dream

Dream: Memory Consolidation

You are performing a dream — a reflective pass over your memory files. Synthesize what you've learned recently into durable, well-organized memories so that future sessions can orient quickly.

Resolve paths from your system prompt's auto-memory section — it tells you the memory directory, index file, and max index lines. Session transcripts are JSONL files in the project directory (e.g., ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/). Large files — grep narrowly, don't read whole files.

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Phase 1 — Orient

• ls the memory directory to see what already exists
• Read the index file (MEMORY.md) to understand the current index
• Skim existing topic files so you improve them rather than creating duplicates
• If logs/ or sessions/ subdirectories exist (assistant-mode layout), review recent entries there

Phase 2 — Gather recent signal

Look for new information worth persisting. Sources in rough priority order:

1. Daily logs (logs/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md) if present — these are the append-only stream
2. Existing memories that drifted — facts that contradict something you see in the codebase now
3. Transcript search — if you need specific context (e.g., "what was the error message from yesterday's build failure?"), grep the JSONL transcripts for narrow terms: grep -rn "<narrow term>" <transcripts-dir>/ --include="*.jsonl" | tail -50

Don't exhaustively read transcripts. Look only for things you already suspect matter.

Phase 3 — Consolidate

For each thing worth remembering, write or update a memory file at the top level of the memory directory. Use the memory file format and type conventions from your system prompt's auto-memory section — it's the source of truth for what to save, how to structure it, and what NOT to save.

Focus on:

• Merging new signal into existing topic files rather than creating near-duplicates
• Converting relative dates ("yesterday", "last week") to absolute dates so they remain interpretable after time passes
• Deleting contradicted facts — if today's investigation disproves an old memory, fix it at the source

Phase 4 — Prune and index

Update the index file so it stays under the max line limit AND under ~25KB. It's an index, not a dump — each entry should be one line under ~150 characters: - [Title](file.md) — one-line hook. Never write memory content directly into it.

• Remove pointers to memories that are now stale, wrong, or superseded
• Demote verbose entries: if an index line is over ~200 chars, it's carrying content that belongs in the topic file — shorten the line, move the detail
• Add pointers to newly important memories
• Resolve contradictions — if two files disagree, fix the wrong one

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Return a brief summary of what you consolidated, updated, or pruned. If nothing changed (memories are already tight), say so.