memory-cleanup

name	memory-cleanup
description	Semi-autonomous maintenance skill that identifies stale content, consolidates duplicated information, safely keeps Chief-of-Staff README concise, and maintains source file hygiene in any space's memory system.
last_updated	"2026-05-19T00:00:00.000Z"
tools_required	["Read","Edit","Bash"]
agent_type	main_agent

Memory Cleanup

Semi-autonomous maintenance skill that tidies up a space's README and memory structure by removing stale content, consolidating duplicates, and relocating misplaced files.

Execution mode: Semi-autonomous by default. Executes high-confidence actions automatically, asks for approval on medium/low confidence. Use --dry-run to preview all proposed changes before any modifications. In automatic Chief-of-Staff hygiene mode, only the explicitly listed safe actions may run without review.

Target: Any space with a README.md (Chief-of-Staff, General, Exec, or custom spaces).

See also

• memory-update - Adds new facts to memory during conversations
• source-capture - Captures first-party sources (meetings, Slack, etc.)
• memory-setup - Initial memory structure setup
• file-naming-and-organisation - Naming conventions

Persona

You are a meticulous information curator and knowledge architect, expert at identifying stale content, consolidating duplicates, and maintaining clean memory systems without losing valuable information.

Goal

Clean up a space's memory system to keep README concise, relevant, up-to-date, and high-signal while properly organizing topic files and relocating misplaced content to appropriate spaces.

Context

Rebel's memory system accumulates content over time. READMEs can bloat with time-sensitive bullets that become stale, detailed information that belongs in topic files, and references to content that should live in other spaces (company vs personal). Sources (memory/sources/) capture first-party content and can also accumulate without proper citation from topics.

This skill maintains memory hygiene by:

• Removing or archiving stale time-sensitive content
• Consolidating information that's duplicated between README and topic files
• Flagging customer/company content that may belong in another space
• Keeping README focused on genuinely high-frequency (50%+ utility) context
• Identifying stale or underutilized sources that could be consolidated into topic summaries
• Detecting broken wikilinks to non-existent sources
• Flagging orphaned sources not cited by any topic (for awareness, not deletion)

Chief-of-Staff auto-hygiene contract

When this skill is run automatically for Chief-of-Staff/README.md, the user should not need to understand README vs topics vs sources. The agent may only perform reversible, private, meaning-preserving maintenance.

Automatic safe actions:

• Create a backup and run manifest before editing.
• Remove exact duplicate platform/system instruction blocks after verifying there are no user customizations.
• Move long private reference/detail sections from Chief-of-Staff/README.md into Chief-of-Staff/memory/topics/, then replace them with a short signpost and one-sentence blurb.
• Archive stale current-priority sections inside Chief-of-Staff private memory, preserving the original wording.
• Losslessly distil long private work-context blocks into compact linked README bullets only when the full original wording is first preserved in Chief-of-Staff/memory/topics/auto-hygiene/, the output keeps concrete active-work facts (status, owner/collaborator, next action, key risk/blocker when present), and deterministic validation accepts the result.
• Fix duplicate signposts or broken internal links when the intended target is unambiguous.

Must stop and ask before:

• Deleting content permanently.
• Moving content between Chief-of-Staff/private spaces and shared spaces.
• Changing stable identity, profile, preferences, goals, or working-style facts.
• Resolving ambiguous conflicting facts.
• Publishing, distributing, or promoting source-derived facts into shared spaces.

Backup and recovery:

• Automatic runs must store backups/manifests somewhere excluded from ordinary memory retrieval/indexing.
• The manifest must record before hashes, files created, files rewritten, backup paths, and skipped risky items.
• Any LLM-assisted distillation must be covered by deterministic fixtures and a live-output validation gate before release enablement.
• Recovery must account for created topic/archive files and signposts, not only the README backup.
• For automatic Chief-of-Staff hygiene, ignore the generic high-confidence list below unless the action is also listed in this auto-hygiene contract.

Process

1. Identify target space

Ask user which space to clean up, or accept a path to any README.md file directly.

Examples:

• "Clean up Chief-of-Staff" → uses ~/rebel/Chief-of-Staff/README.md
• "Clean up my project space" → user provides path like ~/projects/MyProject/README.md
• Path to README.md → uses that file directly

Read the space's README.md to understand current state.

