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Add persistent memory to the Codex CLI backed by your Cognee Cloud tenant with the Cognee memory plugin — no code and no pip install. The plugin captures your prompts, tool traces, and answers into session memory, injects relevant context on every prompt, and syncs the session into your knowledge graph on session end. Sessions are disposable; your memory isn’t.

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1. Enable hooks and install

The plugin depends on Codex lifecycle hooks. Enable them first, then install from the Codex marketplace:
You can enable hooks manually instead by adding a [features] section with hooks = true to ~/.codex/config.toml. If Codex prompts you to review the hooks, approve the Cognee hooks so it can call the plugin on prompt submit, tool use, stop, compaction, and session end.
On startup the status line shows cognee: <dataset> · <mode> to confirm the plugin is active.

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2. Point it at Cognee Cloud

Set both variables in the shell that launches Codex, using your tenant base URL and an API key:
When COGNEE_BASE_URL is set, the plugin runs as a pure thin HTTP client to your tenant — it does not install a local Cognee runtime. When COGNEE_BASE_URL is unset, the plugin instead bootstraps a local API at http://localhost:8011. Setting the Cloud URL and key is what routes memory to your tenant.

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3. Choose a dataset

All writes and recall are scoped to a single dataset, selected with the COGNEE_PLUGIN_DATASET environment variable. By default both the Codex and Claude Code plugins use agent_sessions, so memory is shared across both integrations automatically. Set a custom dataset at launch:
The dataset is fixed for the lifetime of a launch, and recall searches only the active dataset. To switch datasets, exit Codex, change COGNEE_PLUGIN_DATASET, and start it again. The dataset key in ~/.cognee-plugin/config.json is informational-only — runtime dataset selection reads the env var, not the config file.
Data added to the same dataset outside Codex (via the SDK or the server) is visible in Codex through the plugin.

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4. Pick a session (optional)

By default a new session_id is generated on each launch. Set COGNEE_SESSION_ID to resume a specific named session, or to deliberately share one live session across two terminals:

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5. Verify

Quit Codex — the SessionEnd hook syncs the session into Cognee (an exit-watcher fallback covers a hard exit). Then start a fresh session and ask:
What do you know from cognee?
Answering from a clean session confirms it’s recalling from your Cloud memory.
Alongside automatic capture, the plugin ships skills you can invoke to remember or search explicitly — see the full integration guide.
Share specific datasets with connected agents from the Connections page to grant scoped read access.

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Configuration reference

Precedence: environment variables → ~/.cognee-plugin/config.json → defaults. Update the plugin with codex plugin marketplace upgrade cognee — the cognee marketplace tracks main, and updates are not automatic. See the full integration guide for the idle-watcher, session-sync, and update-notification variables.

Full integration guide

Manual config, hooks reference, and debugging

Claude Code

The same memory plugin for Claude Code