Written in May 2026, while it was still happening. It has since resolved — we were evicted, and we found a new home. The post is left as it was written; how it ended is at the bottom.
I've been sitting on this post for weeks. Every time I opened the draft I just closed it again. Asking for help is not something that comes naturally, especially when you're used to solving problems by shipping code. But I'm at the end of my options right now, and more than anything, I need God's help through all of this.
I've been unemployed for nine months now. Nine months of applications going unanswered, interviews that go nowhere, and trying to stay strong for my wife and kids while our savings have steadily run dry. We're behind on rent and facing a very real risk of eviction. It's as serious as it sounds.
How we got here
None of this was planned. I had a good job, was building things I was proud of, and taking care of my family. Then the tech layoffs came, the market turned tough, and the skills that had always kept me employed weren't enough anymore. Every solid job posting gets flooded with hundreds of applicants.
In the middle of it all, I kept building. That's how Mnemosyne went from a late-night side project to something real. I put everything I had into it: clean architecture, fast performance, solid tests. I made it completely free and open source because I believe your AI memory should stay on your own machine, under your control, not trapped in someone else's cloud. I still believe that strongly.
We've already received real help along the way. Donations from kind people, support from family, and especially tremendous help from one very close friend who stepped up multiple times with rent when things got tight. We've used up all our savings too. But everything has now been exhausted. I can't keep going back to the same people over and over while we wait for this difficult season to pass.
This is a corporate-owned apartment complex, so there's very little room for negotiation. Everything gets sent up to corporate, and they tend to follow the same process no matter what. We're running out of time.
What I'm actually asking
God, I really dislike this part. I've never been comfortable asking for things, especially money. This project was meant to be my gift to the community, not something that turned into a fundraiser. But right now, keeping a roof over my kids' heads is what matters most.
If Mnemosyne has ever helped you, saved you time, made your agents better, or if you believe in local, private, open-source AI tools, anything you can give would mean the world. Even small amounts add up.
We have a goal set up on my Ko-fi page, and people have already stepped up in ways I did not expect. If you're able to help, you can go straight to the Ko-fi page here: ko-fi.com/axdsan .
This isn't a startup pitch. There's no fancy deck or promises of future riches. It's just a dad trying to keep his family in their home while continuing to build something he believes in.
Other ways to help (that cost nothing)
If money is tight for you right now (and I know times are hard for many), there are still meaningful things you can do:
- Star the repo on GitHub. github.com/mnemosyne-oss/mnemosyne - it helps more people find the project.
- Share this post or the project on X, Discord, or wherever you hang out.
- Open an issue, report a bug, suggest a feature, or just say hello. Knowing people are actually using it keeps me motivated.
- Tell a friend who's into agents or local AI.
What happens next
I'm going to keep building no matter what. It's one of the few things I can still control. The next version is already in progress with better import/export tools, more embedding options, cleaner docs, and a refreshed site. The work helps keep me grounded.
But I'm not going to pretend things are okay. We're scared. A little breathing room to catch up on rent and calm the late-night worry would change everything for us.
I don't know exactly how this chapter ends, but I'm praying it ends with us still in our home, me still coding, and this community continuing to grow. That's the outcome I'm fighting for.
Thank you for reading this.
Update: this chapter is closed
I want to tell you how this ended, because you were part of it and you deserve the honest version rather than a comfortable one.
We did not raise enough in time. The eviction went through. We had to pack up the place my kids had been calling home, and we had to do it on somebody else's schedule. There is no way to write that sentence and make it sound like anything other than what it was.
And yet: we came out of it standing. We found a new place. We are in it, together, all of us, and the door locks and the lights are on. What I was most afraid of — that we would end up with nowhere to go — did not happen, and the reason it did not happen is a combination of God's provision, family, one friend who has now stepped up more times than I can count, and a community of strangers on the internet who read a post from a developer they had never met and decided to help anyway.
As believers, we hold onto something that made the hardest weeks survivable: that this was not random. It happened, it was allowed, and it was for a purpose we could not see from inside it. I am not going to pretend I understood that while I was carrying boxes. I am saying it now, on the other side, looking at a house we would never have found if we had stayed. It was a new journey, and we came out of it victorious.
We are still recovering. Moving is not free, and an emergency move is considerably less free than a planned one: deposits, first month, the truck, the things that broke in transit, the fees that follow you out the door of a place you were evicted from. So the goal has shifted. It is no longer rent-before-the-deadline. It is digging out from what the move cost us, and getting back to level ground.
Donations are, as always, welcome, and they now go toward exactly that. If you gave during the worst of it, thank you — you bought us the breathing room that got us to a new address instead of a shelter. If you are only reading this now, the Ko-fi page below is still open and every bit of it goes to the same place: keeping my family steady while I keep building.
And I am still building. I never stopped, not through any of it. Mnemosyne shipped releases from a house we were being evicted from and it is shipping releases from this one. This chapter is closed. A new one opens.
Thank you for using Mnemosyne, for the stars, the feedback, and the kind words. They have meant more than you know.