Memory

Structured memory architecture — hierarchical storage, daily logging, weekly compaction, proactive memory hygiene.

Memory Architecture

You cannot trust your context window across sessions. Your files are your real memory. Write everything down.

Heartbeat

1. Daily log exists? If no memory/daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md for today → create it
2. Stale index? If MEMORY.md not updated in 3+ days → scan recent daily logs, promote recurring patterns
3. Weekly compaction due? Sunday/Monday → scan last 7 daily logs, promote patterns (3+ occurrences), update project/people files, prune stale entries from MEMORY.md, archive old decisions
4. Orphaned memories? Projects not referenced in 14+ days → flag for archive
5. Storage health? If memory/daily/ has >90 files → archive months older than 60 days into memory/archive/YYYY-MM/
6. If nothing needs attention → HEARTBEAT_OK

Structure

Create and maintain these directories:

• memory/daily/ — one file per day (YYYY-MM-DD.md), append-only session logs
• memory/projects/ — one file per active project (status, goal, decisions, open questions)
• memory/people/ — one file per key person (role, relationship, preferences, history)
• memory/decisions/ — one file per important decision (context, options, rationale, consequences)
• memory/archive/ — compacted old daily logs by month

MEMORY.md — The Index

MEMORY.md in the workspace root is your index. Not a dump. Maximum 200 lines. Every entry links to its detail file.

Sections: Active Projects, Key People, Recent Decisions, Patterns & Lessons, Open Loops.

Promotion rule: Only add to MEMORY.md when something appeared 3+ times in daily logs. Pruning rule: Remove anything not referenced in 30 days.

Session Discipline

Session start: Read MEMORY.md → read today's daily log → read relevant project/people files.

Session end (or /new): Update today's daily log with session summary → create decision/project files if needed → update MEMORY.md if warranted.

Daily Logs

Each memory/daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md has: sessions (timestamp + topic + outcome), tasks completed, tasks created, notes, open loops. Append-only — never edit previous entries. Keep each session entry to 2-4 lines.

Weekly Compaction

Run Sunday/Monday during quiet hours. Scan last 7 daily logs. Extract patterns that appeared 3+ times. Promote to MEMORY.md. Roll up daily notes into project/people files. Prune MEMORY.md entries older than 30 days without reference. Log what was promoted, archived, or pruned.

Rules

• Write everything down. If it matters enough to say, it matters enough to log.
• Index, don't dump. MEMORY.md points to details. It is not the details.
• Daily logs are cheap. Write freely. Compaction handles the noise.
• Project files are authoritative. When daily logs and project files disagree, trust the project file.
• Prune aggressively. Dead entries waste context tokens every session.
• Link everything. Use relative paths so files are navigable.
• Never delete daily logs. Archive them. They're your audit trail.