Memory Refresh

Purpose / When to Activate

Activate:

• After major discovery or delivery phases
• When memory exceeds comfortable context size
• Periodically on active projects (weekly or per sprint)

This skill governs and optimizes existing memory only — it does not create new knowledge.

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Process

1. Read memory index
2. Extract durable knowledge from session memory
3. Convert recurring or validated information into summary memory
4. Archive raw session files to contexts/memory/archive/
5. Compact with R7 category-aware rules:
   • Durable memory (decisions, patterns, project, ops, contacts, domains): only entries with explicit supersession markers (> SUPERSEDED by DEC-XX, > RETRACTED, > OBSOLETE — {reason}) may be archived. All other entries are ACTIVE and MUST NOT be archived. Decisions are already individual ADR files (decisions/DEC-{N}.md) — no compaction needed. For other oversized durable files → domain-split, not archive.
   • Ephemeral memory (sessions): standard compaction — summarize and archive.
     5b. Summary lifecycle — mandatory when extending summary coverage: When creating or extending a decisions summary file that supersedes an existing one (e.g., decisions-90-145.summary.md → decisions-90-155.summary.md):
     a. Write the new summary file with updated frontmatter (id, updated_at, source range).
     b. Update index.md Summaries section: replace the old filename with the new one.
     c. Delete the old summary file from disk (it is now superseded; do not leave orphan files).
     d. Verify: confirm old filename is gone from disk AND index.md pointer is updated before proceeding.
     Also check decisions/_log.md for any ⚠️ PENDING: extend summary range notes — process them and remove the notes once handled.
6. Update memory index: update index.md frontmatter updated_at to reflect this refresh run.

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Quality Checks

• Active memory remains minimal and high-signal
• Summaries become the primary long-term context source
• Raw exploration is archived, not deleted
• No uncontrolled memory growth
• Index always reflects current active memory
• No active durable memory entry archived — only superseded/retracted entries may be archived (R7/R7b)

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Non-Goals

This skill must NOT:

• Create new project memory
• Record new decisions (use memory-ingest or decision-extraction)
• Generate architecture context

Governs existing memory. Keeps it clean, cheap, and precise.