Memory Lifecycle

Systematic memory management for long-running AI agents. Implements a five-tier lifecycle — heartbeat micro-attention, nightly consolidation, weekly reflecti...

Structured memory management that makes agents smarter over time — not through code, but through disciplined capture, consolidation, and distillation of context.

Philosophy

Memory management is not about saving tokens. It's about crafting high-signal context that makes a powerful LLM more effective.

Core principles:

1. Distill, don't summarise. Output should be better than raw input — structured, actionable, reasoning preserved
2. Preserve decisions and reasoning. "We chose X because Y" > "We did X"
3. Never compress away specifics. Phone numbers, dates, prices are facts, not fluff
4. Daily files are immutable. They're the audit trail — add headers, never edit content
5. Each tier builds upward. Raw → structured → refined → wisdom
6. Archives are a library, not a bin. Full narratives, not one-liners

Setup

Run the setup script to scaffold memory files and create cron jobs:

python3 scripts/setup.py

The script will:

1. Create structured memory files (people.md, decisions.md, lessons.md, commitments.md)
2. Add a ## Recent working memory buffer to MEMORY.md
3. Create four cron jobs (nightly, weekly, monthly, yearly)
4. Add memory micro-attention tasks to HEARTBEAT.md

Run with --dry-run to preview changes without applying them. Run with --agent <id> to target a specific agent (default: main).

The Five Tiers

Tier 1: Heartbeat Micro-Attention (every ~30 min)

Added to the agent's HEARTBEAT.md. Quick focused pass — capture, promote, tag:

1. Capture: Ensure notable events are in today's memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
2. Promote: Session-critical items (new appointment, key decision) → MEMORY.md → ## Recent
3. Tag: Mark daily file entries with [decision], [lesson], [person] for the nightly cycle
4. Monitor: Check nightly cycle health — if it errored, fix and re-run. Don't just report.

Tier 2: Nightly "Sleep Cycle" (cron, ~2:00 AM local)

Read references/nightly-prompt.md for the full cron prompt.

• Read today's daily file end-to-end
• Write a 2-3 line "day essence" header
• Promote items to structured files (people → people.md, decisions → decisions.md, etc.)
• Update MEMORY.md if active project state changed
• Clear processed items from ## Recent

Rules: Never edit daily file content. Never remove from MEMORY.md unless completed AND archived.

Tier 3: Weekly Reflection (cron, Sunday ~3:00 AM local)

Read references/weekly-prompt.md for the full cron prompt.

• Read all 7 daily files from the past week
• Spot patterns: repeated topics, unresolved threads
• Refine MEMORY.md — improve structure and language (not strip content)
• Review commitments, contacts, decisions for staleness
• Write a "week in review" in Sunday's daily file

Tier 4: Monthly Deep Clean (cron, 1st of month ~4:00 AM local)

Read references/monthly-prompt.md for the full cron prompt.

• Create memory/archive/YYYY-MM.md with full narratives of completed work
• Move completed items from MEMORY.md to archive
• Keep MEMORY.md under ~4000 words
• Consolidate related lessons into principles
• Personality check on SOUL.md

Rules: Archive entries must be self-contained. Active items never move to archive.

Tier 5: Yearly Wisdom Distillation (cron, January 1)

Read references/yearly-prompt.md for the full cron prompt.

• Create memory/wisdom/YYYY.md
• Extract wisdom that transcends specific events
• Evolve SOUL.md based on a year's experience
• Flag SOUL.md changes to the human

The "Recent" Buffer

A ## Recent section at the top of MEMORY.md acts as working memory:

## Recent
> Working memory — heartbeat promotes critical items here, nightly cycle processes them.
- **2026-03-23:** Viewing booked Thu 26 Mar 9am with estate agent
- **2026-03-23:** Server upgraded v2.3.13 → v2.3.22

• Heartbeats promote critical items here immediately
• Every new session sees it (MEMORY.md is loaded automatically)
• Nightly cycle processes items and clears them

This bridges the gap between raw daily capture and curated long-term memory.

File Structure

After setup, the memory directory contains:

MEMORY.md                  ← Active long-term memory (loaded every session)
memory/
  YYYY-MM-DD.md            ← Daily raw notes (immutable)
  people.md                ← Contacts, relationships, dynamics
  decisions.md             ← Key choices with rationale
  lessons.md               ← Mistakes and learnings (grows, never shrinks)
  commitments.md           ← Deadlines and obligations
  archive/
    YYYY-MM.md             ← Monthly archives (full narratives)
  wisdom/
    YYYY.md                ← Yearly distilled wisdom

Health Check

Run the health check to verify the memory system is working:

python3 scripts/health_check.py

Checks: nightly cron status, MEMORY.md size, Recent buffer staleness, structured file freshness.

What Gets Archived vs What Stays

• Archive: Completed projects, resolved leads, past deadlines, finished work
• Keep active: Ongoing relationships, active projects, preferences, lessons learned
• Never compress: Phone numbers, addresses, credentials, family details, business structure