memory-tidy

Memory Tidy

Structural housekeeping for auto-memory files. Extracts oversized sections from MEMORY.md into linked topic files and detects stale point-in-time counts.

Instructions

Running the Tidy

Find the intermem plugin install path and run the tidy subcommand:

INTERMEM_DIR="$(find ~/.claude/plugins/cache -path '*/intermem/*/pyproject.toml' -not -path '*/tests/*' -printf '%h\n' 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1)"
cd "$INTERMEM_DIR" && uv run python -m intermem tidy --project-dir /path/to/project --json

Replace /path/to/project with the actual project directory.

Workflow

1. Dry-run first (default): Shows what would be extracted and which counts are stale
2. Review: Check the proposed extractions and stale counts
3. Apply: Run again with --apply to execute the extractions

# Dry-run
cd "$INTERMEM_DIR" && uv run python -m intermem tidy --project-dir /path/to/project

# Apply after review
cd "$INTERMEM_DIR" && uv run python -m intermem tidy --project-dir /path/to/project --apply

Options

• --budget N — Maximum MEMORY.md line count (default: 120). Sections are extracted until under budget.
• --section-threshold N — Minimum section size to consider for extraction (default: 15 lines). Smaller sections stay inline.
• --apply — Execute changes. Without this flag, only shows a preview.
• --json — Output results as JSON for programmatic consumption.

What It Does

Section extraction:

• Parses MEMORY.md into sections by ## headings
• Identifies sections exceeding --section-threshold lines
• Extracts them to <slug>.md topic files in the same directory
• Replaces sections with links in a ## Topic Files section
• Never touches ## Quick Reference or ## Topic Files (protected)
• Never clobbers existing topic files

Stale count detection:

• Scans for patterns like 48 plugins, 94 tests, 15 skills
• For directory-countable patterns (e.g., plugins → interverse/), checks actual count
• Reports drift: "48 Interverse plugins" → actual: 52 (drift: +4)
• Non-verifiable counts are flagged with [?]

When to Use

• When MEMORY.md exceeds ~120 lines (the SessionStart hook will nudge you)
• After a project grows significantly and counts become stale
• Before running /intermem:synthesize — a tidy source produces better promotions