---
name: project-mempalace-upgrade-3-4-0-plan
description: "Scheduled MemPalace 3.3.6 → 3.4.0 upgrade — approach ratified 2026-06-07, execute a few days later once past the heavy ARC work. Backup first; migrate-wings and repair explicitly excluded."
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: project
  originSessionId: 5a8200e7-d734-4dc1-b69e-93d77076cab2
superseded_by: project-mempalace-winddown.md
superseded_on: 2026-08-17
---
> **SUPERSEDED 2026-08-17.** A scheduled 3.3.6 → 3.4.0 upgrade of an instrument retired before the slot came.
>
> Current record: **project-mempalace-winddown.md**. Kept for detail and provenance — do not read the
> status below as live.


# MemPalace upgrade 3.3.6 → 3.4.0 — scheduled plan (ratified 2026-06-07)

**Steward directive:** execute "in a few days once we've gotten past the heavy work"
(the ARC SCSS day 2026-06-08 + whatever follows). Never change the memory substrate the
night before — or morning of — a big work day.

**Why upgrade:** 3.4.0 (92 commits, on PyPI) ships a filtered-search **fallback** (#1245)
+ MCP **stale-index retry** (#1635) — converts our most-hit failure (#1665 wing-filter
`Error finding id`) from hard error to graceful degradation — plus diary_write/hook
repairs (#1693, #1700: content alias, −32602 diagnostic) that touch the exact machinery
our Stop/PreCompact hooks fire.

**Why caution:** our two filed issues remain OPEN — #1665's root cause (HNSW drifts from
sqlite after bulk delete) is unfixed, and #1589 (`repair` rebuilds an index chromadb
SIGSEGVs on) is untouched. Palliatives, not cures. Full read: CM-AI
`docs/thinking/David/l1-reliability/substrate-failure-lessons-2026-06-07.md` §10.

## The sequence (one sitting, ~30 min)

1. **Backup the palace first** — `~/.mempalace/palace-memory` (and the typography palace
   if touched): same-disk copy, verify count. No backup → no upgrade.
2. Upgrade the installed tool to **3.4.0** (installed via pipx/uv — check `which mempalace`
   for the carrier; currently 3.3.6).
3. **Re-apply / verify the local recency-ordering fix in `layers.py`** — the wake-up CLI's
   handoffs ordering depends on it; if the upgrade clobbers it, the thread-lineage glance
   reads oldest-first (wake §2.b.0.5 documents the symptom).
4. **Re-test wing-scoped search** (`mempalace_search` with `wing:`) — expect graceful
   fallback now, not `Error finding id`. Either way keep the unscoped+post-filter
   workaround until #1665's root cause closes.
5. **Smoke the session protocol**: `mempalace_status`, one `kg_query`, one `diary_read`,
   CLI `wake-up --wing claude-sessions` (ordering check per step 3).
6. **Do NOT run `migrate-wings`** (wing-name normalization — interesting for our odd wing
   names but a 61k-drawer migration wants its own considered session, after a verified
   backup and a read of the migration guide). **Do NOT run `repair`** (#1589, still
   booby-trapped).
7. Note the outcome in the day's ledger + this file; if the wing filter now degrades
   gracefully, update [[feedback-mempalace-wing-filter-broken]].

## Same slot — our own memory system's maintenance (added 2026-06-07 night)

Three bounded improvements to the files-authoritative layer, ratified in principle,
to execute in this same post-heavy-work sitting:
1. **MEMORY.md archive pass** — the index is over capacity (531 lines / 267 KB; the
   harness loads it PARTIALLY every session with a warning). Our own silent-truncation
   exposure: move Archived-section entries older than ~2 weeks into
   `MEMORY-archive-2026.md` (linked from the index), keep the index to current threads +
   standing preferences. Top-of-file loads first, so the fresh entries are safe meanwhile.
2. **Wake canary (skill-harvest proposal, steward to authorize)** — apply lesson 7 to
   ourselves: a cheap wake/wrap probe — every `[[link]]` and index pointer in MEMORY.md
   resolves to a file; flag dead pointers and (optionally) load-bearing orphans. One
   script, runs in seconds, catches our index drifting from our store.
3. **Palace backup as standing practice** — not just before the upgrade: a periodic
   same-disk copy of `~/.mempalace/palace-memory` (launchd or wrap-step), because
   "restore is the only test of backup" and the palace currently has none.

**Standing posture regardless of version:** witness, not notary — per the 2026-06-07
CLAUDE.md amendment (conflicts = verification triggers). MemPalace remains the
unaffiliated stopgap; BMF is the destined replacement ([[mempalace-is-unaffiliated-stopgap]]).