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The hosted Memory Crystal service is Convex Cloud at https://convex.memorycrystal.ai. Clients reach its MCP bridge at https://api.memorycrystal.ai/mcp. This page is for a deployment you operate. It does not describe the hosted service.

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Pick a path

The Railway page covers the web app and the MCP bridge. A Convex backend is a third service. Use local-first or your own Convex deployment for that process.

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External self-hosted clients

The universal installer accepts --backend self-hosted and a URL you supply. It writes client MCP config to <your-url>/api/mcp. It does not call the hosted license check for that mode. It also does not keep checking a hosted plan afterward. The installer prints a reminder to set GEMINI_API_KEY and, optionally, OPENROUTER_API_KEY on the backend you run. Those prompts do not match the current embedding runtime, which uses the account’s personal OpenRouter key and fails closed when that key is missing. See Providers.

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Variables

Client, backend, and MCP process variables are listed in Environment Variables. A self-hosted MCP bridge still requires each client to send Authorization: Bearer <api-key>. A key in the bridge’s environment does not replace that header.

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Connect to an external backend

First provision your Convex backend and deploy the Memory Crystal functions. The repository’s Docker provisioning path is described in Local-First Setup; Railway web/MCP services alone are insufficient. Configure a valid API key and the owner’s provider settings on that backend before connecting clients. Then run the installer and supply your external HTTP base URL:
The installer prompts for credentials and configures the selected clients. Validate a tool call after setup; writing the client config is not proof that backend authentication or embeddings work.

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Troubleshooting

Local-first validates hosted credentials during setup. External mode skips that check but still needs authentication on your own backend. Neither path establishes a separate account boundary merely by setting a channel or agent id. If you want the managed service instead, use Quick Start. For a self-operated installation, check the backend, web app, and MCP bridge as separate services. Run local bin/doctor for the packaged backend, then verify an authenticated tool call and semantic recall.