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Backend Switching

Memanto keeps cloud and on-prem state strictly separated so you can flip between them at will. The data on each side stays intact — switching backends never deletes or moves your agents or memories.

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The Two Backends

BackendSelected withData lives inAuth
Cloud (default)memanto config backend cloud~/.memanto/MOORCHEH_API_KEY in ~/.memanto/.env
On-Premmemanto config backend on-prem~/.memanto/on-prem/None — talks to local Moorcheh server at http://localhost:8080
memanto status always shows the active backend and its server health.

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Inspect the Current Backend

memanto config backend
Sample output (cloud): 
Active backend: cloud
Sample output (on-prem): 
Active backend: on-prem
Server:    http://localhost:8080
Embedding: ollama

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Switch to On-Prem

memanto config backend on-prem
What happens:
  1. If on-prem has never been configured on this machine, the on-prem onboarding wizard runs (Docker check, provider prompts, moorcheh up, model pulls). See On-Prem Quickstart.
  2. If on-prem has been configured before, the wizard skips the prompts and reuses your previous embedding_provider, embedding_model, and (where possible) provider API keys from ~/.moorcheh/config.json.
  3. The active session is cleared (sessions are backend-specific — you don’t want to send a cloud session token to the on-prem server).
  4. backend: on-prem is persisted in ~/.memanto/config.yaml.
  5. The in-process client singleton is reset so the next call immediately uses the new backend.
Confirmation: 
Switched backend to on-prem.
Active session was cleared.

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Switch Back to Cloud

memanto config backend cloud
If your cloud API key is already saved in ~/.memanto/.env, the switch is instant. Otherwise the cloud setup prompts you for MOORCHEH_API_KEY and verifies it against the Moorcheh API.

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What’s Preserved Across Switches

StatePreserved?Where
Cloud agents and memoriesYesMoorcheh Cloud (server-side) + ~/.memanto/agents.
On-prem agents and memoriesYesLocal Moorcheh container + ~/.memanto/on-prem/agents.
Cloud API keyYes~/.memanto/.env.
On-prem provider configYes~/.memanto/on-prem/state.json + ~/.moorcheh/config.json.
Active sessionNoCleared on every switch (intentional — tokens don’t cross backends).
Integrations (memanto connect …)Yes~/.memanto/connections.json — these are IDE wiring, not backend state.
Switching backends never mutates or deletes data on either side. You can flip back and forth as often as you like.

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Troubleshooting Switches

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”On-Prem Server: ● offline” after switching to on-prem

The wizard sets up the stack but doesn’t keep it running across machine reboots. Bring Moorcheh back up: 
moorcheh up
If moorcheh isn’t on PATH, re-open your terminal (so pip’s scripts dir is loaded) or run python -m moorcheh up.

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”Invalid Moorcheh API key” after switching to cloud

Your ~/.memanto/.env is missing or stale. Re-enter the key: 
memanto config backend cloud   # triggers the cloud setup flow again
Or set it directly: 
echo "MOORCHEH_API_KEY=mk_…" > ~/.memanto/.env

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Agents missing after switching

Cloud and on-prem maintain separate agent registries. An agent created on cloud is not visible from on-prem (and vice versa). Re-create the agent under the target backend, or import a memory export.