name	using-agentcairn-memory
description	Use when AgentCairn memory tools are loaded and starting a non-trivial task or finishing a decision/fix — recall prior memory before working, and remember durable facts worth carrying across sessions.
metadata	{"internal":true}

Using agentcairn memory

You have a persistent memory backed by agentcairn (a Markdown vault the user owns). Use it.

Require the full integration

This skill assumes AgentCairn's MCP tools are already loaded. Before following the memory workflow, confirm that recall and remember are available.

If the tools are missing:

Do not invent tool calls or imply that this behavior skill installed the AgentCairn runtime, MCP server, plugin, or hooks.
Explain that the full AgentCairn integration is not loaded.
Invoke $agentcairn-setup if available, or direct the user to the native AgentCairn installation instructions.
Stop the memory workflow until installation is complete and the host has been restarted.

Recall before you work

Before designing, debugging, or re-deriving something non-trivial, search memory first:

Use the recall tool (hybrid search) with a focused query — "how did we fix the auth token refresh?", "what did we decide about the migration order?".
Expand a promising hit with build_context to read the full note.
Recall is cross-project: prior solutions in any repo can help. Cite notes by permalink.
Recall automatically prefers your current project's memories while still surfacing relevant cross-project ones (marked [from: <project>]); pass a project to target another repo, or --scope project to limit a query to just this one.

Remember durable facts

After a decision, a non-obvious fix, a gotcha, or a stated user preference, persist it with the remember tool — a short, self-contained fact. Good memories: "We rotate jwt-secret on deploy via X.", "User prefers rebase-merges.", "DuckDB TIMESTAMP stores naive-UTC — bind accordingly." Skip the trivial — the SessionEnd hook already captures the session in bulk; remember is for the high-value things worth pinning deliberately.

The vault is plain Markdown the user can read and edit; treat it as shared, durable knowledge.

Using agentcairn memory

You have a persistent memory backed by agentcairn (a Markdown vault the user owns). Use it.

Require the full integration

This skill assumes AgentCairn's MCP tools are already loaded. Before following the memory workflow, confirm that recall and remember are available.

If the tools are missing:

Do not invent tool calls or imply that this behavior skill installed the AgentCairn runtime, MCP server, plugin, or hooks.

Explain that the full AgentCairn integration is not loaded.

Invoke $agentcairn-setup if available, or direct the user to the native AgentCairn installation instructions.

Stop the memory workflow until installation is complete and the host has been restarted.

Recall before you work

Before designing, debugging, or re-deriving something non-trivial, search memory first:

Use the recall tool (hybrid search) with a focused query — "how did we fix the auth token refresh?", "what did we decide about the migration order?".

Expand a promising hit with build_context to read the full note.

Recall is cross-project: prior solutions in any repo can help. Cite notes by permalink.

Recall automatically prefers your current project's memories while still surfacing relevant cross-project ones (marked [from: <project>]); pass a project to target another repo, or --scope project to limit a query to just this one.

Remember durable facts

The vault is plain Markdown the user can read and edit; treat it as shared, durable knowledge.

using-agentcairn-memory