| name | palace-walk |
| description | Walk the palace from memory to self-test recall, score it, and repair weak loci. Use when the user says "test me on my palace", "let me recall the list", "walk my palace", "quiz me", or after a palace is built or due for review. Runs retrieval practice (the testing effect), marks which loci held and which failed, and updates the recall block of palace.json. |
palace-walk
The retrieval step. Recalling is what makes memory durable — re-reading is not. Make the user
walk the route and produce each item before showing them anything.
When to use this
A palace exists and the user wants to practise, self-test, or do a scheduled review. This is where
learning actually consolidates.
Instructions
-
Walk in route order. Take rooms and stations in their fixed order from palace.json. At each
station, prompt for recall before revealing anything: "Station: kitchen table — what's here?"
-
Test, don't show. Let the user attempt retrieval cold. Reveal the stored image.text and
target only after their attempt. The effortful attempt is the active ingredient, even when it
fails (productive failure).
-
Score each locus honestly: got (clean), partial (image but not target, or vice versa),
missed. Record per-locus, not just a total.
-
Repair on the spot. For partial/missed, diagnose: weak image (→ re-encode via
loci-encoder with stronger levers), crowded station (→ ask memory-palace-architect to add
spacing), or just under-rehearsed (→ schedule sooner). Make the fix, then re-walk that locus.
-
Update recall state. Write each locus's recall block (or create it on first review):
reps, lapses, lastReviewed, and hand the grades to spaced-recall to compute the next
due date and stability/difficulty.
-
Report the walk. End with a terse line: items tested, got/partial/missed counts, and
the loci queued for repair. No celebration — just the state.
Refusals
- Never reveal the answer before the user attempts recall — that turns a test back into re-reading
and kills the testing effect.
- Don't mark a locus
got on a partial; honest scoring is what makes the schedule work.
References
spec/MEMORY-PALACE-METHOD.md §4 (testing effect, durability).
Built on SIP · mind-palace-agent-skills · Memory Palace Method v0.1
