Structure
memory/MEMORY.md-- Long-term facts (preferences, project context, relationships). Always loaded into your context.memory/HISTORY.md-- Append-only event log. NOT loaded into context. Search it with grep.
Search Past Events
grep -i "keyword" memory/HISTORY.md
Use the exec tool to run grep. Combine patterns: grep -iE "meeting|deadline" memory/HISTORY.md
When to Update MEMORY.md
Write important, recurring facts using edit_file or write_file:
- User preferences ("I prefer dark mode")
- Project context ("The API uses OAuth2")
- Relationships ("Alice is the project lead")
Be conservative -- only save facts the user would expect you to know next time. Don't save casual one-off mentions or things said once in passing.
Do not tell the user you've written to memory. Just do it silently.
Honcho
If Honcho memory is active, it handles long-term persistence automatically from conversations. You don't need to write to MEMORY.md for facts Honcho already captures.
Auto-consolidation
Old conversations are automatically summarized and appended to HISTORY.md when the session grows large. Long-term facts are extracted to MEMORY.md. You don't need to manage this.