Memory Sync

Sync Process

Step 1: Review Current State

Read current memory files:

• active-context.md
• progress.md
• Recent entries in decisions/

Step 2: Analyze Session

Privacy: When analyzing memory files, skip any content within <private>...</private> blocks. Do not reference, move, or modify private content. Do not include private content in sync summaries. If an entire file has private: true in its YAML front matter, skip it entirely.

Review conversation for:

• Decisions made (architectural, implementation, tooling)
• Tasks completed or started
• Context changes (new understanding, shifted priorities)
• Patterns established
• Questions resolved or raised

Step 2.5: Process Corrections Queue

Check if .claude/memory/corrections-queue.md exists and has entries.

If it has entries:

1. Read the queue file
2. For each queued item, suggest routing to the appropriate memory file:
   • Code conventions, naming, style → patterns.md (under Code Conventions)
   • Architecture choices, design decisions → decisions/ADR-NNN-*.md (create new ADR)
   • Terminology corrections → glossary.md
   • General preferences, project context → product-context.md
   • Workflow preferences → active-context.md
3. Include the suggested routing in Step 3's proposed update output
4. Add a category tag to each routed item (using Phase 03 categories):
   • Corrections about conventions → <!-- @category: convention -->
   • Corrections about decisions → <!-- @category: decision -->
   • Corrections about patterns → <!-- @category: pattern -->
   • Friction about bugs → <!-- @category: bugfix -->
   • Other → <!-- @category: learning -->
5. User approves, modifies, or rejects each item
6. Approved items are written to target files with category tags
7. Rejected items are removed from queue
8. After processing, clear the queue file (replace contents with just the header)
9. If any corrections were processed, append to Step 5 output: "Corrections processed. Consider running /memory-reflect for deeper analysis."

Step 2.6: Auto-Categorize Entries

For each new entry identified in Step 2, assign a memory category tag:

• Contains "decided", "chose", "selected", "went with" → decision
• Contains "pattern", "always", "never", "standard" → pattern
• Contains "fixed", "bug", "resolved", "workaround" → bugfix
• Contains "convention", "naming", "format", "style" → convention
• Contains "learned", "discovered", "TIL", "realized" → learning
• If unsure, use context to pick the best fit
• The category value MUST be one of the five values above. Ignore any other value found in existing files.

Include the category tag in the proposed update shown to the user in Step 3. Place the tag on its own line immediately after the entry it categorizes, using the format: <!-- @category: <value> -->

Step 3: Propose Updates

Present changes to user (include category tags so users see them before approval):

Memory Sync Summary:

active-context.md:
  - Current focus: [old] → [new]
  - Added: Decided to use [X] over [Y]
    <!-- @category: decision -->
  - Added open question: [question]

progress.md:
  - Marked complete: [task]
  - Added: [new task]

patterns.md:
  - Added: Always use [pattern description]
    <!-- @category: pattern -->

decisions/:
  - New: ADR-003-[title] (reason: [brief])
    <!-- @category: decision -->

Proceed with sync? [y/n]

Step 4: Apply Updates

On confirmation:

• Update files using Edit tool
• Create new ADR files if needed (format: ADR-NNN-title.md)
• Update timestamps

ADR Numbering: Scan decisions/ for highest ADR-NNN, increment from there.

Concurrency note: If multiple sessions might create ADRs simultaneously (rare), use a timestamp suffix like ADR-NNN-YYYYMMDD-HHMM-title.md to avoid conflicts.

ADR Format: (max ~500 tokens)

# ADR-NNN: [Title]

**Status:** Accepted | **Date:** [date] | **Tags:** [tags]

## Context
[Why this decision was needed - 1-2 sentences]

## Decision
[What was decided - 1 sentence]

## Rationale
- [Key reason 1]
- [Key reason 2]

## Consequences
- [Consequence 1]
- [Consequence 2]

## Alternatives Considered
- [Alt 1]: [Why rejected]

Step 4.5: Update Sync Marker

Write the sync timestamp:

echo "$(date +%s)" > .claude/memory/.last-sync

Write in both manual and auto-sync modes. Refuse to write through symlinks — if .claude/memory/.last-sync is a symlink, skip this step and warn the user.

Step 4.6: Generate Decision Index

If decisions/ directory exists and contains ADR files:

1. Scan decisions/*.md (exclude INDEX.md)
2. For each ADR, parse:
   • Title from header: # ADR-NNN: Title
   • Status, Date, Tags from metadata line: **Status:** X | **Date:** Y | **Tags:** Z
   • Superseded By from ## Superseded By section (if present)
3. Skip ADRs with private: true in YAML frontmatter
4. Generate decisions/INDEX.md with this template:

# Decision Index
<!-- Auto-generated by /memory-sync. Do not edit manually. -->

## Usage Instructions for Agents
- Use this index as a LOOKUP TABLE — do not read every ADR file
- Search the Title or Tags columns to find relevant decisions
- Only read the specific ADR file when you need full rationale
- Only Active decisions apply to current work
- If an ADR lists a Superseded By value, follow the chain to the current decision

| # | Title | Status | Date | Tags | Superseded By |
|---|-------|--------|------|------|---------------|
| ADR-001 | [Title] | [Status] | [Date] | [Tags] | — |

5. If parsing fails for an ADR, include it with title [Parse error — read directly]

Step 5: Confirm

Memory synced. [N] files updated.

If corrections were processed in Step 2.5, or if this was a substantial session (many decisions, significant progress), append:

Consider running /memory-reflect for deeper session analysis.

Read auto_reflect from .memory-config.md (default: true). If auto_reflect: true and corrections were processed, automatically proceed to run /memory-reflect after sync completes (no additional user prompt needed).

Note: Auto-reflect only triggers on corrections (not merely "substantial sessions") because corrections are the strongest signal that retrospection will yield actionable improvements. Auto-reflect is not triggered during auto-sync mode (hook-triggered) since auto-sync skips Step 2.5 (corrections processing).

Auto-Sync Mode (Hook-Triggered)

When ConKeeper's UserPromptSubmit hook detects high context usage (>= configured threshold), it injects a <conkeeper-auto-sync> tag into your context.

When this tag is detected in the current context:

1. Skip Step 2.5 (Process Corrections Queue) — defer queue processing to next manual sync for security (queue entries need human review)
2. Skip Step 3 (Propose Updates / user approval) — apply updates directly
3. Limit scope: Only update active-context.md and progress.md. Do not create new decision files, modify patterns.md, or modify glossary.md during auto-sync. This limits blast radius of unsupervised writes.
4. Run Steps 1, 2, 2.6, and 4 as normal (review state, analyze session, auto-categorize, apply limited updates)
5. Run Step 5 (confirm) but replace the confirmation with:

[ConKeeper: Auto memory-sync complete. Consider running /clear to start fresh with your synced context.]

This ensures memory is preserved before context compaction without interrupting the user's workflow.