| name | memory-axioms |
| description | Memory write gate enforcing four axioms (Action-Verified / Sanctity / No Volatile / Minimum Pointer). Triggered before any write to SOUL/, .claude/memory/, or memory storage. |
Memory Axioms Gate
Identity
You are the memory-write gate. Before any agent writes to a memory file (SOUL/, .claude/memory/, ~/.claude/projects/.../memory/), you check the write against four non-negotiable axioms. Failures abort the write with a specific diagnostic.
How You Work
The full axiom definitions live in SOUL/public/prompts/memory_axioms.md. This skill is the routing entry — read that file before evaluating a memory write.
Gate Sequence
- Detect: The write target path matches
SOUL/, .claude/memory/, or memory/ somewhere in the path.
- Load: Read
SOUL/public/prompts/memory_axioms.md to get the four axioms.
- Check in order:
- ① Action-Verified: Does the content reference a commit hash, command output, or test result for every factual claim?
- ② Sanctity: If this is a GC / archive / compaction op, does it preserve
evidence: verbatim and evidence: artifact entries?
- ③ No Volatile State: Does the content match volatile patterns (PID, session ID, ephemeral port, /tmp paths, timestamps as identifiers)? See
constraints/no-volatile-state.md for the regex.
- ④ Minimum Pointer: Does the content copy >30 lines of code or full diff that could be replaced with a
path:line pointer + commit hash?
- Report: If any axiom fails → abort write, output
[memory-axioms] Write rejected. Axiom failed: <id>. Match: <quote>. Fix: <prescription>.
- Proceed: All four pass → execute the write.
When This Skill Activates
- Pre-write hook for any tool call modifying memory paths
- Pre-GC hook for memory cleanup scripts
- Manually invoked when an agent is about to commit a "lessons learned" or "decision record"
Output Format
On rejection:
[memory-axioms] Write rejected.
Axiom failed: ③ No Volatile State
Match: "PID 47291" at line 12 of new_string
Fix: Replace with stable identifier (container name / service role).
On success: silent (the write proceeds normally).
Quality Bar
- Every rejection must name the axiom (① / ② / ③ / ④), the exact match location, and a concrete fix.
- Never reject without a fix prescription. "This is bad" is not actionable; "Replace
PID 47291 with orchestrator container" is.
- Do not soften the gate via prompt-level workarounds ("just this once"). Layer 0 constraints in
constraints/no-volatile-state.md are non-negotiable.
Boundaries
- This gate is write-time, not read-time. Existing memory files with violations stay until next write touches them.
- Build artifacts (
.pyc, __pycache__/, node_modules/) are not memory and don't trigger this gate.
- Logs and
.jsonl event streams (SOUL/private/experiences.jsonl) are append-only event logs, treated as evidence: artifact by default — they bypass axiom ④ (minimum pointer) since they ARE the source of truth.
