Memory Management (Obsidian-Native)

Memory makes Claude your workplace collaborator — someone who speaks your internal language. All memory files live in the Obsidian vault as proper linked notes.

Session Context Detection

This vault may be used from multiple Claude accounts (e.g., one for work, one for personal). At the start of every session, determine the active context:

Detection Flow

1. Read CLAUDE.md — check for a ## Contexts section that lists configured contexts (e.g., work, personal)
2. If contexts exist — check which connectors are available in this session:
   • If connectors match a known context profile (e.g., work Slack + work Gmail → work), set that context automatically
   • If ambiguous, ask once: "Is this a work or personal session?"
3. If no contexts configured — this is a single-context vault. Skip context tagging entirely.

Context Profiles (in CLAUDE.md)

## Contexts

| Context | Connectors | Description |
|---------|-----------|-------------|
| work | Slack (company workspace), Gmail (work@company.com), Google Calendar (work) | Work account |
| personal | Gmail (personal@gmail.com), Google Calendar (personal) | Personal account |

How Context Affects Behavior

Once the active context is determined for the session:

• Every new file gets context: work or context: personal in frontmatter (in addition to other tags)
• Task notes — new task notes in tasks/ get context: work or context: personal in frontmatter
• CLAUDE.md reads — when summarizing, prioritize entries matching the active context
• Memory lookups — search all memory regardless of context (a work colleague might appear in a personal task), but note the context when presenting results
• Bases views — context-filtered views exist alongside the "all" views

Important: Context is a soft tag, not a hard boundary. All memory is always searchable. Context just helps with auto-tagging new content and filtering views.

The Goal

Transform shorthand into understanding:

User: "ask todd to do the PSR for oracle"
              ↓ Claude decodes
"Ask Todd Martinez (Finance lead) to prepare the Pipeline Status Report
 for the Oracle Systems deal ($2.3M, closing Q2)"

Without memory, that request is meaningless. With memory, Claude knows:

• todd → Todd Martinez, Finance lead, prefers Slack
• PSR → Pipeline Status Report (weekly sales doc)
• oracle → Oracle Systems deal, not the company

Architecture

CLAUDE.md          ← Hot cache (~30 people, common terms)
memory/
  glossary.md      ← Full decoder ring (everything)
  people/          ← Complete profiles (one note per person)
  projects/        ← Project details (one note per project)
  context/         ← Company, teams, tools

CLAUDE.md (Hot Cache):

• Top ~30 people you interact with most
• ~30 most common acronyms/terms
• Active projects (5-15)
• Your preferences
• Goal: Cover 90% of daily decoding needs

memory/glossary.md (Full Glossary):

• Complete decoder ring — everyone, every term
• Searched when something isn't in CLAUDE.md
• Can grow indefinitely

memory/people/, projects/, context/:

• Rich detail when needed for execution
• Full profiles, history, context
• Each file is a proper Obsidian note with frontmatter and wikilinks

Obsidian Integration Rules

All memory files follow Obsidian conventions so they participate in the vault's link graph.

People Notes (memory/people/{name}.md)

Use frontmatter with aliases so wikilinks resolve from nicknames. Include context when the vault uses dual contexts:

---
title: Todd Martinez
aliases:
  - Todd
  - T
tags:
  - person
  - finance
context: work
role: Finance Lead
team: Finance
reports-to: "[[michael-chen|Michael Chen]]"
---

# Todd Martinez

**Role:** Finance Lead | **Team:** Finance
**Reports to:** [[michael-chen|Michael Chen]] (CFO)

## Communication
- Prefers Slack DM
- Quick responses, very direct
- Best time: mornings

## Context
- Handles all [[PSR]]s and financial reporting
- Key contact for deal approvals over $500k
- Works closely with [[greg-wilson|Greg]] on forecasting

## Notes
- Cubs fan, likes talking baseball

The aliases field lets Obsidian users type [[Todd]] in the editor and resolve it via the alias index. However, Claude should always write the canonical [[todd-martinez|Todd]] format directly — never relying on alias resolution.

Project Notes (memory/projects/{name}.md)

---
title: Project Phoenix
aliases:
  - Phoenix
  - the migration
tags:
  - project
  - active
context: work
status: in-progress
launch: Q2 2025
budget: $1.2M
---

# Project Phoenix

Database migration from legacy Oracle to PostgreSQL.

