# Aim Lore Hygiene

> Enforce hygiene on per-operator sanctum files (LORE/MEMORY compaction, PERSONA Evolution-Log section-cap, CREED/BOND cap-check) — line-cap enforcement, anchored-summarization compaction at ~80% of cap, the prune-vs-archive decision, and a conservation 0-lost proof on every relocation. Use when a sanctum file approaches its size cap, on a scheduled hygiene pass, or when the operator asks to compact or prune lore.

- Skill: `hidden-history/aim-lore-hygiene` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add hidden-history/aim-lore-hygiene`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/hidden-history/aim-lore-hygiene/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: Hidden-History (https://skillmd.com/u/hidden-history)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/hidden-history/aim-lore-hygiene

---


# aim-lore-hygiene — Per-Operator Lore File Hygiene

Compacts always-injected sanctum files (LORE.md, MEMORY.md) under the BP-159
~200-line cap so rules don't "get lost in the noise" and adherence stays high.
**FILE-content compaction only** — NOT Qdrant-point purging by age (that is
`aim-purge`, a different domain — PLAN-028 P0-3).

The deterministic mechanics (line-counting, marker classification, structural
compaction, archiving) live in `scripts/lore_hygiene.py`, invoked **by path**.
This file decides *when* to run, *which* files, and *how to read the plan*.

## When to use

- A sanctum file crosses ~80% of its cap (160/200 lines — the compaction trigger).
- A scheduled hygiene pass (session-stop hook or cron).
- The operator asks to prune or compact lore, or flags a stale/wrong entry.

## Steps

1. Resolve the sanctum path: `{project-root}/_ai-memory/sanctum/{agent_id}/`.
   The scan governs every present class — `LORE.md`/`MEMORY.md` (compact),
   `PERSONA.md` (Evolution-Log section-cap), `CREED.md`/`BOND.md` (cap-check only).

2. **Dry-run audit (DEFAULT — never mutates):**
   `python3 scripts/lore_hygiene.py <sanctum-path>`
   Reports per file: line count, % of cap, and the proposed prune / archive /
   dedup actions with a projected post-compaction line count.

3. **Review the plan** — the verifiable intermediate output. Confirm prunes are
   genuinely superseded/contradicted, archives are stale-but-meaningful, and the
   projected count lands at or under cap. If the plan reports a residual over-cap,
   a manual/LLM semantic-summarization pass is needed (the script will not
   auto-truncate recall-value content).

4. **Apply only after review:**
   `python3 scripts/lore_hygiene.py <sanctum-path> --apply`
   Each mutated file gets a timestamped `.bak` sidecar first; archived entries
   move to `references/lore-archive/<FILE>.archive.md` with a one-line pointer
   left in the hot file. Add `--qdrant --group-id <project>` to also push archived
   entries to the Qdrant cold tier (best-effort, opt-in).

5. **Verify:** re-run the dry-run audit. Every file should be ≤ cap (or carry an
   explicit residual flag), and each archived entry should have a one-line pointer
   in the hot file. A second `--apply` on an already-clean file is a no-op.

## What the script acts on (structure-aware, keep-when-uncertain)

The script acts **only on genuine content entries** — bullets, paragraphs, and table
content rows. It is structure-aware: every structural or ambiguous construct is opaque
passthrough, copied byte-for-byte and **never classified, deduped, split, or
rewritten**:

- **Code fences** — the entire block (```` ``` ````/`~~~`, including the info string
  and everything between the delimiters) is one opaque unit. A marker token *inside* a
  fence is example text, never an entry; an unterminated fence keeps its remainder
  opaque.
- **Tables** — the header row and its `|---|` separator are structural (a tagged
  header is never classified, so a separator is never orphaned). Only the *content*
  rows below them are classified.
- **Thematic breaks** (`---`, `***`, `___`) and other delimiters — structural, never
  deduped.
- **Anything else not confidently structural-or-content** (blockquotes, indented code,
  raw HTML, odd constructs) — **kept opaque**. A raw-HTML block is gathered from its
  start line to the blank-line terminator (inner lines need not start with `<`), so a
  multi-line `<div>…</div>` stays whole. This is the keep-when-uncertain posture:
  because the skill mutates the operator's own memory, when it cannot confidently
  classify a block it keeps it intact rather than risk corrupting it.

