team-memory-maintenance git:20260911.f640e80A

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/8865fcd3395ac7ab.

---
name: team-memory-maintenance
description: Maintain Squad session logs, decision inboxes, and agent history through the active state backend
domain: squad-internals, state-management
confidence: high
source: current collaboration rules, source-of-truth guidance, and Scribe operating contract
---

## Context

Use this skill when maintaining shared Squad memory after a substantive work session. It covers
session logs, the decision inbox, canonical decisions, and concise cross-agent updates. Use
`archival-integrity` whenever an operation moves or trims stored entries.

## SCOPE

- Activate after substantive work that changes shared Squad memory or when processing decision inbox or history updates.
- Allowed targets: `.squad/` session logs, decision inbox entries, canonical decision records, and concise cross-agent history updates through the active backend.
- Exclusions: product source changes, arbitrary repository cleanup, and direct writes that bypass the active backend.

## Patterns

1. Resolve every `.squad/` path from the provided team root; use `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`
   only when no team root is available.
2. Honor the active state backend. Use its state operations for mutable Squad state; do not bypass
   that backend with branch switching, note-ref pushes, resets, or hand-managed persistence.
3. Record a concise factual session log after substantial work: participants, completed work,
   decisions, and final outcomes. Do not log requests or tentative plans as facts.
    Use filesystem-safe UTC timestamps in filenames (replace `:` with `-`); if there is no
    finalized outcome to record, skip the write and report that no durable update was required.
4. Process decision-inbox entries only after reading them. Before merging, deduplicate exact
   entries and normalize nested headings with the archival-integrity helper.
5. Confirm the merged content is present in the canonical decision record before deleting an inbox
   entry. Preserve a decision’s author and final rationale.
6. Add a short history update only when a finalized decision materially changes another role’s
   work. Put reusable procedure in a skill instead of duplicating it across histories.
7. Re-read state through the active backend after consequential writes. If the required backend
   capability is unavailable, stop and report the unavailable operation rather than reporting
   successful persistence.
8. After every write, refetch the exact target and verify the expected content. After every
   delete, refetch and verify the entry is absent. Stop on any mismatch; do not continue with
   subsequent memory mutations.

## STOP CONDITIONS

- Stop if the team root or active backend cannot be resolved.
- Stop if the required backend write or read-back verification capability is unavailable.
- Stop if merged content cannot be verified after the write.
- Stop if a delete cannot be verified by an exact post-delete read-back.
- Stop if the requested work produces no finalized fact but a caller asks for a durable write;
  report the no-op instead.

## Examples

`agent-collaboration` defines the inbox format used by contributors. The archival helpers in
`packages/squad-sdk/src/state/io/archival.ts` enforce verified archive moves and fence-aware
heading normalization.

## Anti-Patterns

- Writing mutable backend state directly to an assumed local checkout
- Deleting an inbox entry before its merged content is verified
- Recording a transient request as a durable decision
- Filling every agent history with a copy of the same operational procedure