Sci

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Sci Alpha — Install Guide ​

Alpha v0.1.0 · macOS · Apple Silicon · Invite only

What you're getting ​

Sci is a local proxy that sits between Claude Code and Anthropic. Before any request leaves your machine, it substitutes your real name, email, and other PII with stable placeholder tokens, then restores them in the response. It also injects relevant memory context — facts about you, your projects, and past decisions — into every session via an MCP server connected to a local store. The alpha proves the core pipeline: anonymization, memory injection, and deanonymization all working end-to-end with Claude Code. What's not included yet: auto-update, a GUI, multi-provider routing, and cloud storage sync.

Prerequisites ​

  • macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) — Intel Macs are not supported in the alpha
  • Claude Code installed and signed in (claude --version should succeed)
  • An invite link from Casey

No API key required — Sci uses the Claude Code login you already have, including Claude Pro or Max via OAuth. Storage is local SQLite — no Docker or Postgres either.

Install ​

Run the installer in your terminal:

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sovereign-cognitive-identity/sci/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

The installer asks for sudo for two steps: trusting the CA certificate in your System Keychain and writing the launchd services.

The installer will:

  1. Download the Sci binary for Apple Silicon and install it to ~/.sci/bin/
  2. Add ~/.sci/bin to your PATH in ~/.zshrc
  3. Generate a local CA certificate and trust it in your macOS System Keychain
  4. Register the sci MCP server in ~/.claude.json
  5. Write HTTPS_PROXY and NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS into Claude Code's settings.json
  6. Install and start the launchd services — dev.sci.helper (proxy, :3001) and com.sci.agent (:8080)

When it finishes, you'll see a status summary.

If the installer offers to store an Anthropic API key, you can skip it (press Enter) — your existing Claude Code login already works through the proxy. A key is only needed if you prefer key-based auth over OAuth.

First-run setup ​

The installer completes setup for you — there is no separate wizard to run. If you ever need to re-enter your API key or re-register the MCP server, run:

bash
sci --setup

Verify it's working ​

Open a new terminal (so the PATH change takes effect), then:

bash
sci status

Expected output:

ok: true
episodic:        0
semantic:        0
identity:        0
embeddings:      0
queue (pending): 0

Counts are zero on a fresh install. That's expected — they grow as you use Claude Code.

Then run a live privacy check:

bash
sci verify

This sends a real request through the proxy and prints a before/after comparison showing what left your machine. The check must PASS before you trust the system with real conversations.

Sample output:

  What you sent:
    "My name is Casey Zandbergen and my email is casey@example.com."

  What reached Anthropic:
    "My name is [PERSON_1] and my email is [EMAIL_1]."

  Anonymization:
    PERSON_1  →  Casey Zandbergen
    EMAIL_1   →  casey@example.com

  PASS — real name did not appear in the outbound request.

Your first session ​

  1. Open a new terminal (PATH and proxy env must be inherited)
  2. Start Claude Code in any project: claude
  3. Confirm the proxy env is active — ask Claude to run echo $HTTPS_PROXY. It should print http://127.0.0.1:3001.
  4. Use Claude Code normally. Sci intercepts each request transparently.
  5. Start a second Claude Code session in a different directory. This is where memory injection becomes visible — Sci will include context from the first session without you doing anything.

See Using Sci for day-to-day usage.

Confirming memory is flowing ​

Sci exposes memory to Claude Code through the sci MCP server. Ask Claude directly:

"What do you know about me and my active projects?"

Claude will call memory_identity and memory_recall and summarize what it finds.

To seed memory immediately from your Claude conversation history:

bash
# Export from: claude.ai/settings/account → Privacy → Export Data
sci import --claude ~/Downloads/conversations.json

Uninstall ​

bash
# Stop and remove the background services
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.sci.helper.plist
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.sci.agent.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.sci.helper.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.sci.agent.plist

# Remove MCP registration
claude mcp remove sci

# Remove config, binary, and data (destructive — erases all stored memories)
rm -rf ~/.sci

# Manually remove the PATH line from ~/.zshrc and the proxy env block
# (HTTPS_PROXY / NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS) from Claude Code's settings.json

# Remove CA from Keychain (optional):
# Keychain Access → search "Sci" → delete the certificate

Common issues ​

SymptomCauseFix
sci: command not foundPATH not updatedOpen a new terminal or run source ~/.zshrc
Connection refused on port 3001Proxy not runninglaunchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.sci.helper.plist, then check ~/Library/Logs/sci-helper.log
First request hangs 30–120 secondsEmbedding model downloading on first run (~110 MB)Wait — tail -f ~/Library/Logs/sci-helper.log to watch progress
curl: (60) SSL certificate problemCA not trusted in KeychainRe-run the installer, or trust ~/.sci/ca.crt in Keychain Access manually
401 from AnthropicClaude Code isn't signed in (or a stale key is set)Run claude and sign in; if you use an API key, sci --setup to re-enter it
Claude Code bypasses proxyHTTPS_PROXY not set in Claude Code's environmentLaunch Claude Code from a terminal, not the Dock/Spotlight

See INSTALL.md for detailed diagnosis steps.

Feedback ​

This is alpha software. Things will break. Please report what you find:

When reporting a bug, include the output of sci status and the relevant lines from ~/Library/Logs/sci-helper.log.