Read-Only Mode

Not every tool or team member needs to write to the knowledge base. Some should just benefit from what's already there.

When to use read-only

• New team members — their AI tools immediately have access to weeks or months of accumulated team knowledge, without contributing until they're comfortable
• Evaluation — trying memoryd before committing to a full rollout? Connect read-only and see what the retrieval quality looks like
• Security-sensitive contexts — some teams or environments have policies about what AI tools can store. Read-only lets them benefit without contributing
• Non-engineering tools — a PM's AI assistant can search the team's technical knowledge base without writing back to it
• Cross-team consumers — teams that want to consume another team's knowledge without mixing their own context in

Setup

Configure memoryd as an MCP server in your tool's config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memoryd": {
      "command": "memoryd",
      "args": ["mcp", "--read-only"]
    }
  }
}

The --read-only flag restricts the MCP server to search-only tools. Write operations (memory_store, source_ingest, etc.) are disabled.

What the tool sees

When the AI searches the knowledge base, it gets formatted results:

[1] (source: claude-code, relevance: 0.87)
The payment service validates webhook signatures using HMAC-SHA256...

[2] (source: source:internal-wiki, relevance: 0.82)
Deployments to production require approval from the #releases channel...

Knowledge from proxy sessions, MCP writes, and ingested sources — all surfaced through a single search. The AI tool doesn't know or care how the knowledge got there.

The value for team leads

Read-only mode is a low-risk entry point for team adoption:

1. Seed the store — have a few engineers use memoryd normally for a sprint or two
2. Connect the rest read-only — everyone benefits from the accumulated knowledge immediately
3. Opt in gradually — team members switch to full participation when they see the value

This approach lets you demonstrate ROI before asking the whole team to change anything about their workflow.

Participation spectrum

memoryd supports a range of participation levels across a team:

Level	How	Best for
Full (proxy)	Automatic capture + retrieval	Engineers using Claude Code who want zero-effort contribution
Full (MCP)	Agent-controlled search, store, and maintenance	Engineers using Cursor, Windsurf, custom tools
Read-only	Search only, no writes	New hires, evaluators, PMs, cross-team consumers
Isolated	Separate database	Anyone who needs a private knowledge store

There's no forced contribution. The value of the shared store is strong enough that most people opt into full participation voluntarily — because the more people contribute, the more everyone benefits.