mempalace-recall

MemPalace Recall

Search-before-answer protocol for MemPalace. Read the user's memory palace before answering anything that may already be filed there, instead of guessing from model memory. This complements the mempalace skill (install / mine / status); this one covers recall only.

Step 0 — Verify MemPalace is available

mempalace --version

If the mempalace_* MCP tools are not available, tell the user the server is not connected and point them at the mempalace skill or /init. Do not silently fall back to answering from model memory.

When to recall

Search the palace before answering whenever the user asks about something that may 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 …"
• A preference, fact, or relationship that could have changed over time

Skip recall for pure greenfield work with no memory relevance (renaming a variable, fixing a typo). Recall is question-driven, not reflexive.

Protocol

1. Before responding about people / projects / past events / prior decisions: call mempalace_search first. Use mempalace_kg_query for relational or time-bound facts.
2. If unsure about a fact: say "let me check the palace" and query.
3. Return the drawer's verbatim text — never summarize or paraphrase stored content.
4. After a substantive session, record continuity with mempalace_diary_write (skip if a background hook already saved).
5. When a fact changes: mempalace_kg_invalidate the old fact, then mempalace_kg_add the new one.

Unhappy paths

• Empty results — say the palace has nothing on this; do not invent an answer. Offer to widen the search or file the new information.
• MCP error / server down — surface the error, suggest mempalace status or re-running /init; never fall back to guessing.
• Palace index corrupt / compactor error — if the server reports an HNSW segment-writer error, a ChromaDB compaction failure, or stays "Not connected" after a write, the index is out of sync with chroma.sqlite3 but the rows are intact. Tell the user to stop the server and rebuild from SQLite (mempalace repair --mode from-sqlite --archive-existing --yes), not re-mine, which drops MCP-added drawers and diary entries (#1843). Do not repair in-process.
• Conflicting facts — trust the knowledge graph's time-valid answer; invalidate-then-add rather than overwriting silently.

The canonical protocol, shared across all MemPalace integrations, lives in integrations/shared/recall-protocol.md.