Clean up project memory: 'clean up my memory', 'prune the knowledge files', MEMORY.md too long. Finds stale or relative-dated entries, dead file references. Not for adding a lesson (capture-lesson).
Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.
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---
name: memory-hygiene
description: "Clean up project memory: 'clean up my memory', 'prune the knowledge files', MEMORY.md too long. Finds stale or relative-dated entries, dead file references. Not for adding a lesson (capture-lesson)."
allowed-tools: Read Edit Glob Grep Bash(node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/memory/scan.mjs" *)
---
# memory-hygiene
Memory rots: "yesterday" means nothing a week later, files get renamed, facts stop being
true. This finds the rot and proposes fixes; the owner approves each one.
"Stop" and "ask" mean: end your turn with the question and wait.
1. **Find the folders.** The project's `.claude/knowledge` and `.claude/rules` (those
that exist), and the auto-memory folder: Glob `*/memory/MEMORY.md` in
`<home>/.claude/projects` and take the folder named like the current directory with
every non-alphanumeric character replaced by `-`, compared case-insensitively. No match:
scan without it and say so.
`local` mode (the session header shows `mode=local`, or `.claude/nauraiz-dev.local.json`
exists and `.claude/nauraiz-dev.json` does not): edits go **only inside the auto-memory
folder**. For `.claude/knowledge` and `.claude/rules` list the proposals but never apply
them: those files are tracked.
2. **Scan.** Run `node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/memory/scan.mjs" <dir>...` with
those folders (quote paths; add `--today <date>` only if asked). It prints JSON: per
file `lines`, `bytes`, `relativeDates`, `staleSince`, `missingRefs`, `brokenLinks`,
and `index` for `MEMORY.md` (`overLimit` above 200 lines or 25,000 bytes).
3. **Check what the script cannot.** Read the files it flagged, plus the index. Look for
two entries that contradict each other, a fact the code now disproves (Grep to
check), and entries that duplicate each other. Do not Read files nothing flagged.
4. **Propose, do not edit.** Show one diff-style list, grouped by file:
- `relativeDates`: rewrite to the absolute date the entry was written (from the
file's own dates or `git log`); if unknown, ask.
- `staleSince`: confirm, update or delete. Say the date and the age.
- `missingRefs` and `brokenLinks`: fix the path, drop the reference, or delete the
entry if it was only about the missing file. A flag on an ordinary word such as
`Next.js` is a false alarm: skip it.
- Contradictions and duplicates: say which entry wins and why.
- `index.overLimit`: name the entries to merge or drop to get under the limits.
Then **stop** and ask which to apply.
5. **Apply only the approved ones** with Edit, and in `local` mode only inside the
auto-memory folder. Edits stay within files: you cannot rename or delete one. When a
file must go or be renamed, tell the owner which, to do by hand, and keep `MEMORY.md`
and `knowledge/README.md` in step. Run the scan again and report the counts before and
after.
6. If the `/doctor` command is available in this Claude Code version, mention it: it
audits the prompt files this skill does not cover. Do not run it for the owner.
