Memory Cleanup Skill

Audits and purges stale memory systems from a Perseus environment, keeping
Perseus Vault as the single source of truth. Run after upgrading Perseus,
after switching memory backends, or whenever memory feels noisy.

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Philosophy

Retaining old context is not as important as staying on the latest
tooling and pushing the envelope. Old memory systems accumulate noise,
cause federation artifacts, and slow down recall. When in doubt, delete.

The live Perseus Vault index (~/.perseus/memory/) is always the source of
truth. Everything else is a candidate for removal.

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Trigger Phrases

• "clean up memory"
• "purge stale memory systems"
• "memory cleanup"
• "reflect and clean"
• "audit memory"

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Workflow

Step 1 — Audit All Memory Locations

Check for the following known memory system locations:

# Perseus (live — keep)
ls -lht ~/.perseus/memory/        # Perseus Vault BM25 index files
ls -lht ~/.perseus/checkpoints/   # Session waypoints

# Rovo Dev sessions (live — keep)
ls ~/.rovodev/sessions/
ls ~/.codex/memories/

# Stale systems (candidates for deletion)
ls ~/.mem0/                       # Mem0 library (superseded by Perseus Vault)
ls ~/.mempalace/                  # Mempalace (superseded by Perseus Vault)
ls ~/.cache/chroma/               # Orphaned Chroma vector stores
ls ~/.cache/code-nemo/            # Nemo memory (if present)
ls ~/.local/share/perseus/        # Old single-file perseus installs

Report findings in a table:

Location	Last Modified	Size	Status
~/.perseus/memory/	{date}	{N} files	✅ Live — keep
~/.perseus/checkpoints/	{date}	{N} files	✅ Live — keep
~/.mem0/	{date}	{size}	🗑️ Stale — delete
~/.mempalace/	{date}	{size}	🗑️ Stale — delete
~/.cache/chroma/	{date}	{size}	⚠️ Check — may be active

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Step 2 — Check for Garbled Federation Artifacts

Perseus @memory with federation enabled can write low-quality blended
content from other workspaces. Check the newest memory files:

ls -lt ~/.perseus/memory/ | head -5

For each file written in the current session, read the first 5 lines. If
the content is incoherent, references unknown projects, or contains
placeholder text ([... Table Continuation ...], Subagent:, etc.), it is
a garbled federation artifact — delete it.

Flag: any file where the content does not match your actual work context.

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Step 3 — Check for Stale Venv Installs

Old Perseus venvs can accumulate stale perseus.py files that shadow the
installed package:

find ~ -path "*/site-packages/perseus.py" 2>/dev/null

If found, check the version:

head -5 {path}/perseus.py   # look for version comment

If older than the system Perseus version (perseus --version), delete the
stale file and reinstall in the venv:

# delete via delete_file tool, then:
{venv}/bin/pip install --force-reinstall perseus-ctx

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Step 4 — Delete Confirmed Stale Files

Use delete_file for each stale file identified. Do not use bash rm — use
the delete_file tool to maintain audit trail.

Always delete:

• ~/.mem0/ — entire contents (Mem0 library, superseded by Perseus Vault)
• ~/.mempalace/ — entire contents (Mempalace, superseded by Perseus Vault)
• Any garbled federation artifacts in ~/.perseus/memory/
• Stale perseus.py in venv site-packages (see Step 3)

Check before deleting:

• ~/.cache/chroma/ — may be used by active tools (check config first)
• ~/.local/share/perseus/ — used by launchd watchdog scripts; update rather than delete

Never delete:

• ~/.perseus/memory/ — live Perseus Vault index
• ~/.perseus/checkpoints/ — session waypoints
• ~/.perseus/config.yaml — configuration
• ~/.rovodev/AGENTS.md — rendered context
• ~/.codex/ — Rovo Dev session index

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Step 5 — Verify Clean State

After deletions, confirm:

ls ~/.mem0/ 2>/dev/null || echo "mem0: clean ✅"
ls ~/.mempalace/ 2>/dev/null || echo "mempalace: clean ✅"
ls ~/.perseus/memory/ | wc -l   # should be same count minus deleted artifacts

Report final state:

Memory Cleanup Complete
═══════════════════════
✅ ~/.perseus/memory/    — {N} files (live Perseus Vault index)
✅ ~/.perseus/checkpoints/ — {N} files (session waypoints)
🗑️  ~/.mem0/             — deleted ({N} files)
🗑️  ~/.mempalace/        — deleted ({N} files)
🗑️  {garbled files}     — deleted ({N} files)

Single source of truth: Perseus Vault ✅

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Cadence

Trigger	When
After Perseus version upgrade	Always
After switching memory backends	Always
Weekly maintenance	Optional — run with reflect
When memory feels noisy or federated content is garbled	On demand

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Live-Store Hygiene Is Automatic — Not Part of This Skill

This skill removes stale external/competing memory backends. Hygiene of
the live Perseus Vault store (decay, archiving, dedup, consolidation)
is a separate, scheduled, non-LLM mechanism — do not try to prune the live
store by hand from this skill.

• One-command enable (nightly pass + weekly VACUUM):
  perseus cron create --job maintain --install
  (on native Windows: perseus schtasks create --job maintain --install,
  and cron create --install auto-routes there)
• Preview what hygiene would do (zero mutation):
  perseus vault maintain --dry-run
• Config: the hygiene: block in ~/.perseus/config.yaml (master switch
  off by default; dry_run: true bakes a report-only first week into the
  scheduled entry).

Everything the pass does is a reversible archive — verified/pinned
memories are never auto-archived, and hard deletion is never scheduled.

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Known Stale Systems (as of 2026-05-27)

System	Location	Status	Superseded By
Mem0	~/.mem0/	Deprecated	Perseus Vault
Mempalace	~/.mempalace/	Deprecated	Perseus Vault
Chroma (standalone)	~/.cache/chroma/	Check context	Perseus Vault
Code-Nemo	~/.cache/code-nemo/	Check context	Perseus Vault
Old single-file perseus	~/.local/share/perseus/	Update, don't delete	pip install

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Notes for Multi-Environment Use

When running this skill on a new Perseus environment (different machine or
workspace), the stale system locations are the same but the active paths
may differ. Always:

1. Run Step 1 audit first — don't assume the same stale systems exist
2. Confirm perseus --version and ~/.perseus/config.yaml are present
   before deleting anything
3. Check ~/.local/share/perseus/ — on some environments this is used by
   active launchd jobs and should be updated, not deleted

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Part of the Perseus skill library. Compatible with Rovo Dev CLI, Claude Code, and any MCP-enabled assistant.
See: https://github.com/Perseus-Computing-LLC/perseus