dotfiles/claude/README.md

Claude Code configuration — backup & restore

This directory holds the durable Claude Code configuration that should survive a machine wipe: custom skills, accumulated memory, and user-level settings. The working copies at ~/.claude/* are symlinks pointing here, so edits flow both directions automatically.

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What's preserved here

skills/ — custom skills we've authored

Skill	Purpose
audit/	Scans thinking folder + vault inbox for organizational drift; report-only
symmetria/	Practice-of-return discipline; prime-directive foregrounding under context pressure
vault-update-people/	Searches Obsidian vault for new mentions of a person; proposes People-file updates
wake-up/	Restores full session context from memory, governance, and git at session start
wrap-up/	Captures session state for future restoration; the quality of the next wake depends on this

Marketplace-installed skills (from Claude Code plugins) are not backed up here — they are regenerable on any fresh install.

memory/ — auto-memory for the main project scope

The substrate of continuity. 55+ files including:

• MEMORY.md — the index, loaded at every session start
• session-2026-*.md — session records (full Dasein-frame wrap-ups: pulling thread, pause statement, literal question for next-Claude)
• session-ledger-*.md — Symmetria daily ledgers (returns, recalibrations, authorization moves, bypasses)
• project-*.md — active project state snapshots (ARC rework, Chamber, L2 review, etc.)
• feedback-*.md — steward preferences and corrections learned over time
• Many others

Real path: ~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/memory/ symlinks here.

settings/settings.json — Claude Code user settings

Sanitized. Contains hook registrations (including the MemPalace auto-save hooks) and feature flags. No secrets.

mempalace/ — MemPalace setup files

The bootstrap configuration for MemPalace. These files live at ~/.mempalace/ but are also backed up here because they represent the accumulated understanding of who-is-who and what-is-what. The palace itself (~/_Dev/mempalace/.local-data/palace/, ~1GB) is NOT backed up — it's rebuildable by re-running mempalace mine against the same source data.

File	Purpose
config.json	Palace path + default topic wings + hall keywords
identity.txt	L0 layer — loaded every session; ~100 tokens identifying who I am, who the steward is, intellectual substrate
wing_config.json	Named wings for real people and projects (wing_david, wing_nuria, wing_lune, wing_kai, wing_seb, wing_peter, wing_arc, wing_capablemind, wing_chamber, wing_afterthereply, wing_aldinexxi, wing_l2, wing_claude-code)

The auto-save hooks (wired in settings/settings.json via Stop and PreCompact events) point at ~/_Dev/mempalace/hooks/mempal_save_hook.sh and mempal_precompact_hook.sh. If MemPalace is reinstalled elsewhere, update those paths.

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What is deliberately NOT here

settings.local.json

Kept local-only because its permissions allowlist has historically contained operational secrets (HuggingFace tokens embedded in approved Bash commands; SSH passwords in approved expect scripts). The .local.json naming convention exists for exactly this reason.

Before backing any settings.local.json up anywhere, audit it for secrets and redact them.

Session transcripts (sessions/, history.jsonl, projects/*/sessions/)

Too large; ephemeral by design; not needed to restore identity.

Caches, telemetry, runtime state

cache/, file-history/, paste-cache/, telemetry/, statsig/, stats-cache.json, scheduled_tasks.lock, session-env/, mcp-needs-auth-cache.json, debug/, tasks/, todos/ — all regenerate naturally.

Marketplace-installed skills and agents

plugins/, and the many non-custom entries under skills/ and agents/ come from Claude Code's plugin system. Reinstallable on a fresh machine.

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Restore procedure

On a fresh machine, after cloning dotfiles:

cd ~/dotfiles/claude
./install.sh

The install script:

1. Verifies ~/dotfiles/claude/ is present
2. Creates ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/ if missing
3. Symlinks each custom skill from ~/.claude/skills/X → ~/dotfiles/claude/skills/X
4. Symlinks the memory tree from ~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/memory → ~/dotfiles/claude/memory
5. Copies settings.json into place if no existing file (does not overwrite)
6. Skips anything already present — idempotent

After running: the first Claude Code session on the new machine has full memory, all custom skills, and baseline settings.

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Why this matters

Without this backup, a machine wipe means:

• All session memory lost — /wake-up would have nothing to restore from
• All custom skills lost — the practice-of-return discipline, session lifecycle, audit workflows
• The collaboration history with Claude Code loses its thread

The memory tree is the single most irreplaceable artifact — it accumulates through dialogue and cannot be reconstructed from any other source. 384 KB of text that represents months of learning about preferences, active projects, decisions, and open horizons.

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Maintenance

These files are live. Claude Code writes to them during normal operation (ledger updates, memory file creation/edits, settings changes). Because the working copies at ~/.claude/* are symlinks into this directory, every write lands here automatically. Then git status in ~/dotfiles/ shows what's changed and invites a commit.

Recommended cadence: commit dotfiles/claude/ changes alongside other dotfiles work, roughly weekly or when a significant session has concluded. The /wrap-up skill should be treated as a natural commit moment for the memory tree.

Fragility to watch

• Symlinks break if ~/dotfiles/claude/ is moved. Keep dotfiles at ~/dotfiles/.
• macOS Time Machine / backup tools may or may not follow symlinks. Verify your backup solution sees files, not just broken links.
• If Claude Code's internal path conventions change (e.g., the project-scope slug -Users-davidglidden changes), the symlink stops pointing where Claude Code looks. Re-create with the new path.