## How entries are classified

Within genuine content entries, the script is marker-driven (it never guesses an entry
is low-utility):

- **Prune (delete):** `[superseded]`, `[contradicted]`, `[wrong]`, `[obsolete]`,
  `[prune]`, a `[expired:YYYY-MM-DD]` TTL that has passed, or a full-entry
  strikethrough (a single `~~...~~` span covering all of the entry's content).
- **Archive (cold tier + pointer):** `[stale]`, `[archive]`. For a non-table entry a
  one-line pointer is left in the hot file; for a **table content row** the row is
  dropped in place (the table stays well-formed) and its content still moves to the
  cold tier — no inline pointer is injected into the table body.
- **Dedup:** exact-duplicate entries **within the same `## section`** are collapsed,
  keeping the first; identical text under different sections is kept (distinct records).
  Table rows (header, separator, content) are never deduped, so a second same-schema
  table keeps its header and separator.
- **Keep:** everything else.

**Markers must be anchored in the LEADING position.** A marker counts only as a
**leading tag** — right after the bullet/number prefix (`- [superseded] …`) or in the
first cell of a table row (`| [superseded] row | … |`). A marker merely *mentioned in
prose* ("Tag an entry `[superseded]` when…") **or one that merely ends a line of
prose** ("a fact retired at end of life `[obsolete]`") is **ignored and kept**, never
pruned. (Trailing-tag anchoring was removed in cycle-2 — it pruned prose ending in a
marker token; leading-only is the single, unambiguous, data-safe convention.) Tag
entries during a Pulse, or when the operator says "that's not right anymore", so the
next hygiene pass acts on them safely.

> **Crash-rerun note (TGT-2).** Cold-tier appends are deduplicated by exact block
> string. A same-day crash-rerun (hot file not yet rewritten) is fully idempotent. A
> *cross-day* crash-rerun writes a second, differently-dated archive block for the
> same content — accepted behavior that preserves a per-day audit trail and never
> loses content.

## Governed classes & per-class strategy

When run on a sanctum dir the script governs each present class by its declared
`Contract` (caps from TASK-077 A2; the `Contract` model is the **shared**
`pov/lib/governance/contract.py`, the same one `aim-tracking-rotate` uses):

- **LORE.md / MEMORY.md — compact.** Marker-driven prune/archive/dedup (above).
- **PERSONA.md — section-cap.** The `## Evolution Log` section keeps its last 10
  entries; older rows relocate losslessly to the cold archive with one pointer
  left below the table. Symbolic section anchor only — never line numbers; the
  rest of PERSONA is not rotated.
- **CREED.md / BOND.md — check-only.** Cap is reported but identity directives are
  **never auto-relocated**. An over-cap CREED/BOND makes the run exit non-zero so
  closeout HALTs — relocate by hand.

## Session-close gate (`--check`)

`python3 scripts/lore_hygiene.py --check <sanctum-path>` is the read-only
session-close gate (companion to `aim-tracking-rotate --check` for oversight
files). It never mutates: it exits non-zero with a SYSTEM FAILURE block per
**blocking** over-cap sanctum file (CREED/BOND line+KB, PERSONA `## Evolution Log`
over the last-10 entry cap) and a remedy command, so closeout is blocked until
each blocking class is within cap. The LORE/MEMORY compact-class file-SIZE cap is
**reporting-only** (A2: full files stay on disk at full size; file rotation is
tag-driven, not a closeout blocker) — an over-size LORE/MEMORY prints a WARNING
but never blocks closeout. Wired into session-close step-04.

## Conservation proof (prove-then-commit)

Every relocation is proven 0-lost **before** anything is written: the script
builds the content multiset over the hot file and the cold archive and proves,
via the shared `conservation` module, that every line not intentionally
prune/dedup-removed survives in the would-be hot file **or** the would-be archive
(and that the archive never shrinks). If the proof fails the run aborts with a
non-zero exit and **leaves every original byte-identical** — no `.bak`, no
partial write. The `.bak` sidecar is written only once the proof passes.

## `--cap` on a directory (global override)

Scanning a sanctum dir uses each hot file's own cap (LORE.md/MEMORY.md → 200).
Passing `--cap N` **overrides every file in that dir with the single value N** — a
global override, not a per-file map (use it to audit one explicit file, e.g.
`--cap 300` for a project-root `CLAUDE.md`). `--cap` must be a positive integer.
Per-file caps when scanning a dir remain a possible future option (not built).

## References

- Per-file caps, the ~80% trigger, and the LORE section schema: `references/caps.md`
- The prune-vs-archive decision rule (BP-159 §6): `references/decision-rule.md`