engram backend      │
│  + Engram plugin     │  sync   │  (Elixir / Phoenix)  │
└──────────────────────┘         └──────────┬───────────┘
                                            │
   ┌────────────────────────────────────────┤
   │                                        │
   ▼                                        ▼
┌──────────────────┐               ┌──────────────────┐
│  Web app         │               │  AI assistants   │
│  (browser)       │               │  via MCP         │
└──────────────────┘               └──────────────────┘

Three interfaces over the same vault data:

Obsidian plugin — the canonical capture surface. Notes are written in Obsidian and sync to the backend in real time.
Web app — at app.engram.page. Browse, search, and edit your vault from any browser. Renders wikilinks, embeds, KaTeX, Mermaid — same as Obsidian.
MCP endpoint — connect Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants that can talk to your vault. Your notes become reachable as tool calls.

Cloud or self-host

Engram runs as a hosted service or on your own infrastructure. Pick the side of that line you want to be on:

	Cloud	Self-host
Where	`app.engram.page`	Your server (Docker)
Operations	Managed	Yours
Embedding model	Voyage AI (hosted)	Ollama (local) or BYO
Storage	Fly Tigris (S3-compatible)	MinIO / your S3
Billing	Subscription via Paddle	Free, your hardware cost
License	Hosted under our Terms	PolyForm Small Business 1.0.0
Best for	Just want it to work	Sovereignty, large vaults, lab use

The plugin is the same on both sides — just point it at a different backend URL. Vault content lives in Obsidian regardless, so switching sides is a matter of re-pointing the plugin and re-pushing the vault. Automated cloud ↔ self-host export/import tooling is on the roadmap; today the path is manual (push from Obsidian to whichever side you’re moving to).

Cloud quickstart

Five steps, about five minutes:

Sign up at app.engram.page and complete the onboarding wizard (accept Terms, pick a plan).
Install the Engram Vault Sync plugin in Obsidian. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse and search for Engram Vault Sync, or open the listing directly at community.obsidian.md/plugins/engram-vault-sync.
Sign the plugin in to your Engram account. The plugin opens an OAuth window; approve it.
Pick a vault to sync. Engram pushes the initial snapshot, then keeps it live.
Search and use — try semantic search from the web app or command palette. Notes are reachable from Obsidian, the web app, and (once configured) MCP clients.

Self-host quickstart

If you want to run Engram on your own server, head to Self-Host. The short version: pull the Docker Compose stack, set a handful of environment variables, run docker compose up. The full guide covers env config, encryption setup, backups, and upgrade paths.

Connect an AI assistant

Once your vault is syncing, plug it into Claude Desktop (or any MCP client) and your notes become reachable as searchable, writable tools. See AI Integrations for per-client setup, or AI / MCP for the protocol-level background.

What’s next

Why Engram in the first place? Read Why Engram.
First time? Start with Obsidian Plugin.
Self-hosting? Read Self-Host end to end.
Curious how it works? Skim Concepts — semantic search, encryption model, sync algorithm.
Building an integration? API Reference + AI / MCP.
Pricing or billing question? Billing.