basicmachines-co Memory Reflect
Review recent activity and consolidate valuable insights into long-term memory.
Inspired by sleep-time compute — the idea that memory formation happens best between active sessions, not during them.
When to Run
- Cron/heartbeat: Schedule as a periodic background task (recommended: 1-2x daily)
- On demand: User asks to reflect, consolidate, or review recent memory
- Post-compaction: After context window compaction events
Process
1. Gather Recent Material
Read the last 2-3 days of daily notes from memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md. Also check:
- Recent conversation transcripts (if accessible)
- Any files modified in
memory/in the last 48 hours - Active tasks in
memory/tasks/
2. Evaluate What Matters
For each piece of information, ask:
- Is this a decision that affects future work? → Keep
- Is this a lesson learned or mistake to avoid? → Keep
- Is this a preference or working style insight? → Keep
- Is this a relationship detail (who does what, contact info)? → Keep
- Is this transient (weather checked, heartbeat ran, routine task)? → Skip
- Is this already captured in MEMORY.md or another long-term file? → Skip
3. Update Long-Term Memory
Write consolidated insights to MEMORY.md following its existing structure:
- Add new sections or update existing ones
- Use concise, factual language
- Include dates for temporal context
- Remove or update outdated entries that the new information supersedes
4. Log the Reflection
Append a brief entry to today's daily note:
## Reflection (HH:MM)
- Reviewed: [list of files reviewed]
- Added to MEMORY.md: [brief summary of what was consolidated]
- Removed/updated: [anything cleaned up]
Guidelines
- Be selective. The goal is distillation, not duplication. MEMORY.md should be curated wisdom, not a copy of daily notes.
- Preserve voice. If the agent has a personality/soul file, reflections should match that voice.
- Don't delete daily notes. They're the raw record. Reflection extracts from them; it doesn't replace them.
- Merge, don't append. If MEMORY.md already has a section about a topic, update it in place rather than adding a duplicate entry.
- Flag uncertainty. If something seems important but you're not sure, add it with a note like "(needs confirmation)" rather than skipping it entirely.
- Restructure over time. If MEMORY.md is a chronological dump, restructure it into topical sections during reflection. Curated knowledge > raw logs.
- Check for filesystem issues. Look for recursive nesting (memory/memory/memory/...), orphaned files, or bloat while gathering material.