pmm:status

PMM Status

Quick health dashboard for Poor Man's Memory. Runs as a subagent to keep the main context clean.

Invocation

• /pmm:status — show full status dashboard

Behaviour

Dispatch a general-purpose agent using the Readonly Agent Model from memory/config.md (default: haiku) with the prompt below. Replace <project-root> with the actual project root path.

Output the agent's returned string verbatim — it contains the fully formatted dashboard.

Agent Prompt

Generate a PMM health dashboard. This is a READ-ONLY task — do not edit any files.

Project root: <project-root>

Step 1 — Check initialization

Check if <project-root>/memory/ directory exists and count .md files.

If no memory directory exists, return:

PMM Status
══════════

Initialized: No
Run "init memory" to get started.

Step 2 — Read config

Read <project-root>/memory/config.md to get:

• Save cadence (the Mode value under ## Save Cadence)
• Commit behaviour (the Mode value under ## Commit Behaviour)
• Maintain agent model (the Model value under ## Maintain Agent Model)

Step 3 — Get last save time

Run: git log -1 --format="%ar|%ai" -- memory/

Step 4 — Get recent memory commits

Run: git log --oneline -5 -- memory/

Step 5 — Build file health table

For each .md file in <project-root>/memory/:

1. Get last modified time: git log -1 --format="%ar" -- memory/<file>
2. Count lines: wc -l < memory/<file>
3. Determine status:
   • Template-only detection: Read the file. Strip blank lines, lines starting with #, lines that are only ---, HTML comments (<!-- ... -->), table header rows (| --- |), and introductory/description text (first paragraph after a heading that describes the file's purpose). If 0 content lines remain → ⚠ template-only.
   • Otherwise → ✓ populated

Sort by last modified (most recent first).

Step 6 — Token burn estimate

Estimate the token cost of PMM operations:

Read cost (per save cycle): The maintain agent reads all active memory files.

• Count total characters across all .md files in memory/: cat memory/*.md | wc -c
• Estimate tokens: total_chars / 4 (rough average for English markdown)
• This is the input token cost each time the maintain agent runs

Write cost (per save cycle): The maintain agent edits files.

• Get the size of the last memory commit's diff: git diff HEAD~1 --stat -- memory/ | tail -1 (extract insertions + deletions)
• If no prior commit, use 0
• Estimate tokens: (insertions + deletions) * 20 chars average per line / 4 chars per token
• This is the approximate output token cost per save

Format as:

Token Burn (per save)
  Read:   ~12,400 tokens (memory files loaded by maintain agent)
  Write:  ~850 tokens (estimated from last diff: +34 -8 lines)
  Total:  ~13,250 tokens/save

Use comma-separated numbers for readability. Round to nearest 50.

Step 7 — Generate warnings

Check for:

• Plugin not installed: Check if .claude/plugins/pmm/ exists in <project-root>. If it does not, add warning: ⚠ PMM plugin not detected — memory may not be auto-loaded at session start. Install the pmm plugin to enable SessionStart hook.
• Template-only active files: Any active file (per config.md) that is still template-only
• Stale files: Any file not modified in >7 days (only warn if project has commits in the last 7 days)
• Stale last.md: last.md not updated in the current session (last modified >2 hours ago)
• Large files: Any file >200 lines (note size; no auto-truncation — files grow without limit by design)

Step 8 — Format output

Return the fully formatted dashboard:

PMM Status
══════════

Initialized: Yes (17 files)
Last save:   2 minutes ago (2026-03-17 16:30:00)
Save cadence: every-milestone
Commit mode:  auto-commit

Recent Saves
  e6714a5  memory: major reconstruction from recovered transcripts
  495ae34  memory: update session 2026-03-17
  ...

Files                        Last Modified    Lines  Status
  config.md                  2 min ago          58   ✓ populated
  taxonomies.md              3 hr ago           12   ⚠ template-only
  ...

Total: 847 lines across 17 files

Token Burn (per save)
  Read:   ~12,400 tokens (memory files loaded by maintain agent)
  Write:  ~850 tokens (estimated from last diff: +34 -8 lines)
  Total:  ~13,250 tokens/save

Warnings
  ⚠ taxonomies.md is still template-only
  ⚠ last.md has not been updated this session

If there are no warnings, show "No warnings" instead of the Warnings section. All times should be human-readable ("2 min ago", "3 hr ago"). Keep the output compact and scannable.

Notes

• The agent does all file reads and git commands — main context stays clean
• Output the agent's return value verbatim (it's the formatted dashboard)
• Plugin hooks handle session-start loading automatically — no Bootstrap Check needed