You already solved this once.

Six months ago you worked it out and wrote it down. The note is still in your repository. Samong makes it findable again — by you, and by every AI tool you work with.

No account. No cloud. One binary. Your notes never leave the machine — there is nothing for anyone to read, including us.

samong · a project's own knowledge

The part that cannot be copied

Your notes are files, in the repository they describe.

Not rows in someone's database with a Markdown export button. Actual .md files, beside the code they explain — so they move with the branch, show up in review, and open in the editor you already use. Point Samong at a project root and it works out what is a note and what is a dependency's README.

Delete the index whenever you like. samong reindex rebuilds it from the files, because the files were always the truth.

a repository, as Samong sees it

my-api/
├── src/                      # code
├── ARCHITECTURE.md            # a note
├── decisions/
│   ├── rate-limiting.md       # a note
│   └── why-not-redis.md       # a note
├── node_modules/             # 1,214 .md — skipped
└── .gitignore                # decides what counts

$ samong doctor
4 project note(s) in scope
skipped 1,214 .md file(s) not tracked as notes
no ambiguous titles among project notes

One memory, every assistant

Your AI stops re-deriving what you already know.

Samong speaks the Model Context Protocol, so any tool that supports it reads and writes the same notes. An agent searches before it starts, and writes down what it worked out when it finishes. Next session — or next tool — it is already there.

Claude GPT Gemini Qwen Kimi Grok GLM DeepSeek Cursor Windsurf

one line, per client

# Claude Code
$ claude mcp add --scope user samong -- samong-mcp
# Codex CLI / ChatGPT desktop
$ codex mcp add samong -- samong-mcp
# Gemini CLI
$ gemini mcp add samong samong-mcp
# Qwen Code
$ qwen mcp add samong samong-mcp
# Kimi Code CLI
$ kimi mcp add samong -- samong-mcp
# Grok Build
$ grok mcp add samong -- samong-mcp

MCP is a feature of the client, not the model. GLM and DeepSeek ship no MCP client of their own — run them inside one that does and they see the same tools. Because samong-mcp runs on your machine, a browser-only assistant cannot reach it, which is the point.

Six tools, no delete

An agent can list, read, search, save and follow links — but it cannot erase knowledge. Deletion stays a human act.

And it cannot overwrite what it has not read

Having no delete tool was only half a guarantee: saving replaces the whole file, so an agent that never opened a note could drop three years of it and be told the save succeeded. read_note now hands back a hash of what it gave, and overwriting an existing note requires passing that hash in. A stale hash, or none at all, is an error — and the file on disk is left exactly as it was.

Results priced for context

Search returns a small number of hits by default, counted across all vaults. Every extra hit is context the agent pays for on every later turn.

What you actually get

A knowledge base that behaves like a tool, not a service.

Where notes livePlain .md in your repositories. The index is disposable and rebuildable.
What it runs onOne binary on your machine. No account, no vendor, works offline.
EditingObsidian-compatible [[wikilinks]]. Use Obsidian, your editor, or the built-in web UI — same files.
FindingFull-text search with dictionary word segmentation, a link graph, backlinks across projects.
Knowing it workssamong eval scores search against questions somebody actually asked, each paired with the notes that answer it — hit@k, MRR, and how often a question the vault cannot answer gets answered anyway.
SeeingThe web UI opens on a map of the vault; typing dims everything that does not answer you.
LicenceApache-2.0. Fork it, ship it commercially, embed it. The name and logo are not covered — rename what you ship.

Install

Download, extract, double-click.

No terminal, no configuration, no account. Nothing to install alongside it — the web UI is inside the binary.

start here — a package manager

# macOS and Linux
$ brew tap waanvar/samong && brew install samong
# Windows
> scoop bucket add samong https://github.com/waanvar/scoop-samong
> scoop install samong
# Arch Linux
$ makepkg -si   (packaging/aur, until the AUR submission lands)
# or, with Rust already installed
$ cargo install samong

This is the recommended route, not a shortcut for experts. Each of these fetches the archive itself and checks it against the published SHA-256; cargo compiles locally. Nothing arrives through a browser, so the warning described below never appears — macOS never attaches the quarantine flag it would otherwise refuse to open, and Windows has no download reputation to weigh. Each tap's CI installs on a real runner and asserts this rather than assuming it.

then open it

WindowsOpen Samong.exe
macOSSamong.app
Linuxsamong-app

On the first run it makes a vault at Documents/Samong, writes two notes in it, and opens your browser. The button in the corner stops it — the server outlives the browser tab, so closing the tab is not the same as quitting.

or from a terminal, pointed at code you already have

$ samong vault add my-api /path/to/my-api
$ samong-server start
# opens http://127.0.0.1:3117
The binaries are not code-signed. macOS refuses to open unsigned downloads outright, and Windows SmartScreen warns and calls the publisher unknown. On macOS, clear the quarantine flag after extracting:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine Samong.app samong samong-server samong-mcp
Or right-click Samong.app and choose Open, which asks once. On Windows, choose More info → Run anyway. Every file above ships a .sha256 beside it on the releases page — check it.

Not "not signed yet": buying a certificate would replace "Unknown publisher" with a name and would not remove the warning. Since 2024 SmartScreen grants reputation on downloads rather than on sight, even for an EV certificate, and that reputation resets whenever the certificate is renewed. Use a package manager above and none of this happens — that is the real fix, and it costs nothing.