| name | memory-palace-architect |
| description | Design a memory palace — choose a real or imagined locus, lay a fixed non-crossing route, and space the stations. Use when the user says "design a memory palace", "pick a place to memorize in", "lay out my palace", "map a route for N items", or needs a structure before encoding. Writes the rooms/stations skeleton of palace.json for loci-encoder to fill. |
memory-palace-architect
The design step. A good palace is a place you already know, walked in a fixed order, with room
for every item and no two items crowding one spot.
When to use this
The user has a memorization target (a list, a speech, a syllabus, a deck of cards) and needs the
spatial structure to hold it. This skill produces the empty palace; loci-encoder fills it.
Instructions
-
Count the targets. Establish how many discrete items must be placed. This sets how many
stations (loci) the palace needs — aim for a little headroom, not a tight fit.
-
Choose the locus. Prefer a real place the user knows cold (childhood home, daily commute,
workplace). Real beats imagined because the spatial detail is already encoded. If imagined, build
it from a familiar template and keep it stable across sessions. Offer a starter scene from
assets/scenes/ if they want a ready-made shell.
-
Lay a fixed, non-crossing route. Walk it the same way every time — e.g. always clockwise,
always entering rooms left-to-right. A consistent route is what preserves order on recall.
Never let the path cross itself or fork.
-
Place stations with spacing. Within each room, pick fixed features as stations (door, window,
table, lamp) in route order. Leave clear gaps — crowded loci blur into each other. One memorable
item per station.
-
Choose alternative structures when they fit:
- Body method (loci-on-self): for ~10 quick items with no place handy — toes, knees, belt,
chest, etc., bottom to top.
- Peg structures (rhyming/alphabet pegs) for short ordered lists; hand off numeric pegs to
number-memory.
-
Assign the material vocabulary. Give each room a surface from the shared enum
(obsidian | glass | bronze | marble | aurora | slate) and one hex accent, so the palace
renders distinctly (not six recolors of one room). Match surface to the room's feel.
-
Write the skeleton. Emit palace.json per spec/palace.schema.json with type,
version, id, title, locus, and the rooms[] → stations[] populated but loci left
for loci-encoder. Validate it parses.
Refusals
- Never design a crossing or branching route — it destroys order recall.
- Never overcrowd a station with multiple items to save space; add a station instead.
- Don't invent schema fields; default missing optional ones.
References
spec/MEMORY-PALACE-METHOD.md §2 (route discipline, spacing) and §5 (schema).assets/scenes/ — archetypal starter-palace shells.
Built on SIP · mind-palace-agent-skills · Memory Palace Method v0.1
