mk:memory

Memory System Toolkit

Reference guides for the memory system: session capture, pattern extraction, and cost tracking.

When to Use

• During Phase 0 (Orient) to load previous session context
• During Phase 6 (Reflect) to capture learnings and patterns
• When the analyst agent tracks costs or extracts patterns

Workflow Integration

Operates in Phase 0 (Orient) and Phase 6 (Reflect). Output supports the analyst agent.

References

| Reference | When to load | Content | |-----------|-------------|---------| | [capture-architecture.md](./references/capture-architecture.md) | Before any agent-side memory write | The 2-path contract — ##prefix: is user-typed only; agents write via direct Edit | | [session-capture.md](./references/session-capture.md) | Phase 6 | Capturing session learnings in 3 categories (patterns/decisions/failures) | | [pattern-extraction.md](./references/pattern-extraction.md) | Phase 6 | Extracting high-frequency patterns for instruction-file promotion | | [cost-tracking.md](./references/cost-tracking.md) | Phase 0, 6 | Token usage tracking, cost reporting, budget alerts | | [consolidation.md](./references/consolidation.md) | Manual | Prune stale entries, merge duplicates, archive cost data (run when memory grows large) |

How session-capture is invoked

session-capture is not a CLI subcommand. At Phase 6 (Reflect) the agent reads references/session-capture.md and follows its 4 steps using Read / Write / Edit directly. There is no mewkit memory session-capture script — content extraction requires LLM analysis that a static CLI cannot produce.

Subcommands

--prune

Archive old standard-severity entries from topic files to lessons-archive.md.

Topic files subject to pruning:

• fixes.md — bug-class session learnings
• review-patterns.md — process/review learnings
• architecture-decisions.md — architectural decision records

What gets pruned:

• ## headings with a date (YYYY-MM-DD, severity: standard) older than threshold (default: 90 days)

What is exempt:

• severity: critical or severity: security entries — never pruned
• Entries without a parseable date — kept as-is (safe default)

How to run:

/mk:memory --prune              # default 90-day threshold
/mk:memory --prune --days 180   # custom threshold
/mk:memory --prune --dry-run    # show what would be archived without moving

Mechanism (grep-based — no parser dependency):

1. For each topic file: grep for ## headings + date pattern (YYYY-MM-DD, severity: standard)
2. Compute age from today's date; identify entries older than threshold
3. Append stale entries to .claude/memory/lessons-archive.md
4. Remove stale entry blocks from topic file (rewrite without them)
5. Report: "Archived N entries across M files"

Recovery: Copy entries from lessons-archive.md back to the appropriate topic file.

Schema Notes

Split JSON files (fixes.json, review-patterns.json, architecture-decisions.json) all use v2.0.0 schema with fields: version, scope, consumer, patterns[], metadata. Each pattern entry supports: id, type, category, severity, domain, applicable_when, context, pattern, frequency, lastSeen.

Gotchas

• Stale patterns applied to changed codebase: Memory suggests patterns from old architecture → Run consolidation when patterns exceed 50 entries; flag patterns with lastSeen > 6 months
• cost-log.json growing unbounded: Every session appends without pruning → Run consolidation to archive entries older than 90 days
• lessons.md is now archived: Do not write to lessons.md — it is a stub. Write to topic files (fixes.md, architecture-decisions.md, review-patterns.md) instead.