fix(cli): make fresh installs portable and persistent

.env.example

@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@
 # LLM key, no embedding key, no API auth, and no scheduled eviction. Maintenance
 # sweeps that only bound internal metadata may be enabled unless marked otherwise.
 #
-# Run `npx @agentmemory/agentmemory init` to copy this file into place
-# automatically. Run `npx @agentmemory/agentmemory doctor` to verify that
-# the daemon reads the env you expect.
+# Run `npx -y @agentmemory/agentmemory@latest init` to copy this file into
+# place automatically. Run `npx -y @agentmemory/agentmemory@latest doctor`
+# to verify that the daemon reads the env you expect.
 #
 # Defaults shown in comments. Listed in priority order — the first key
 # present wins on the LLM detection path (see src/config.ts::detectProvider).
@@ -21,8 +21,10 @@
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
 # Without a provider key, agentmemory runs in noop mode: observations are
-# indexed via zero-LLM synthetic compression, hybrid search still works,
+# indexed via zero-LLM synthetic compression and BM25 recall still works,
 # but LLM-backed summarisation / reflection / consolidation are disabled.
+# A provider key alone does not enable LLM-written observation compression;
+# that path also requires AGENTMEMORY_AUTO_COMPRESS=true.
 # The detection order is OPENAI_API_KEY → MINIMAX_API_KEY → ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
 # → GEMINI_API_KEY → OPENROUTER_API_KEY → noop.
 
@@ -64,10 +66,14 @@
 # 2. Embedding provider — auto-detected, override via EMBEDDING_PROVIDER
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
-# Without an embedding key, agentmemory runs in BM25-only mode for hybrid
-# search. Detection order: EMBEDDING_PROVIDER override → GEMINI_API_KEY →
+# Without an embedding provider, vector embeddings are disabled. `mem::search`
+# uses BM25; `mem::smart-search` can also fuse structural graph matches when
+# graph data exists. Remote
+# provider detection order: EMBEDDING_PROVIDER override → GEMINI_API_KEY →
 # OPENAI_API_KEY → VOYAGE_API_KEY → COHERE_API_KEY → OPENROUTER_API_KEY →
-# local (Xenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2, 384-dim).
+# BM25-only. Local embeddings are an explicit opt-in, not the keyless default.
+# `EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=local` uses Xenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (384-dim) on-device;
+# the first embedding request downloads the model and needs network access.
 
 # EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=local                       # local | openai | voyage | cohere | gemini | openrouter
 
@@ -107,7 +113,7 @@
 # 5. Behaviour flags
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-# AGENTMEMORY_AUTO_COMPRESS=true                 # Run LLM compression on every observation batch (requires a provider key). Default off — synthetic compression handles most cases.
+# AGENTMEMORY_AUTO_COMPRESS=true                 # Run LLM-written compression on every observation batch. Requires BOTH this flag and a configured provider; a provider alone leaves synthetic compression active.
 # AGENTMEMORY_INJECT_CONTEXT=true                # Inject recalled memories back into agent prompts (#143). Default off — hooks capture observations but do not modify conversation.
 # CONSOLIDATION_ENABLED=false                    # Runs by default with an LLM provider; set false to opt out of the 4-tier pipeline.
 # CONSOLIDATION_DECAY_DAYS=30                    # Age (days) after which non-reinforced memories decay during consolidation
@@ -150,6 +156,13 @@
 # AGENTMEMORY_PROBE_TIMEOUT_MS=2000              # MCP shim livez probe timeout
 # AGENTMEMORY_URL=http://localhost:3111          # REST base URL — honored by status, doctor, MCP shim
 # AGENTMEMORY_VIEWER_URL=http://localhost:3113   # Override the viewer URL printed by `agentmemory status`
+# Persistent iii state; same override as `--data-dir`, used by native and
+# Docker starts. Explicit flag/env wins. Otherwise instance 0 reuses an
+# existing ./data/state_store.db or ./data/iii-config.yaml before defaults: macOS
+# ~/Library/Application Support/agentmemory; Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/agentmemory
+# or ~/.local/share/agentmemory; Windows %APPDATA%\agentmemory.
+# AGENTMEMORY_DATA_DIR=/absolute/path
+# AGENTMEMORY_USE_DOCKER=1                      # Prefer bundled Docker even when a compatible native iii binary exists
 # AGENTMEMORY_EXPORT_ROOT=~/agentmemory-backup   # Default destination for `agentmemory export`
 
 # STANDALONE_MCP=1                               # MCP shim only — bypass the worker and run @agentmemory/mcp in-process
@@ -169,9 +182,14 @@
 # 7. Ports
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-# III_REST_PORT=3111                             # REST API port (also affects viewer at +2)
-# III_STREAMS_PORT=3112                          # Streams API port
-# III_ENGINE_URL=ws://localhost:49134            # iii-engine WebSocket URL (used by the worker)
+# III_REST_PORT=3111                             # REST API + MCP HTTP anchor
+# III_STREAM_PORT=3112                           # Preferred streams override; defaults to REST + 1
+# III_STREAMS_PORT=3112                          # Legacy alias for III_STREAM_PORT
+# III_VIEWER_PORT=3113                           # Viewer bind port; defaults to REST + 2
+# III_ENGINE_PORT=49134                          # Engine bind port; defaults to REST + 46023
+# III_ENGINE_URL=ws://localhost:49134            # Explicit/remote worker WebSocket URL; takes precedence over derived engine port
+# Derivation applies only while the corresponding explicit port/URL is unset.
+# `--instance 1` selects 3211/3212/3213/49234 and an instance-1 data subdir.
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # 8. iii engine pin

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- **Fresh installs are portable and persistent (aligned with upstream #892).** The bundled `iii-config.yaml` uses cwd-relative paths and the engine was spawned without a cwd, so on global and npx installs `./data/state_store.db` and `./data/stream_store` landed in whatever directory the user ran the CLI from, and the `iii-exec` supervision block never resolved — nothing respawned the worker after it died, which surfaced as "all data gone" reports against a live REST port. `agentmemory start` now regenerates a runtime config each boot (`~/.agentmemory/data/iii-config.runtime.yaml`) with absolute data paths and an absolute worker exec line, anchors the engine cwd at `~/.agentmemory`, and copies any legacy `./data` stores from the invocation directory on first run. Repo checkouts keep the cwd config and repo-root cwd, so dev behavior is unchanged; user overrides via env or `~/.agentmemory/iii-config.yaml` are passed through verbatim. The viewer port is now configurable (`III_VIEWER_PORT`, default REST + 2), worker pidfile paths honor `AGENTMEMORY_RUNTIME_DIR`, Docker installs gain uid/gid/chown controls, and `agentmemory remove` covers the generated runtime config. `agentmemory doctor` and startup-failure reporting were expanded accordingly.
 - **Observation capture no longer grows the persisted live-stream store.** Raw and compressed observation events use `stream::send` instead of `stream::set`; the viewer still receives live updates and REST remains the history source, but `data/stream_store` no longer accumulates a write-only second and third copy of every observation.
 - **Server-side capture payloads are bounded without flattening structured tool data.** `tool_input`, `tool_output`, prompts and the raw envelope are trimmed to configurable character budgets (`AGENTMEMORY_OBSERVE_*`); object fields such as `file_path` survive truncation, `0` disables an individual bound, and positive budgets below 2 are clamped to the smallest serialized string.
 - **Graph and semantic provenance are bounded.** Graph nodes, edges, insights and semantic session provenance keep only the freshest source ids instead of growing for the life of the session.