Migrate Simple Session Memory

Simple Session Memory Migration

You are migrating the user's simple-session-memory installation to the current release format. This is a target-state migration — check what the user has, compare it to what the current release expects, and fix any differences. If everything is already current, report that and stop.

Target State Summary

The current release uses directory-per-session layout and a formal content placement model:

.claude/memory/
  session-YYYY-MM-DD-NNN/
    session-YYYY-MM-DD-NNN.md     # the session log
    <supplementary files>         # formerly "attachments"
  index.md
  archives/
    archive-NAME/
      archive-NAME.md             # the archive log
      <supplementary attachments> # optional — load-bearing reference content

Key changes from previous versions:

• Session logs live inside their own directory (not as flat files in .claude/memory/)
• Supplementary files (formerly "attachments") live alongside the log in the session directory (not in a separate .claude/memory/attachments/ tree)
• Archives use a directory-per-archive layout (archives/archive-NAME/archive-NAME.md) mirroring sessions, replacing the old flat archive/archive-NAME.md files. Archive directories may contain supplementary attachments preserved verbatim from the archived sessions.
• The directory itself was renamed archive/ → archives/ (plural).
• Index references use session stems without .md (e.g. session-2026-03-04-002, not session-2026-03-04-002.md)
• The continues: field in YAML frontmatter also uses stems without .md
• The attachments: YAML field is no longer used (co-location replaces it)
• The .session-count global counter file is no longer used (per-day directory scanning replaces it)
• Bash permissions changed: Bash(rm -r .claude/memory/session-*) replaces the old Bash(rm .claude/memory/session-*) and Bash(rm -r .claude/memory/attachments/*)

Process

Work through each audit in order. Read before writing. Report changes at the end.

1. Audit CLAUDE.md

The installer saves a reference copy of the current snippet at .claude/simple-session-memory/CLAUDE.snippet.md. This is the source of truth.

1. Read .claude/simple-session-memory/CLAUDE.snippet.md (the reference).
2. Read CLAUDE.md in the project root.
3. Find the Session Memory System section — it starts with # Session Memory System and is delimited from the rest of CLAUDE.md by --- separators.
4. Compare the section content to the reference. If they differ (even partially), replace the entire section with the reference content. Preserve everything outside the section (before and after the --- delimiters).
5. If no Session Memory System section exists in CLAUDE.md, append it with a --- separator (same as a fresh install).

2. Migrate directory structure

This is the critical step. Convert flat session logs to directory-per-session layout.

Check first: If .claude/memory/ already contains session-*/ directories (not flat files), the structure may already be migrated. Verify by checking whether session logs exist as flat files (session-*.md directly in .claude/memory/) or inside directories.

If flat session log files exist in .claude/memory/:

For each session-*.md file directly in .claude/memory/ (not inside a subdirectory, not in archive/ or archives/):

1. Extract the stem (filename without .md, e.g. session-2026-03-09-004)
2. Create the directory: mkdir -p .claude/memory/<stem>/
3. Move the log: mv .claude/memory/<stem>.md .claude/memory/<stem>/<stem>.md
4. If .claude/memory/attachments/<stem>/ exists, move its contents into the session directory:
   • mv .claude/memory/attachments/<stem>/* .claude/memory/<stem>/
   • rmdir .claude/memory/attachments/<stem>/

After processing all session logs:

• If .claude/memory/attachments/ exists and is empty, remove it: rmdir .claude/memory/attachments/
• If .claude/memory/.session-count exists, remove it: rm .claude/memory/.session-count

Do NOT touch (in this step):

• .claude/memory/archive/ or .claude/memory/archives/ — archive layout is handled in step 3
• .claude/memory/index.md — handled in step 4

3. Migrate archive layout

Archives moved from flat files in archive/ to directory-per-archive in archives/. Two orthogonal changes: the parent directory was renamed (archive → archives), and each flat archive file became its own directory with the log inside.

Determine current state:

• If .claude/memory/archives/ exists and .claude/memory/archive/ does not, the rename is done — proceed to per-archive layout check.
• If .claude/memory/archive/ exists, rename it: mv .claude/memory/archive .claude/memory/archives.
• If neither exists, create the empty directory: mkdir -p .claude/memory/archives.

