| name | memory-prune |
| description | Prune this project's memory files: route each worth-keeping fact to its durable home — a comment, CLAUDE.md tier, rule, ARCHITECTURE.md, command, or skill — then dispose of the source memory. TRIGGER when: user says 'prune my memories', 'clean up memory', 'what memories should be promoted', 'review my memory dir'. SKIP when: routing one already-extracted fact (place-fact), or auditing a single instruction file or CLAUDE.md (refine-file). |
Memory Prune
Primitive: WORTH + PLACE + SHAPE over this project's memory dir, plus source disposition.
Input
- Memory dir.
~/.claude/projects/<slug>/memory/, where <slug> is the absolute cwd with every non-alphanumeric character replaced by -. Resolve with ls ~/.claude/projects/ | grep -Fx -- "$(pwd | sed 's|[^a-zA-Z0-9]|-|g')". On zero or multiple matches, print the candidates and ask the user to pick.
- Memory files. Every
*.md in that dir except MEMORY.md (the index). If none, stop.
Protocol
Step 0 — Load lenses
Invoke the Skill tool to load vet-fact (WORTH — promote, keep-as-memory, or cut), place-fact (PLACE — which durable home), and tighten-instruction (SHAPE — how the promoted line reads). The trio judges each memory in Step 2 and shapes each promoted line in Step 4 — don't restate their criteria here.
Step 1 — Read
Read each memory's frontmatter (incl. metadata.type: user / feedback / project / reference) and body.
Step 2 — Judge each memory
Run every memory through the lenses in WORTH → PLACE → SHAPE order, then set the source's disposition.
- WORTH (
vet-fact). Interpret its keep/cut verdict in the memory context:
- keep (durable-doc-worthy) → promote; carry the fact's category into PLACE.
- cut because stale/derivable → STALE: the memory is dead.
- cut because true but not doc-worthy (a personal preference, an in-flight project state) → KEEP: the memory dir is its home; leave it.
metadata.type is a signal: feedback / user lean KEEP; project / reference lean promotable.
- Workflow fork. If the memory is a repeatable procedure the user invokes rather than a fact, route it to a command (on-demand workflow) or a skill (external SDK/platform capability fused with procedure) —
place-fact routes facts, not workflows, so PLACE won't cover this.
- PLACE (
place-fact). For a promote-worthy fact, take its trigger→home verdict: in-file comment · nested CLAUDE.md · path-scoped rule · root CLAUDE.md · ARCHITECTURE.md. A repo-internal fact is never a skill (place-fact's guardrail). If the target's directory doesn't exist in the repo (e.g. no .claude/rules/), fall back to the nearest CLAUDE.md.
- Disposition of the source — what happens to the memory once the target is written:
- DELETE — the target fully absorbs it, or it's STALE: delete the memory file.
- TRIM — the target partly absorbs it: replace the body with a pointer to the target.
- NONE — KEEP, or a STALE you want a record of: leave it, listed for visibility only.
Attach a confidence 0.0–1.0 and one-line reason citing the target file (or what makes it stale).
Step 3 — Present
Present every recommendation ≥0.70 in one table sorted by confidence; if none qualify, say so and stop.
| # | Confidence | Memory | Verdict | Target | Disposition | Why |
Step 4 — Apply
Confirm which rows to apply — never auto-apply, even at confidence 1.0. Then for each approved row: shape the promoted fact with the tighten-instruction lens into one trigger+action line, edit or create the target file, verify the change landed, and dispose of the source per its disposition.
Then update MEMORY.md: remove only the lines whose source was DELETE'd; leave every other entry (TRIM, NONE, KEEP, and anything below 0.70). Index line format: - [Title](file.md) — one-line summary.
