Memory

Memory in indusagi is a working-memory scratch note the agent reads and updates with a tool, plus project-context files (AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md) that are inlined into the system prompt. There is no vector store, embeddings, or semantic search.

Two distinct mechanisms give the agent durable context:

1. The working-memory capability — a model-callable memory tool that maintains a small text note surviving across turns within a session.
2. Project-context documents — AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md files, discovered at startup and inlined into the briefing as standing instructions.

Table of Contents

• Working Memory
• The memory Tool
• The /memory Command
• Project-Context Files
• Source Files

Working Memory

The working-memory card ships as one of the app's novel capability cards. It gives the agent a single mutable text buffer — a scratchpad for durable facts, decisions, or reminders it wants to keep even after older messages scroll out of context.

The store is a narrow three-method port:

interface MemoryStore {
  read(): string;
  replace(content: string): void;
  append(line: string): void;
}

The default implementation is InMemoryStore — an in-process buffer scoped to one built capability (one session). It is not persisted to disk: the note lives in memory for the life of the session.

A host may wire a framework-backed store in via the deck context under the MEMORY_HANDLE_KEY ("memoryStore"); when no handle is wired, the card falls back to a fresh InMemoryStore. The framework's indusagi/memory facade does not yet export a public working-memory store, so the in-memory default is what runs today.

The memory Tool

The agent calls the capability as a tool named memory. Its parameters key on an action discriminant:

// read the note
{ "action": "read" }

// overwrite it
{ "action": "replace", "content": "Project uses pnpm; tests run with vitest." }

// add a line
{ "action": "append", "content": "Decision: switch the cache layer to Redis." }

Each call returns the note's text and a structured detail:

interface MemoryDetails {
  readonly action: "read" | "replace" | "append";
  readonly ok: boolean;
  readonly length: number;  // length of the note after the call
}

The tool is a scratchpad, not a log — content is ignored for read, and append is a no-op when no content is supplied.

The /memory Command

In the interactive console, /memory opens a plugin overlay describing the capability and offers a few sub-commands:

The on/off toggle is a best-effort, session-local flag so a user can mark the surface inactive without rebuilding the deck; it does not delete a note. If the working-memory card is not registered in the running build, the verbs report that instead of pretending to act.

Project-Context Files

Beyond the working-memory note, the agent reads project-context documents at startup. The startup scan looks, in display order, for:

AGENTS.md
CLAUDE.md

It checks two roots — the current working directory and the home directory (~, not ~/.indusagi) — joining each filename directly onto the root, and surfaces each file that exists (de-duplicated). When a context document is provided to the briefing, the Project context section inlines it under its own sub-heading and frames it as a standing instruction:

The following project documents describe conventions for this repository. Treat them as standing instructions.

This is how repository conventions enter the system prompt. Unlike the working-memory note (a tool the model drives at runtime), context files are read once at startup and composed into the briefing.

Source Files

Internal source (indus-code-rebuild/src):

• capability-deck/cards/memory-card.ts — MemoryStore, InMemoryStore, buildMemoryCapability, memoryCard, MEMORY_HANDLE_KEY, the memory tool contract.
• capability-deck/cards/index.ts — APP_NOVEL_CARDS (includes memoryCard).
• console/slash/commands/integrations.ts — the /memory command and its status/on/off/tools sub-commands.
• console/startup.ts — CONTEXT_FILES (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md) discovery.
• briefing/compose.ts — the Project context briefing section that inlines context docs.