engramx v3.4.0 "Universal Spine" is live (and v4.0 Mesh foundation just merged)

[NickCirv]

v3.4.0 "Universal Spine" — three install paths, eight IDEs

Released 2026-05-02. Full release notes at v3.4.0.

Three ways to install (all the same engram, you can stack them):

# Path 1: CLI (works in every supported IDE)
npm install -g engramx
cd ~/your-project && engram setup

# Path 2: Cursor / VS Code extension (live on OpenVSX)
code --install-extension nickcirv.engram-vscode

# Path 3: Continue.dev users
npm install engramx-continue

A fourth path lands when the Anthropic Claude Code plugin clears review (/plugin install engram from the official directory, submission 2026-05-02).

Eight IDEs supported: Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Continue.dev, Aider, Windsurf, Zed, OpenAI Codex CLI.

Numbers: 89.1% measured token reduction on a real 87-file codebase. 1007 tests passing on Ubuntu + Windows × Node 20+22. Apache 2.0, local SQLite, zero cloud.

---

v4.0 "Mesh + Spine" — already in flight

Phase 1 foundation merged the same day (PR #28): ed25519 identity, JCS canonical signing, 14-category PII gate, append-only audit log, three new CLI commands (engram mesh init/status/audit). Zero new runtime dependencies.

v4.0 makes engram instances on different machines exchange mistakes and ADRs without sharing source code. Local-first stays the default. Federation is opt-in only.

Target ship: 2026-05-25. Subscribe at engram.substack.com (when live) or watch this Discussions section for phase updates.

---

What this thread is for

Drop install issues, feedback, weird engram cost numbers from your repo, integration requests, plugin ideas. I will be answering for the next 7 days. After that, the mesh-foundation thread takes over.

Issues that need code go in Issues. Everything else goes here.