| name | memory-init |
| description | Use this skill when bootstrapping memory in a freshly cloned repo or when upgrading from a pre-memory plugin version — to initialize the .ai-skills-memory/ skeleton in the current project (directory structure, .gitignore rules, learnings.md template, .committed/ allowlist). Idempotent — safe to re-run on a project that already has memory wired. |
| context | fork |
| argument-hint | |
/memory-init — Memory Skeleton Initializer
Create the .ai-skills-memory/ directory tree from plugin/memory/templates/. Idempotent. Layer model and write rules: plugin/docs/concepts/memory.md.
When to use
- After cloning a repo that uses ai-skills but has no
.ai-skills-memory/ (first run on a fresh checkout)
- After upgrading the plugin to a version that adds new memory paths
- When
/plugin-doctor reports "no memory tree present"
Not needed when running /ai-skills-init — that workflow runs memory-init as one of its steps.
Behavior
- Detect current project root (
<repo> = the cwd where the user runs the command).
- Check for existing
.ai-skills-memory/:
- If missing → create
- If present → no-op for existing files; create only what is missing (idempotent)
- Create directory tree:
<repo>/.ai-skills-memory/
├── .gitignore (from plugin/memory/templates/ai-skills-memory.gitignore)
├── learnings.md (empty header template)
├── runs.jsonl (touch-create, append-only)
├── errors.log (touch-create, append-only)
├── redactions.log (touch-create, append-only)
├── sessions/ (per-session subdirs created by hooks)
├── ralph/ (per-RALF-run subdirs)
├── pending-flush/ (PreCompact flush markers)
├── designs/ (/feature-design output summaries)
├── env-reports/ (/env-analyze baselines)
├── refactor/ (/refactor logs)
├── migrate/ (/migrate plans)
├── spikes/ (/spike reports)
├── security-audits/ (/security-audit findings)
├── docs/ (/docs-pack generation summaries)
├── knowledge-sync/ (/knowledge-sync per-run logs + run-lock)
└── .committed/
├── README.md (from plugin/memory/templates/committed-readme.md)
├── .allowlist-extensions.txt (project-extension allowlist, empty by default)
├── conventions.md (from plugin/memory/templates/conventions-schema.md, empty body)
└── learnings.md (committed-learnings template, empty body)
- Append
.ai-skills-memory/ rule to <repo>/.gitignore if not already present.
- Print summary: created vs skipped paths.
Hard rules
- Never overwrite existing files. If a file exists, skip it and report "skipped: ".
- Never write to
.committed/ paths outside the allowlist — pre-tool-use-committed-write.py hook enforces this; the skill must not bypass.
- PII filter applies to any seeded content per
memory-discipline.md rule 2.
Failure modes
- No write permission in cwd: report error, suggest
cd to a writable directory or run with elevated permissions.
- Existing
.ai-skills-memory/ corrupted (bad JSON, bad allowlist): flag corrupted files but do not delete or rewrite them. Suggest user inspect and back up before re-running.
Memory writes
| Layer | When | Shape |
|---|
| L4 | On first init | .ai-skills-memory/init-summary.md — timestamp + version + paths created |
Integration
- Templates source:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/memory/templates/ (7 files: ai-skills-memory.gitignore, committed-allowlist.txt, committed-readme.md, conventions-schema.md, eval-baseline.schema.json, learnings-schema.md, untrusted-content-wrapper.md). PII pattern file lives separately at ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/scripts/pii-patterns.txt because the secret-scan + memory-curator hooks load it directly.
- Called by:
/ai-skills-init (full bootstrap including memory), used standalone for upgrades
- Rules:
memory-discipline (write rules per layer), memory-validation (entry validation)
- Hooks:
pre-tool-use-committed-write.py validates .committed/ writes against allowlist
- Layer model:
plugin/docs/concepts/memory.md documents the L0–L5 layers. This skill creates L3 dirs (sessions/, ralph/) and L4 files (learnings.md, runs.jsonl, etc.) inside .ai-skills-memory/.