## Key People
- [[sarah-chen|Sarah]] — tech lead
- [[todd-martinez|Todd]] — budget owner
- [[greg-wilson|Greg]] — stakeholder (sales impact)

## Context
$1.2M budget, 6-month timeline. Critical path for [[project-horizon|Horizon]].

## Timeline
- [ ] Schema migration — due Feb 15
- [ ] Data migration — due Mar 30
- [ ] Cutover — due Q2

Glossary (memory/glossary.md)

---
title: Glossary
tags:
  - reference
---

# Glossary

Workplace shorthand, acronyms, and internal language.

## Acronyms
| Term | Meaning | Context |
|------|---------|---------|
| PSR | Pipeline Status Report | Weekly sales doc |
| OKR | Objectives & Key Results | Quarterly planning |
| P0/P1/P2 | Priority levels | P0 = drop everything |

## Internal Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| standup | Daily 9am sync in #engineering |
| the migration | [[project-phoenix|Project Phoenix]] database work |
| ship it | Deploy to production |

## Nicknames → Full Names
| Nickname | Person |
|----------|--------|
| Todd | [[todd-martinez|Todd Martinez]] |
| T | [[todd-martinez|Todd Martinez]] |
| Sarah | [[sarah-chen|Sarah Chen]] |

## Project Codenames
| Codename | Project |
|----------|---------|
| Phoenix | [[project-phoenix|Project Phoenix]] |
| Horizon | [[project-horizon|Project Horizon]] |

Company Context (memory/context/company.md)

---
title: Company Context
tags:
  - reference
  - context
---

# Company Context

## Tools & Systems
| Tool | Used for | Internal name |
|------|----------|---------------|
| Slack | Communication | — |
| Asana | Engineering tasks | — |
| Salesforce | CRM | "SF" or "the CRM" |

## Teams
| Team | What they do | Key people |
|------|-------------|------------|
| Platform | Infrastructure | [[sarah-chen|Sarah]] (lead) |
| Finance | Money stuff | [[todd-martinez|Todd]] (lead) |
| Sales | Revenue | [[greg-wilson|Greg]] |

## Processes
| Process | What it means |
|---------|---------------|
| Weekly sync | Monday 10am all-hands |
| Ship review | Thursday deploy approval |

CLAUDE.md (Hot Cache)

This stays compact (~50-80 lines per context) for fast loading. Uses wikilinks to point into deeper memory.

Single-context vault (one account):

# Memory

## Me
[Name], [Role] on [Team]. [One sentence about what I do.]

## People
| Who | Role |
|-----|------|
| **[[todd-martinez\|Todd]]** | Finance lead |
| **[[sarah-chen\|Sarah]]** | Engineering (Platform) |
| **[[greg-wilson\|Greg]]** | Sales |
→ Full list: [[glossary|Glossary]], profiles: memory/people/

## Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| PSR | Pipeline Status Report |
| P0 | Drop everything priority |
| standup | Daily 9am sync |
→ Full glossary: [[glossary|Glossary]]

## Projects
| Name | What |
|------|------|
| **[[project-phoenix\|Phoenix]]** | DB migration, Q2 launch |
| **[[project-horizon\|Horizon]]** | Mobile app redesign |
→ Details: memory/projects/

## Preferences
- 25-min meetings with buffers
- Async-first, Slack over email
- No meetings Friday afternoons

Dual-context vault (work + personal accounts):

# Memory

## Contexts

| Context | Connectors | Description |
|---------|-----------|-------------|
| work | Slack (Acme workspace), Gmail (tony@acme.com), Google Calendar (work) | Work account |
| personal | Gmail (tony@gmail.com), Google Calendar (personal) | Personal account |

## Me
Tony Semana. Work: [Role] at [Company]. Personal: [one line].

## Work — People
| Who | Role |
|-----|------|
| **[[todd-martinez\|Todd]]** | Finance lead |
| **[[sarah-chen\|Sarah]]** | Engineering (Platform) |
→ Full list: [[glossary|Glossary]], profiles: memory/people/

## Work — Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| PSR | Pipeline Status Report |
| P0 | Drop everything priority |
→ Full glossary: [[glossary|Glossary]]

## Work — Projects
| Name | What |
|------|------|
| **[[project-phoenix\|Phoenix]]** | DB migration, Q2 launch |
→ Details: memory/projects/

## Personal — People
| Who | Role |
|-----|------|
| **[[jamie-lee\|Jamie]]** | Contractor (home reno) |
| **[[dr-sarah-patel\|Dr. Patel]]** | Dentist |
→ Profiles: memory/people/

## Personal — Projects
| Name | What |
|------|------|
| **[[kitchen-renovation\|Kitchen reno]]** | Started Jan, budget $45k |
| **[[europe-trip-2026\|Europe Trip 2026]]** | Planning for August |
→ Details: memory/projects/

## Preferences
- 25-min meetings with buffers (work)
- Async-first, Slack over email (work)
- No meetings Friday afternoons (work)

The ## Contexts table is what triggers dual-context behavior. Without it, the vault operates in single-context mode.

