Memory Refresh

Memory Refresh

Purpose / When to Activate

Activate:

• After major discovery or delivery phases
• When memory exceeds comfortable context size
• Periodically on active projects (weekly or per sprint)

This skill governs and optimizes existing memory only — it does not create new knowledge.

Process

1. Read memory index
2. Extract durable knowledge from session memory
3. Convert recurring or validated information into summary memory
4. Archive raw session files to contexts/memory/archive/
5. Compact with R7 category-aware rules:
   • Durable memory (decisions, patterns, project, ops, contacts, domains): only entries with explicit supersession markers (> SUPERSEDED by DEC-XX, > RETRACTED, > OBSOLETE — {reason}) may be archived. All other entries are ACTIVE and MUST NOT be archived. Decisions are already individual ADR files (decisions/DEC-{N}.md) — no compaction needed. For other oversized durable files → domain-split, not archive.
   • Ephemeral memory (sessions): standard compaction — summarize and archive. 5b. Summary lifecycle — mandatory when extending summary coverage: When creating or extending a decisions summary file that supersedes an existing one (e.g., decisions-90-145.summary.md → decisions-90-155.summary.md): a. Write the new summary file with updated frontmatter (id, updated_at, source range). b. Update index.md Summaries section: replace the old filename with the new one. c. Delete the old summary file from disk (it is now superseded; do not leave orphan files). d. Verify: confirm old filename is gone from disk AND index.md pointer is updated before proceeding. Also check decisions/_log.md for any ⚠️ PENDING: extend summary range notes — process them and remove the notes once handled.
6. Update memory index: update index.md frontmatter updated_at to reflect this refresh run.

Quality Checks

• Active memory remains minimal and high-signal
• Summaries become the primary long-term context source
• Raw exploration is archived, not deleted
• No uncontrolled memory growth
• Index always reflects current active memory
• No active durable memory entry archived — only superseded/retracted entries may be archived (R7/R7b)

Non-Goals

This skill must NOT:

• Create new project memory
• Record new decisions (use memory-ingest or decision-extraction)
• Generate architecture context

Governs existing memory. Keeps it clean, cheap, and precise.