to-memory git:20260916.3f29db8A

Immutable. This exact content is served forever at /api/v1/blob/48ef18251bf2f988.

---
name: to-memory
description: Explicitly record something worth remembering, deciding scope (global vs. project) and tier (short-term candidate vs. long-term durable), then writing it. Use on `/to-memory`, "remember this", or `$to-memory`. Autonomous knowledge capture after solving a problem is agents-md's Prevent Recurrence, not this skill.
---

# to-memory — Explicit Memory Capture

Records one thing the user explicitly asked to remember.

## Scope and tier

Two independent decisions, each resolved from an explicit argument, semantic
inference from the request, or by asking when genuinely ambiguous:

- **Scope** — `global` (`~/.agents/...`, read by every agent and project) or
  `project` (this repo only).
- **Tier** — `long-term` (durable, timeless, must be explicitly requested) or
  `short-term` (dated candidate; the default when ambiguous).

## When tier is long-term

Write directly into the durable target — no intermediate staging or batch review:

- Global: `~/.agents/AGENTS.md`
- Project: `<repo>/AGENTS.md`

Before writing, hold the note to this bar:

- **Verified** — proven to work in this workspace, not a guess.
- **Reusable** — likely useful again, not one-off task progress.
- **Stable** — a lasting convention, not a temporary hack.
- Strip time-of-day stamps (e.g. `[HH:MM]`) — durable files are timeless.

Placement — a root line or a topic doc behind a pointer — the size budget,
and `CLAUDE.md` handling follow the `agents-md` skill.

Always show the exact addition and get explicit confirmation before writing to a
durable file.

## When tier is short-term

Land the note as its own file — one file per note, not appended to a shared log:

```text
~/.agents/memories/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md                          # global
~/.agents/memories/projects/<proj-slug>/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md      # project
```

- `YYYY-MM-DD` is today's date.
- `<slug>` is a short, agent-chosen topic slug, so the filename alone identifies
  the content without opening the file.
- Resolve `<proj-slug>` and the project memory directory with
  `scripts/proj-memory-path.sh` (pure resolution by default; pass `--ensure`
  to also create the directory).
- No retention policy and no resolution markers: when a note is no longer needed,
  delete the file directly — a destructive action, so get explicit confirmation
  first, same as any other destructive operation.
- To search past short-term notes, `grep`/`ls` the directories above directly — no
  dedicated recall skill is needed once you know where they live.

## Never write

Passwords, tokens, credentials, PII, or unverified speculation — see
[references/security.md](references/security.md) for the full list and how to
redact instead of dropping a note entirely.

## Cross-agent global memory setup

Wiring a newly installed coding agent's own native global memory file to
`~/.agents/AGENTS.md` is a one-time setup task, not a memory-capture action — see
[references/cross-agent-locations.md](references/cross-agent-locations.md) for the
per-agent path table. There is no dedicated script for this; wire the file by
hand, in whatever way fits its format, and back up any existing real file
first.