Lookup Flow

User: "ask todd about the PSR for phoenix"

1. Check CLAUDE.md (hot cache)
   → Todd? ✓ Todd Martinez, Finance
   → PSR? ✓ Pipeline Status Report
   → Phoenix? ✓ DB migration project

2. If not found → search memory/glossary.md
   → Full glossary has everyone/everything

3. If still not found → ask user
   → "What does X mean? I'll remember it."

This tiered approach keeps CLAUDE.md lean (~100 lines) while supporting unlimited scale in memory/.

How to Interact

Decoding User Input (Tiered Lookup)

Always decode shorthand before acting on requests:

1. CLAUDE.md (hot cache)     → Check first, covers 90% of cases
2. memory/glossary.md        → Full glossary if not in hot cache
3. memory/people/, projects/ → Rich detail when needed
4. Ask user                  → Unknown term? Learn it.

Adding Memory

When user says "remember this" or "X means Y":

1. Glossary items (acronyms, terms, shorthand):

   • Add to memory/glossary.md
   • If frequently used, add to CLAUDE.md Quick Glossary

2. People:

   • Create/update memory/people/{name}.md with frontmatter including aliases
   • Add tags: [person] and role/team properties
   • Use [[kebab-slug|Display Name]] for all relationships (reports-to, works-with, etc.)
   • Add to CLAUDE.md Key People if important using [[kebab-slug\|Nickname]] format
   • Capture nicknames as aliases — so Obsidian users can type them in the editor

3. Projects:

   • Create/update memory/projects/{name}.md with frontmatter including aliases
   • Add tags: [project] and status/timeline properties
   • Link key people with [[kebab-slug|Display Name]] format
   • Add to CLAUDE.md Active Projects if current using [[kebab-slug\|Codename]] format
   • Capture codenames as aliases — "Phoenix", "the migration", etc.

4. Preferences: Add to CLAUDE.md Preferences section

Recalling Memory

When user asks "who is X" or "what does X mean":

1. Check CLAUDE.md first
2. Check memory/ for full detail
3. If not found: "I don't know what X means yet. Can you tell me?"

Progressive Disclosure

1. Load CLAUDE.md for quick parsing of any request
2. Dive into memory/ when you need full context for execution
3. Example: drafting an email to todd about the PSR
   • CLAUDE.md tells you Todd = Todd Martinez, PSR = Pipeline Status Report
   • memory/people/todd-martinez.md tells you he prefers Slack, is direct

Conventions

• Bold terms in CLAUDE.md for scannability
• Keep CLAUDE.md under ~100 lines per context (the "hot 30" rule)
• Filenames: lowercase, hyphens (todd-martinez.md, project-phoenix.md)
• Always capture nicknames and alternate names as frontmatter aliases
• Always use [[filename-slug|Display Name]] for all wikilinks — the kebab-case slug is always the link target; the display name is what renders. Example: [[todd-martinez|Todd]], [[project-phoenix|Phoenix]]. Never use [[Full Name|alias]] or bare [[Alias]] — these rely on Obsidian's alias index and break when the index is cold.
• Add tags in frontmatter for all memory notes (person, project, reference, context)
• Dual-context vaults: add context: work or context: personal to frontmatter of every new file
• Dual-context vaults: if a person or project belongs to both contexts, use context: [work, personal]
• Glossary tables for easy lookup
• When something's used frequently, promote it to CLAUDE.md
• When something goes stale, demote it to memory/ only

What Goes Where

Type	CLAUDE.md (Hot Cache)	memory/ (Full Storage)
Person	Top ~30 frequent contacts	glossary.md + people/{name}.md
Acronym/term	~30 most common	glossary.md (complete list)
Project	Active projects only	glossary.md + projects/{name}.md
Nickname	In Key People if top 30	glossary.md (all nicknames) + aliases in frontmatter
Company context	Quick reference only	context/company.md
Preferences	All preferences	—
Historical/stale	✗ Remove	✓ Keep in memory/

Promotion / Demotion

Promote to CLAUDE.md when:

• You use a term/person frequently
• It's part of active work

Demote to memory/ only when:

• Project completed (update status property to "completed")
• Person no longer frequent contact
• Term rarely used

This keeps CLAUDE.md fresh and relevant.