custodian

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Memory

Search first: /mnemonic:search {relevant_keywords} Capture after: /mnemonic:capture {namespace} "{title}"

Run /mnemonic:list --namespaces to see available namespaces from loaded ontologies.

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Custodian Skill

Provides custodial services for the mnemonic memory system: auditing, validation, link repair, decay management, relocation, and summarization.

When to Use

• Proactively when session_start reports low health scores or potential duplicates
• On request when user asks about memory health, broken links, or maintenance
• After project renames to relocate memories and update references
• Periodically to keep decay scores current and identify orphaned memories

Architecture

The custodian operates through focused Python modules:

Module	Responsibility
memory_file.py	Parse/validate/update MIF frontmatter
link_checker.py	Build UUID/slug index, validate links, find orphans
decay.py	Calculate exponential/linear/step decay, update strength
relocator.py	Move files + update all cross-references
validators.py	MIF schema validation, ontology relationship checks
report.py	Structured findings with markdown/JSON output
custodian.py	CLI orchestrator dispatching to modules

Subcommands

audit (default)

Runs all checks in a single pass. This is the recommended entry point.

/mnemonic:custodian audit [--fix] [--dry-run]

Checks performed:

1. Frontmatter: Required fields, UUID format, type enum, date format
2. Links: Wiki-links resolve to existing memories
3. Relationships: Types match MIF built-in or ontology-defined types
4. Decay: Recalculates strength values using configured model
5. Orphans: Detects memories with no incoming references

relocate

Moves memories when project or org names change:

/mnemonic:custodian relocate <old-path> <new-path> [--dry-run]

1. Builds link index across all memory roots
2. Updates path references in ALL memory files (not just relocated ones)
3. Moves files using git mv for history preservation
4. Cleans up empty directories

validate-links

/mnemonic:custodian validate-links [--fix]

With --fix: broken [[wiki-links]] are replaced with plain text.

decay

/mnemonic:custodian decay [--dry-run]

Updates temporal.decay.currentStrength (or strength) in-place. Formula: strength * 0.5^(days_since_access / half_life_days)

summarize

/mnemonic:custodian summarize

Identifies compression candidates (>100 lines, >30d old or strength < 0.3). Delegate actual compression to mnemonic:compression-worker agent.

ensure-bidirectional

/mnemonic:custodian ensure-bidirectional [--fix]

Scans all memory relationships and checks that each has a corresponding inverse back-reference in the target. For example, if A supersedes B, B should have SupersededBy (or superseded_by) pointing back to A.

Without --fix: reports missing back-references as warnings. With --fix: auto-creates the missing inverse relationships.

validate-memories / validate-relationships

Read-only validation. Reports errors without modifying files.

Integration

• Complements gc: GC handles cleanup/archival; custodian handles validation/repair
• Complements memory-curator: Curator handles conflicts/deduplication; custodian handles schema/links/decay
• Uses PathResolver: Centralized path resolution from lib/paths.py
• Uses compression-worker: Delegates summarization to existing agent

Key Design Decisions

• Non-destructive by default: --dry-run support on all mutation operations
• Atomic writes: All file modifications use temp file + replace pattern
• Git integration: --commit flag for committing changes
• Functional modules: Lightweight functions over heavy OOP, matching codebase style
• Single-pass audit: All checks run once per file for efficiency