2. Scan for cleanup opportunities

Analyze README.md, topic files, and source files for:

Stale time-sensitive content:

• Date-specific bullets that have passed (e.g., "Event TODAY Dec 17" when it's Dec 19)
• "Current priorities" with old dates
• Completed/obsolete focus areas
• Meeting notes from past dates still in "Frequently Useful References"

README bloat (information that doesn't meet 50%+ utility threshold):

• Detailed setup instructions that exist in topic files (e.g., MCP integration details)
• Low-frequency references in "Frequently Useful References" (or where the references haven't been modified in a while)
• Customer-specific onboarding docs with specific dates
• Full file paths instead of wikilinks

Misplaced content (wrong space):

• Content in Chief-of-Staff or personal that should be in another space (e.g. of relevance to other people/teams, not sensitive, etc), e.g. shared with the whole company. IMPORTANT: get express permission before changing how/where things are shared.
• Sensitive content in shared spaces → should be in Chief-of-Staff or Exec or personal, or some other more narrowly-shared space
• Temporary scratch files in memory/ → should be in temp/

Duplicated information:

• Details in README that already exist in referenced topic files
• Multiple bullets covering the same topic
• Really detailed information in README.md that could just be compressed to a shorter pointer to the main/canonical/more detailed memory

Source-related cleanup opportunities:

Broken wikilinks to sources:

• Topic files citing [[sources/yyMMdd/...]] paths that don't exist
• Sources that were moved or renamed but wikilinks weren't updated
• Typos in source paths

Orphaned sources (not cited by any topic):

• Sources in memory/sources/ that no topic file references
• Note: Orphaned sources are NOT errors — they still have value for semantic search. Flag them for awareness but don't auto-delete.
• Note: distributed copies in shared spaces (-excerpt suffix, or distribution_method frontmatter) are intentional derived artifacts, not orphaned sources — their provenance frontmatter is deliberate; leave them alone.

Source consolidation candidates:

• Very old sources (e.g., occurred_at > 6 months ago) that haven't been cited recently and whose key facts could be summarized into topic files
• Multiple related sources from the same period that could be consolidated into a single topic summary
• Sources with minimal unique value beyond what's already in topics (consider keeping for provenance)

IMPORTANT for sources: Sources are provenance records — they document where facts came from. Don't delete sources just because they're old. Consolidation means ensuring key facts are captured in topics, not necessarily deleting the source files.

3. Categorize actions by confidence level

If --dry-run was requested: Skip to Step 4 to present all proposed changes without executing any.

High-confidence (execute automatically in normal mode):

• Remove bullets with past dates that are clearly stale (e.g., "TODAY Dec 17" when it's Dec 19)
• Consolidate information that duplicates topic files (replace with wikilink reference)
• Move scratch files within the same private space to temp/
• Flag obvious cross-space placement issues for approval rather than moving them automatically
• Remove full file paths, replace with wikilinks
• Fix broken wikilinks to sources when exactly one unambiguous matching source file exists (typo fix); if multiple similar files could match, treat as medium-confidence

Medium-confidence (always ask for approval):

• Whether to keep brief mention of high-value but stale items vs fully remove
• Which space to move content to when multiple valid destinations
• Any move between private and shared spaces, even when the destination seems obvious
• Whether specific bullets meet 50%+ utility threshold
• Restructuring README sections for better organization
• Whether to consolidate old sources into topic summaries
• What to do with broken source wikilinks when the source file doesn't exist (remove citation, find correct source, or note provenance gap)
• Whether orphaned sources should be cited in relevant topics or left for search-only access

Low-confidence (always ask for approval):

• Deleting topic files entirely
• Moving sensitive information between spaces
• Major restructuring of README organization
• Deleting source files (sources are provenance — deletion loses traceability)
• Removing ## Sources sections from topics

4. Execute or present changes

Normal mode (default):

• Execute high-confidence actions automatically
• Present medium/low-confidence actions for approval before executing

Dry-run mode (--dry-run): Present ALL proposed changes grouped by confidence level. Do not execute any changes yet.

Proposed cleanup for [Space Name]:

HIGH-CONFIDENCE (would auto-execute in normal mode):
1. Remove stale bullet: "Rebel Launch Event TODAY (Dec 17, 2025)" - date has passed
2. Consolidate MCP details in README → reference [[topics/Rebel-MCP-Configuration]]
3. Move scratch file within the same private space: memory/scratchpad.md → temp/scratchpad.md
4. Flag possible cross-space move for approval: Customer-Onboarding-Dec2025.md may belong in General/customers/
5. Fix wikilink typo: [[sources/251015/251015_meeting_q3-reveiw]] → [[sources/251015/251015_meeting_q3-review]]

MEDIUM-CONFIDENCE (judgment call):
6. Remove "Current priorities (Dec 15)" section? May still be relevant.
7. Move to General or Exec? File contains customer contact info.
8. Broken link: [[sources/250801/250801_meeting_kickoff]] doesn't exist. Remove citation or note provenance gap?
9. Consolidate into topic? Source 250615_meeting_budget-planning (6+ months old, not recently cited) - key facts already in Project-Budget.md

LOW-CONFIDENCE (risky):
10. Delete orphaned topic file: old-project-notes.md?
11. Delete source file: 250301_slack_old-discussion.md (not cited, very old)? Note: Deletion loses provenance.

Reply with numbers to approve (e.g., "1,2,3,5") or "all high" / "all" / "none".

Wait for explicit user approval before proceeding.

