memory-prune

Memory Prune — assisted, never autonomous

The memory system at ~/.claude/projects/C--Users-frank-Arcanea/memory/ accumulates ~2-3 entries/day. Once MEMORY.md exceeds ~200 lines the auto-loader truncates it and entries silently disappear from future-session context. This skill prevents that without auto-deleting things that might still matter.

Philosophy

• Never auto-delete. Auto-decay is silent and corrupts the wisdom layer of memory.
• Bias toward keeping feedback, decision, reference, user — these are durable.
• Bias toward pruning project_* — these are session snapshots; old ones rarely re-load.
• Always show content before deciding. A 30-day-old project entry might be the one foundational decision you keep needing.

How it works

1. Walks ~/.claude/projects/C--Users-frank-Arcanea/memory/ for .md files
2. Filters to project_*.md last-modified > N days ago (default 30)
3. For each candidate prints:
   • Filename + age in days
   • First 200 chars of body
   • Recommended action based on heuristics (see below)
4. Prompts Frank: [k]eep | [a]rchive | [p]in | [s]kip
5. Executes:
   • archive → move to memory/archive/YYYY-MM/, remove from MEMORY.md
   • pin → rename to <original>_pinned.md, ensure indexed in MEMORY.md
   • keep → no change (will resurface next prune)
   • skip → no change, no resurface this session

Heuristic recommendations

Pattern	Recommendation
project_*_session_*.md (session log)	archive — these are ephemeral by nature
project_pp_audit_*.md (PP audits)	archive after 60 days
project_*_strategy.md (strategy docs)	keep or pin — usually evergreen
project_overnight_*.md	archive — overnight session snapshots
project_mega_session_*.md	archive — date-bound sessions
project_*_2026_03_*	archive after 90 days
Any with content > 4 KB explaining a decision rationale	suggest pin

Invocation

Run via PowerShell in Windows:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$env:USERPROFILE/.claude/skills/memory-prune/prune.ps1"

Or set up an alias in your shell:

function prune-memory { & "$env:USERPROFILE/.claude/skills/memory-prune/prune.ps1" }

What this skill does NOT do

• Does NOT delete files outright (only moves to archive/)
• Does NOT touch feedback_*, decision_*, reference_*, user_*
• Does NOT modify entries you skip
• Does NOT auto-trigger; only runs on explicit invocation

Cadence recommendation

Run once per month or whenever MEMORY.md exceeds 180 lines (check via wc -l MEMORY.md).

Decay-when

This skill itself decays only if memory architecture migrates (e.g., to a vector DB). At that point rebuild against the new substrate.