| name | fix-duplicates |
| description | Find and merge duplicate entities. Use when user says "clean up duplicates", "merge these people", "fix duplicate entities", "dedupe my contacts", or when you notice potential duplicates during conversation. |
| effort-level | medium |
Fix Duplicates
Find and merge duplicate entities in the memory system. Duplicates happen when the same person, project, or organization gets stored under slightly different names.
Triggers
- User says "find duplicates", "clean up duplicates", "dedupe"
- User says "merge [name] with [name]"
- User says "[Name] and [Other Name] are the same person"
- You notice similar names during a conversation (e.g., "John Smith" and "Jon Smith")
Workflow
Step 1: Find Potential Duplicates
Search for entities with similar names using claudia memory entities:
claudia memory entities search --query "*" --limit 100 --project-dir "$PWD"
Then compare names using these heuristics:
- Exact prefix match (first 5+ characters)
- Levenshtein distance <= 2 for short names
- Same first name + similar last name
- Abbreviations (Bob/Robert, Mike/Michael, Liz/Elizabeth)
- Missing middle names or initials
Present candidates grouped by type (person, project, organization).
Step 2: Present Candidates to User
Format:
Found potential duplicates:
**People:**
1. "John Smith" (ID: 42) and "Jon Smith" (ID: 87)
- First has 12 memories, second has 3
2. "Michael Chen" (ID: 23) and "Mike Chen" (ID: 56)
- First has 8 memories, second has 5
**Projects:**
1. "Website Redesign" (ID: 101) and "Website Re-design" (ID: 145)
Which would you like to merge? (e.g., "merge 1" or "merge all people")
Step 3: Execute Merge
When user confirms, call claudia memory entities to merge:
claudia memory entities merge --source-id 87 --target-id 42 --reason "Duplicate detected - same person with name variant" --project-dir "$PWD"
Important: Always merge the entity with fewer memories INTO the one with more memories. The target entity keeps its name and attributes; the source's name becomes an alias.
Step 4: Confirm Results
After merge:
Merged "Jon Smith" into "John Smith"
- 3 memories reassigned
- 2 relationships updated
- "Jon Smith" added as alias
"John Smith" now has 15 memories total.
Direct Merge Request
When user explicitly says "merge X with Y":
- Search for both entities by name
- Show what you found and confirm which is which
- Ask which should be the primary (or recommend based on memory count)
- Execute merge
- Confirm result
Edge Cases
No Duplicates Found
I searched through your entities and didn't find any obvious duplicates. Your memory is looking clean!
Ambiguous Match
I found multiple entities that could be matches:
- "John Smith" (ID: 42) - works at Acme Corp
- "John Smith" (ID: 67) - consultant
- "Jon Smith" (ID: 87) - no additional context
These might be different people. Can you clarify which are the same?
Entity Not Found
I couldn't find an entity named "[name]". Here are similar ones:
- [list of similar names]
Never
- Merge without user confirmation
- Assume two entities are the same just because they share a first name
- Delete the original entity (merges soft-delete the source)
- Lose any memories or relationships in the merge