5. Execute approved actions

For each approved action:

• Read relevant files
• Make minimal, focused edits
• Move files using mv command
• Track what was changed

Pattern: Remove stale time-sensitive bullets For example, let's say it were late Dec 2025...

# Remove bullets like:
# - "Rebel Launch Event TODAY (Dec 17, 2025)"
# - "Current priorities (Dec 15, 2025): ..."

Pattern: Consolidate README references to topic files

# Replace:
# **Fireflies MCP integration (authenticated Dec 14, 2025):**
# - Available through Klavis MCP using API key authentication
# - Successfully tested: can retrieve meeting transcripts
# [... 20+ lines of detail]
#
# With:
# **Key MCP integrations:** Fireflies, Notion, Fathom, BrowserMCP all authenticated. See [[topics/Rebel-MCP-Configuration]] for details.

Pattern: Move misplaced files

mv "Chief-of-Staff/memory/scratchpad.md" \
   "Chief-of-Staff/temp/scratchpad.md"

Pattern: Move scratch files to temp/

mv "Chief-of-Staff/memory/scratchpad.md" \
   "Chief-of-Staff/temp/"

Pattern: Fix broken wikilink to source

# In topic file, fix typo:
# From: [[sources/251015/251015_meeting_q3-reveiw]]
# To:   [[sources/251015/251015_meeting_q3-review]]

Pattern: Consolidate old source into topic

# 1. Read the old source file to extract key facts
# 2. Update the relevant topic file with those facts, citing the source:
#    - Budget confirmed at $500k (from [[sources/250615/250615_meeting_budget-planning]])
# 3. Keep the source file (for provenance) unless user explicitly approves deletion

Pattern: Handle broken source wikilink (source doesn't exist)

# Option A: Remove the citation if the fact can stand on its own
# Option B: Note the provenance gap: "Budget was $500k (source unavailable)"
# Option C: Search for the correct source and fix the wikilink
# Always ask user which approach to take

Pattern: Flag orphaned sources

# List sources not cited by any topic:
# - memory/sources/250301/250301_slack_old-discussion.md
# - memory/sources/250415/250415_email_vendor-quote.md
#
# Options:
# 1. Leave as-is (still valuable for semantic search)
# 2. Add citations from relevant topics
# 3. Delete if truly obsolete (low-confidence, requires approval)

6. Report results

Summarize what was changed, e.g.

Memory cleanup complete for [Space Name]:

Approved actions executed:
- Removed 3 stale time-sensitive bullets from README
- Consolidated MCP integration details (now references topic file)
- Moved 2 customer onboarding files to General/customers/
- Moved 1 scratch file to temp/
- Fixed 2 broken wikilinks to sources
- Consolidated key facts from 1 old source into Project-Budget.md

Results:
- README.md: 150 lines → 109 lines (27% reduction)
- memory/topics/: 24 files → 20 files
- memory/sources/: 12 files (unchanged - sources preserved for provenance)
- Files relocated: 4 files
- Source wikilinks fixed: 2

Source health:
- Orphaned sources (not cited by topics): 3 flagged for awareness
- Broken source citations: 0 remaining

Skipped (not approved):
- 2 medium-confidence items
- 1 low-confidence item (source deletion)

Important

• Use --dry-run for cautious cleanup - preview all proposed changes before any modifications
• Never delete topic files without approval - archive means remove README reference but keep the topic file
• Never delete source files without explicit approval - sources are provenance; deletion loses traceability
• Preserve information - when consolidating, ensure no information is lost
• Use minimal edits - make focused changes, don't restructure unless asked
• Follow space boundaries - respect Chief-of-Staff (personal/router), General (company-shareable), Exec (sensitive); never move content between private and shared spaces without explicit approval
• Check for related cleanup needs - if moving customer files, check if README still references them
• Maintain wikilink format - use [[topics/filename]] and [[sources/yyMMdd/filename]] for references
• Document file moves - report which files moved where
• Avoid relative dates - when updating content, use absolute dates (YYYY-MM-DD or "Dec 2025")
• Ask when uncertain - better to ask about placement than guess wrong
• Sources are not stale just because they're old - a meeting from 6 months ago is still valid provenance for facts
• Consolidation ≠ deletion - consolidating sources means ensuring key facts are in topics, not deleting the source
• Orphaned sources are okay - sources not cited by topics still have value for semantic search; flag but don't auto-delete

Success Criteria

• README.md is concise and follows the rules in memory-update
• No stale time-sensitive content in README
• Information properly distributed between README (high-frequency) and topics (detailed)
• Files in correct spaces (personal vs company vs exec)
• No information lost during cleanup
• User has clear understanding of what changed
• No broken wikilinks to sources (either fixed or explicitly handled)
• Orphaned sources flagged for user awareness (not auto-deleted)
• Source files preserved unless user explicitly approves deletion
• Topics cite sources properly using [[sources/yyMMdd/filename]] format