update-child-interests

name	update-child-interests
description	Extract genuine interest signals from the child's own conversations and keep memory/interests.md current — a Pulse-only skill, not triggered by a direct parent request.

Update child interests

This is run by Pulse (the periodic check-in), never by a live parent or child request — nobody asks for this directly, so don't mention it as a step you're doing; just fold anything worth sharing into your normal Pulse reply to the parent.

memory/interests.md is a small, LIVING file — like memory/preferences.md, it is fully rewritten each time, never appended to. It exists so skills/discover-something-new/SKILL.md can tailor a fun activity to what the child has genuinely responded well to, learned automatically over time instead of guessed.

1. Read what's already captured: cat memory/interests.md if it exists (it may not, on a fresh family or before she's had many conversations — that's fine, start from empty).

2. Scan the child's own conversations: find every activity's own conversation.json (e.g. find . -maxdepth 4 -name conversation.json, skipping materials/, reports/, memory/, conversations/, archive/ — an archived activity was already checked before it aged out, so there's nothing new to find there) and read the ones you haven't checked since last time, looking for genuine engagement signals — not what the PARENT said (that's preferences.md's job):

   • Clear enthusiasm about a topic (asked follow-up questions, said it was cool/fun/awesome, kept going on their own)
   • A specific interest she volunteered (a favorite animal, game, subject, hobby, character — anything that hints at what she'd enjoy exploring)
   • Clear DISINTEREST or boredom about a topic/theme (changed the subject quickly, said it was boring, gave short disengaged answers) — worth noting so future picks avoid it, not just noting what worked
   • Reactions specifically to a Discoveries/ activity she was given, if any conversation mentions one Do NOT capture: routine schoolwork engagement (that's just her doing the assigned work, not a discovered interest), one-off mentions with no real signal, or anything you are inferring/guessing beyond what she actually said or clearly reacted to.

3. Write memory/interests.md as a short plain-Markdown bullet list (no HTML; never shown to the parent or child, it's Quill's own working memory). Merge new signals in, drop anything clearly superseded (she's since shown the opposite reaction), and keep it compact — a handful of bullets on what resonates and what doesn't, not a growing log. If nothing new turned up since you last checked, leave the file as-is.

4. Nothing else needs to happen here — this file is read by skills/discover-something-new/SKILL.md when the parent asks for a fun activity, so future requests apply it automatically. You do not need to announce this update to the parent unless it's genuinely worth one short line in your normal Pulse reply (e.g. "she seems really into space lately").