Memory Context Management

Memory & Context Management

Two complementary systems for retaining knowledge across sessions: the memory plugin (automatic, SQLite) and the persistent filesystem (manual, disk). Use both.

Core Facts

1. The filesystem is forever persistent. /workspace survives container restarts, rebuilds, reboots. Anything written there is permanent until explicitly deleted.
2. You are always in a session. The memory plugin injects your session ID on every turn via <session_context>. Use it for traceability.
3. Organize your files. Don't scatter loose docs everywhere — keep things tidy within the project or in a sensible location. Use your judgement.

1. Session Awareness

Every turn, the memory plugin injects your current session ID:

<session_context>
Session ID: ses_abc123
</session_context>

Use this for:

• Traceability in notes ("Continued from ses_abc123")
• Searching past work via mem_search or session_get
• Linking your observations and LTM back to sessions

2. Filesystem Persistence

The filesystem is your most reliable long-term storage. Write .md files for anything that should survive across sessions.

What to Persist

• Plans — before starting complex multi-step work
• Progress — track what's done and what's next
• Handoff notes — when work will continue in another session
• Decisions — architectural choices with rationale
• Findings — research results, debugging discoveries, gotchas

Guidelines

• Write plans before building. Forces clear thinking, gives future sessions instant context.
• Update as you go. Don't batch updates — write after each milestone.
• Include session IDs and dates in notes for traceability.
• Append over overwrite — preserves history.
• Keep it scannable. Short bullets, checklists, file:line references — not essays.
• Organize sensibly. Keep notes close to the project they belong to. Don't pollute unrelated directories.

Why This Matters

• Sessions end. Conversation context is gone. Files remain.
• Compaction happens. Older messages get compressed. Files remain.
• Other sessions can read your files. A future session can pick up exactly where you left off.
• File writes feed the memory pipeline. Every file you write generates an observation that feeds into LTM consolidation.

3. The Memory Plugin (kortix-sys-oc-plugin)

Automatic system that captures, consolidates, and recalls knowledge.

How It Works

You work normally (read files, write code, run commands, search)
         │
         ▼
   Observations (automatic)
   Every tool call → structured observation:
   - File reads/writes, bash commands, searches, grep/glob
         │
         ▼
   Stored in SQLite (~/.kortix/memory.db), searchable via mem_search
         │
         ▼
   Compaction triggers LTM consolidation
   - LLM reads session observations
   - Extracts episodic/semantic/procedural memories
   - Deduplicates against existing LTM
   - Stores in long_term_memories table
         │
         ▼
   LTM auto-recalled every turn
   Relevant memories injected into context automatically.

Tools

mem_search — Search observations + LTM. LTM ranked higher.

mem_search({ query: "how we set up the auth system" })
mem_search({ query: "database schema for users table" })

mem_save — Manually persist to LTM. Use sparingly — the auto-pipeline handles most cases.

mem_save({ text: "User prefers Bun over Node", type: "semantic" })

Memory Categories

4. How Filesystem + Memory Reinforce Each Other

Writing files feeds the memory pipeline:

You write a plan file
    │
    ├── File on disk permanently (ground truth)
    │
    └── Write → observation → compaction → LTM → auto-recalled

Rule of thumb: If a future session might need to cat the info, write a file. If it's ambient context that should surface automatically, let the memory plugin handle it. For critical items, do both.

5. Context Window Management

When the context window fills, compaction fires — older messages are compressed, observations are consolidated into LTM.

Rules

1. Don't keep large file contents in conversation. Read, act, move on.
2. Don't repeat yourself. Reference files instead of re-stating.
3. Persist early. Write important context to disk so it survives compaction.
4. Search before re-investigating. mem_search first — you may have already solved this.
5. Write handoff notes proactively. After milestones, not just at session end.

Nothing is truly lost if you persist to disk and let the memory plugin do its job.