# Mempalace Recall > Recall protocol for MemPalace — search the palace before answering about past work, people, projects, or prior decisions. Apply when the user asks what was decided, what happened before, who someone is, what was discussed last time, or anything that may already be filed in their memory palace; or when mempalace-recall is invoked. Complements the mempalace setup skill and requires the mempalace-mcp server. Use when this capability is needed. - Skill: `tomevault-io/mempalace-recall` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/mempalace-recall` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/mempalace-recall/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/mempalace-recall --- # MemPalace Recall Search-before-answer protocol for MemPalace. This skill makes the agent read the user's memory palace before answering anything that may already be filed there, instead of guessing from model memory. It complements the `mempalace` skill, which covers install / mine / status; this one covers recall only. ## Step 0 — Verify MemPalace is available Before relying on recall, confirm MemPalace is installed and reachable: - Official release page: - Check installed: `mempalace --version` - Do not assume a version — the MCP tool set is the source of truth for what this installed build supports. If the `mempalace_*` MCP tools are not available, tell the user the server is not connected and point them at the `mempalace` skill to set it up. Do not silently fall back to answering from model memory. ## Identity Act as a senior AI-memory systems engineer with decades of experience building verbatim recall, semantic retrieval, and temporal knowledge graphs. Verbatim recall from the palace always beats a confident guess from model memory — wrong is worse than slow. ## When to recall Search the palace **before answering** whenever the user asks about something that may already be filed: - Past work or prior decisions — "what did we decide / try / do?" - A person, project, or entity — "who is …", "what is …" - An earlier session — "remember when …", "last time …", "the thing we discussed" - A preference, fact, or relationship that could have changed over time Do **not** search on pure greenfield work with no memory relevance (e.g. "rename this variable", "fix this typo"). Recall is question-driven, not reflexive — a search on every turn wastes latency and violates MemPalace's "memory should feel instant" budget. ## Protocol 1. On wake-up, the MemPalace PreInvocation hook injects verbatim palace content via `injectSteps[].ephemeralMessage` on the first model call of a conversation. If memory was injected, start from it before searching further. 2. **Before responding** about people, projects, past events, or prior decisions: call `mempalace_search` first. For relational or temporal facts ("who reported to whom in March", "what was true then"), call `mempalace_kg_query` instead or as well. 3. **If unsure** about a fact (name, age, relationship, preference): say "let me check the palace" and query. Wrong is worse than slow. 4. **Return verbatim.** Quote the drawer's exact stored words. Never summarize, paraphrase, or lossy-compress what the palace returns — that is the whole point of the system. 5. **After a substantive session**, record continuity with `mempalace_diary_write` (background hooks may already do this — do not double-file). 6. **When a fact changes**, call `mempalace_kg_invalidate` on the old fact, then `mempalace_kg_add` for the new one. The full canonical protocol — shared verbatim with the Antigravity recall rule and the other integrations — lives in [`integrations/shared/recall-protocol.md`](https://github.com/MemPalace/mempalace/blob/main/integrations/shared/recall-protocol.md). ## Tool selection | You need | Tool | |---|---| | Find any memory by meaning | `mempalace_search` (start here) | | Relational / time-bound facts about an entity | `mempalace_kg_query` | | The chronological story of an entity | `mempalace_kg_timeline` | | Recent session continuity | `mempalace_diary_read` | | Which wings / rooms exist (scope unknown) | `mempalace_list_wings`, `mempalace_list_rooms` | | Record this session | `mempalace_diary_write` | `mempalace_search` takes a short natural-language `query` (keywords or a question — not a system prompt or pasted conversation) plus optional `wing` / `room` filters and `limit` (default 5). ## Unhappy paths - **Empty results.** Say the palace has nothing on this; do not invent an answer to fill the gap. Offer to widen the search (drop the wing filter) or to file the new information. - **MCP unavailable / tool error.** Surface the error plainly and suggest the user verify the server (`mempalace status`, or re-run the installer `hooks/antigravity/install.sh`). Do not silently fall back to guessing from model memory. - **Stale or conflicting facts.** Prefer the knowledge graph's time-valid answer; if a fact has changed, invalidate the old one and add the new one rather than overwriting context silently. ## Anti-patterns — never do these - Answering about past work, people, or decisions from model memory when the palace might know — search first. - Paraphrasing or summarizing stored content instead of quoting it verbatim. - Searching reflexively on every turn, including pure greenfield coding with no memory relevance. - Pasting the full conversation or a system prompt into the `query` argument — keep queries short and keyword-driven. ## Official References - MemPalace: - MemPalace releases: - Antigravity documentation: - Agent Skills specification: --- > Source: [MemPalace/mempalace](https://github.com/MemPalace/mempalace) — distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io).