memory-guardian

name	memory-guardian
description	WSL2 memory safety and scaling guardrails for Claude Code sessions and parallel agents.

Memory Guardian Skill

Purpose

Monitors WSL2 memory usage and enforces safe scaling limits for Claude Code instances and parallel agents.

When This Skill Activates

• Before spawning 3+ parallel Task agents
• Before running npm run build or other memory-heavy operations
• When SessionStart hook reports WARNING or CRITICAL memory status
• When user mentions running multiple CC instances

Memory Check Command

free -m | awk '/^Mem:/{printf "RAM: %dMB/%dMB (%d%%)\n", $3, $2, $3*100/$2} /^Swap:/{if($3>0) printf "Swap: %dMB/%dMB\n", $3, $2}'

Scaling Rules

Green Zone (< 75% RAM usage)

• Parallel Task agents: up to 4
• Background builds: safe
• No restrictions

Yellow Zone (75-89% RAM usage)

• Parallel Task agents: max 2
• Prefer sequential over parallel work
• Avoid npm run build alongside agents
• Warn user: "Memory pressure is high. Limiting parallel agents to 2."

Red Zone (>= 90% RAM usage)

• Parallel Task agents: max 1 (or 0 — work sequentially)
• NO background builds
• Suggest user close other CC instances
• Warn user: "Memory critically low. Working sequentially to prevent WSL crash."

Before Heavy Operations

Always run the memory check before:

1. Spawning 3+ parallel Task subagents
2. Running production builds (npm run build)
3. Starting dev server + agents simultaneously

WSL Configuration Reference

• Host: 16GB RAM
• WSL limit: 12GB (C:\Users\Frank\.wslconfig)
• Swap: 12GB
• Per CC instance: ~500MB + ~100-150MB per MCP server
• Safe concurrent CC instances: 4-5
• autoMemoryReclaim: dropcache (aggressive)

Recovery If Memory Is Critical

# Check what's using memory
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -20

# Kill any orphaned node processes from old CC sessions
pkill -f "node.*claude" 2>/dev/null

# Force kernel to drop caches (non-destructive)
echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches 2>/dev/null

Integration

• Hook: .claude/hooks/memory-check.sh runs on SessionStart
• Statusline: Memory percentage visible if hook fires warning
• Self-enforcing: CC reads this skill and self-limits before scaling