Per-archive directory layout:

For each archive-*.md file directly in .claude/memory/archives/ (a flat file, not inside a subdirectory):

1. Extract the stem (filename without .md, e.g. archive-2026-03-09).
2. Create the directory: mkdir -p .claude/memory/archives/<stem>/.
3. Move the log: mv .claude/memory/archives/<stem>.md .claude/memory/archives/<stem>/<stem>.md.

There are no pre-existing supplementary attachments to migrate (the old layout did not support them); the new directory will hold only the log file until a future archival run adds attachments.

If every archive is already laid out as archives/<stem>/<stem>.md, skip this step.

4. Audit index.md

Read .claude/memory/index.md. If the file doesn't exist, skip this step.

The expected structure has three sections with specific column names:

## Active Sessions
| Session | Date | Summary |

## Archives
| Archive | Period | Summary |

## Appendices
### Month YYYY
#### archive-file.md (date range)
Summary paragraph...

Check and fix:

1. Session references — if entries in the Active Sessions table use .md suffixes (e.g. session-2026-03-09-004.md), strip the .md to just the stem (session-2026-03-09-004).
2. Active Sessions — if there's a bare | File | Date | Summary | table without a ## Active Sessions heading above it, add the heading and rename the File column to Session.
3. Archives — if the table uses | Archive | Covers | columns, reshape to | Archive | Period | Summary | — move the Covers value to Period, leave Summary empty.
4. Archive links — if any archive references in the Archives table or Appendices section point to the old flat layout (archive/archive-NAME.md or archives/archive-NAME.md without the directory wrapper), update them to archives/archive-NAME/archive-NAME.md to match the directory-per-archive layout. Stem-only references with no path are also acceptable; only rewrite path-bearing links.
5. Appendices — if there's no ## Appendices section, add it at the end (empty — appendices are populated by future archival runs).
6. Preserve all data rows — only restructure, never delete session or archive entries.

If the index already has all three sections with the correct column names, stem-based session references, and directory-per-archive links, skip it.

5. Audit settings.local.json

Read .claude/settings.local.json. Check for these entries and fix as needed:

Permissions — ensure permissions.allow contains:

• Write(.claude/memory/**)
• Edit(.claude/memory/**)
• Bash(rm -r .claude/memory/session-*)

Remove old permissions if present:

• Bash(rm .claude/memory/session-*) (old flat-file permission — without -r)
• Bash(rm -r .claude/memory/attachments/*) (no longer needed)

PreToolUse hook — ensure a PreToolUse hook entry exists with matcher Write|Edit pointing to the approve-memory-write script at .claude/simple-session-memory/hooks/approve-memory-write.sh.

6. Audit approve-memory-write hook

Check that .claude/simple-session-memory/hooks/approve-memory-write.sh exists and is executable. If it's missing, warn the user to reinstall the template (npx cc-context-awareness@latest install simple-session-memory).

7. Audit logging skill

Check that .claude/skills/log-session-memory/SKILL.md exists. This skill contains the detailed session logging procedure referenced by threshold messages. If it's missing, warn the user to reinstall the template.

8. Report

After completing all audits, report to the user:

• Which files were updated and what changed (brief summary per file)
• How many session logs were migrated to directory-per-session
• How many attachment directories were merged into session directories
• Whether the archive directory was renamed (archive/ → archives/) and how many flat archive files were wrapped into per-archive directories
• Which files were already current (skipped)
• If everything was current: "Installation is up to date — no migration needed."

Important

• Be idempotent: if a file already matches the target state, skip it. If session directories already exist, don't re-migrate.
• Preserve user data: never delete session logs, archive files, or index rows. Only restructure and move.
• Read before writing: always read the full file before making edits.
• Use Edit, not Write: for existing files, use targeted edits to preserve surrounding content.
• Use Bash for file operations: mkdir, mv, rm, rmdir for the directory structure migration.
• Session log content is backwards-compatible: do NOT modify YAML frontmatter inside session logs. Old continues: session-*.md and attachments: fields are historical and harmless — leave them as-is.
• The archiver agent does not need migration — the installer already replaces it with the current version on reinstall.