Skip to content
dtoolkit
dbraindworkdopsdcontextdproxy
ecosystemquick startdocumentation

Getting Started

dtoolkit gives your AI coding agents persistent memory, project management, and observability. This guide gets you from zero to your first stored memory in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”

Install dbrain

Section titled “Install dbrain”

dbrain is the persistent memory server — the foundation of dtoolkit.

install
npm install -g @dtoolkit/dbrain

Set up your brain

Section titled “Set up your brain”

  1. Initialize — the interactive wizard creates your data directory, sets a port, and generates an auth token:

    terminal
    dbrain init

    Accept the defaults or customize. The wizard creates ~/.dbrain/ with your config and SQLite database.

  2. Start the server — this launches the REST + MCP API and the web dashboard:

    terminal
    dbrain start

    You should see:

    ✓ dbrain running
      API:       http://localhost:7878
      Dashboard: http://localhost:7879

  3. Connect your coding CLI — this configures MCP, injects the CLAUDE.md instructions, and sets permissions:

    terminal
    dbrain connect claude

    The connect command writes the necessary configuration files for your CLI. No manual setup needed.

Store your first memory

Section titled “Store your first memory”

Open your coding CLI and ask it to remember something:

You: Remember that my preferred language is TypeScript and I use pnpm.

The AI will use the remember MCP tool to save this fact to your brain. You should see it call the tool in the output.

Verify it worked

Section titled “Verify it worked”

Option A — Dashboard: Open http://localhost:7879 in your browser. You’ll see your entity with the fact you just stored.

Option B — Ask your AI:

You: What do you know about me?

The AI will use the recall tool and return your stored facts.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”

You now have a working AI memory system. Here’s where to go next:

Add automatic context injection

Section titled “Add automatic context injection”

dcontext hooks into your CLI’s lifecycle to automatically inject your identity and project facts at session start, and save transcripts before context compaction.

install
npm install -g @dtoolkit/dcontext
dcontext install

Add project management

Section titled “Add project management”

dwork is an AI-native project manager that uses Markdown files as the source of truth. Your AI can create tasks, update status, and search docs via MCP.

Terminal window
npm install -g @dtoolkit/dwork
dwork init
dwork start

Add observability

Section titled “Add observability”

dops tracks tokens, costs, tool usage, success rates, and errors across all your agent sessions.

Terminal window
npm install -g @dtoolkit/dops
dops init
dops start

The full stack

Section titled “The full stack”

Install everything at once for the complete experience:

Terminal window
npm install -g @dtoolkit/dbrain @dtoolkit/dcontext @dtoolkit/dwork @dtoolkit/dops @dtoolkit/dproxy

See Core Concepts for how all the pieces fit together.