MeMex - A private, searchable memory for your Mac
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MeMex gives your Mac a private visual memory. It turns screen activity into an organized timeline of real work moments, then lets you ask plain-English questions and return to matching screen evidence. Daily and weekly reports summarize work you already did, while Pattern Insights spots repeated workflows worth automating. Recordings stay local in a location you control; AI analysis is optional and uses your own provider or compatible local endpoint.
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This looks genuinely useful. I'm constantly trying to find a tab, file, or random thing i saw earlier and can't remember where it was.
Also really nice that everything stays local. Doessearch still feel fast once you've built up a few months of history?
@rudy_zhou Thanks Rudy! Search runs over locally indexed timeline cards instead of rescanning raw recordings, so it remains fast even you have lots of history datas.
One privacy clarification: raw recordings stay on the Mac. If a hosted AI provider is enabled, selected frames may be sent directly to that provider for analysis. A local endpoint keeps the entire AI pipeline local.
Ah got it, thanks for clarifying!
Having the option to keep the whole pipline local definitely makes this more interesting!
The timeline view is genuinely useful for finding that one thing I worked on last Tuesday without digging through screenshots. Local-only storage is a nice touch too, makes it feel less invasive than other activity trackers I have tried.
@ensar90917 Thanks Ensar! That “I know I worked on it last Tuesday, but where was it?” moment is exactly why I built MeMex. I’m especially glad the local-first approach makes it feel less invasive.
Comes in handy when I can't remember which file I had open two hours ago, just ask it in plain English and it pulls up the right window. Love that the recordings stay local by default.
@urgenzeki80043 Thanks “Which file or window did I have open earlier?” is one of the everyday memory gaps I wanted MeMex to solve. The recordings stay on your Mac by default, while AI features remain optional and user-configured.
the "recordings stay local, AI analysis is optional and uses your own provider" split is the interesting design decision here. if someone plugs in a remote provider (say a hosted API instead of a local endpoint) to ask a plain-english question, does the relevant screen evidence get sent up to that provider to answer it, or does it stay local and only the extracted text/metadata leaves the machine? for a tool whose whole pitch is private visual memory of everything you do, that's the detail that actually determines whether it's private by default or private-if-you-configure-it-carefully.
@galdayan Thanks ! Let me explain this. The current behavior is:
Raw recordings remain on the Mac and are never uploaded as complete video files.
If a remote AI provider is enabled, MeMex sends selected sampled frames directly to that configured endpoint when generating analyzed timeline cards. This only happens after the user reviews and accepts the data-sharing disclosure.
For a plain-English question, retrieval happens locally. The Q&A request sends the question plus text from the matched timeline cards, such as titles, summaries, observations, timestamps, and app/site context. It does not send the underlying screenshots or video again for that question.
Requests go directly from the Mac to the user’s chosen provider. MeMex does not proxy or store them on a MeMex backend.
So with a hosted provider, the accurate description is local storage with optional remote AI processing, not end-to-end local processing. Users who want the entire pipeline to remain local can connect a local OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and recording/timeline browsing still work without enabling AI at all.
This is a useful callout. Raw recordings stay local. AI processing runs through the model endpoint you choose.
@new_user___1802026258df93399c32311 Thank you, Lyra! That line came directly from my own frustration: I could remember completing the work, but not the path, sources, or decisions behind it.
MeMex is meant to make that context recoverable without requiring you to document everything manually. What kind of context do you find yourself losing most often: tabs and files, past decisions, or troubleshooting steps?
How does the local storage hold up over time, like does it balloon fast on a normal workday and need manual cleanup or does it handle that itself?
@abantakanancyy Good question. It doesn’t grow without bounds by default.
MeMex has separate configurable storage caps for raw recordings and processed timeline media, both set to 10 GB by default. It checks storage on launch and every hour, then automatically removes the oldest media when a limit is exceeded. Recent raw recordings are protected for three days, and the searchable timeline-card text remains available after older media is removed.
You can view usage in Settings and set each limit from 1–20 GB, or choose unlimited. So routine use shouldn’t require manual cleanup, although daily growth naturally depends on recording time and display resolution.
The timeline view actually made my scattered work day feel coherent, and being able to ask "what was that thing I saw yesterday" in plain English saved me a real hunt through screenshots.
Thanks Ali! That is exactly the feeling I hoped the timeline would create: not just a pile of captures, but a coherent thread through a fragmented day. “What was that thing I saw yesterday?” is also one of the most natural questions for MeMex. I’m glad it saved you the screenshot hunt. Was the matching evidence easy to recognize once MeMex surfaced it?
How does the search actually work under the hood, does it index OCR text locally or rely on screenshots only when you query?