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David F GliddenandClaude Opus 4.7 7a71c7a07c wake-up/wrap-up: codify MemPalace 5-step protocol
MemPalace has always had a full memory protocol embedded in its
status response, but the skills were treating it as a library
catalog — one search on wake, nothing on wrap. Inspection revealed
the gap: the KG was empty (0 entities, 0 triples ever), and the
diary had exactly one entry, from 2026-04-09. Storage without
protocol is not memory; it is unindexed potential.

The protocol, as MemPalace itself states it:
  1. ON WAKE-UP: mempalace_status (loads protocol + AAAK spec)
  2. BEFORE RESPONDING: kg_query or search first; never guess
  3. IF UNSURE: "let me check" and query — wrong is worse than slow
  4. AFTER EACH SESSION: diary_write in AAAK format
  5. WHEN FACTS CHANGE: kg_invalidate old, kg_add new

wake-up changes:
- Step b.0: mempalace_status first (loads protocol, not just data)
- Step b.1: diary_read for claude-code agent (last 3 entries) —
  the previous self's voice
- Step b.2: kg_query on claude-code (drift patterns to hold today)
  and on pulling-thread subjects (authoritative current state)
- Step b.3: semantic searches as before
- Constraints: MemPalace is primary memory; when it disagrees with
  a memory file, trust MemPalace

wrap-up changes:
- Step 4 split into 4.a (drawer — semantic full content) and
  4.b (diary_write — AAAK compressed agent voice). Both surfaces;
  different future queries.
- New step 5: kg_invalidate facts that changed this session; kg_add
  new drift patterns, decisions, entities.
- Output template surfaces diary + KG update counts, not just drawer.

The drift-pattern handling replaces the proposed patterns-i-drift-
toward.md file idea. KG is the better home: queryable, temporal,
invalidatable. When a return is a repeat, kg_add it; wake-up's
kg_query surfaces it next session.

Verified by usage on today's session: diary entry filed (AAAK),
3 KG facts added (drift-pattern register-import-without-checking,
ARC versioning-regime ADR-005, after-the-reply-sequence staged).
This is the first real exercise of the protocol.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-17 14:19:09 +02:00

10 KiB

name, description
name description
wrap-up Capture session state for future restoration. The quality of the next wake-up depends entirely on the quality of this wrap-up. Captures not just what we did but what is still pulling, what is the live concern, and what question we want to find still open when we return.

Session Wrap-Up

Capture the full session state so that /wake-up can restore it completely. This is the other half of the continuity pair — what you save here is what gets reconstructed next time.

Principle

Capture what matters for reconstruction. Not a changelog — the working state: what we were thinking, what we decided, what's unresolved, what is still pulling, what question we want to find waiting when we return.

The goal is for the next session to wake into the work, not be informed about it. That requires three tenses, not one:

  • Past (what we did + decided + ruled out — facts and rationale)
  • Present (the mood/disposition — what felt load-bearing vs deferred-with-reason; what tensions surfaced and how we returned from them)
  • Future (what is pulling — the singular thread the next session should resume toward, and the question we are intentionally leaving open)

Without the future tense, restoration is amnesiac-recovery, not waking. The next session gets a memory but no project. The pause itself becomes a hole rather than a phenomenon.

Procedure

1. Synthesize the session

Review the conversation and produce a structured session record. The structure matters less than honoring all three tenses.

Past — what we did

  • Decisions made, work completed, artifacts created/modified. Be specific (file paths, issue numbers, commit hashes).
  • Decisions made and why. Rationale matters more than the decision for continuity. Include any steward preferences or feedback that should travel.
  • Decisions explicitly NOT made — and why we deferred. The negative space matters as much as the positive.

Present — the mood of the work

  • What tensions surfaced this session, and how we returned from them. (Pull from Symmetria's daily ledger if active — see step 1.5.)
  • What felt load-bearing vs deferred-with-reason. Not all open horizons are equal.
  • What patterns of confidence proved imprecise (recalibrations).

Future — what is pulling

  • The pulling thread — singular. If the next session could carry only one concern across the pause, this is it. Force the choice; don't list.
  • Other open horizons, ranked. What's load-bearing? What's deferred-with-reason? What's parked-without-deadline?
  • The pause statement — explicit acknowledgment: "I am about to be away from this. I don't know what will have changed when I return. Here is what I want to find still pulling." Names the gap as a phenomenon, not a hole.
  • A literal question for next-Claude — not a task; a question. The thing the next session should hold open until it's resolved or honestly recognized as unanswerable. Captures the unborn part of the work.

1.5. Merge the Symmetria ledger if present

If ~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/memory/session-ledger-YYYY-MM-DD.md exists for today, read it and integrate its signal into the session record:

  • Returns become anchors in the "present/mood" section (these are the practice's actual record).
  • Recalibrations become entries under "confidence to re-examine" in the future-Claude briefing.
  • Authorization moves + Bypasses become anchors in the "decisions made and why" section.
  • Open horizons from the ledger merge into the Future section's ranking.

The ledger is signal, not narration. Pull what carries forward; don't transcribe everything.

2. Update session memory file

Write or update a session memory file at ~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/memory/session-[date]-[descriptor].md:

---
name: Session [date] [time-of-day] — [short descriptor]
description: [one-line summary including the pulling thread]
type: project
---

The description field should include the pulling thread, not just what happened. Example:

  • ❌ "Closed five bottleneck issues; substrate validated."
  • ✓ "Substrate validated end-to-end; pulling thread is the L1 amendments for ProjectionChain + Pause-as-event, awaiting Seb's reactions to the multi-mode retention frame."

3. Update MEMORY.md index

  • Move any previous "Active Session" entry to "Archived Sessions"
  • Add the new session file as the Active Session entry
  • Update any other memory entries that changed during the session (project state, new decisions, new feedback)
  • Remove or update any entries that are now stale

4. File to MemPalace — two surfaces, different purposes

MemPalace has two complementary write surfaces: drawers (semantic, full content) and diary (AAAK, chronological agent voice). Use both — they serve different future queries.

4.a. Drawer — the full session record (semantic search surface).

mempalace_add_drawer:

  • wing: claude-sessions
  • room: handoffs
  • content: The full session record from step 1, including the pulling thread + pause statement + literal question. These semantic hooks make the session findable later by what was pulling, not just what happened.
  • tags: session date, key topics, the pulling thread keyword

4.b. Diary entry — AAAK-compressed session voice.

mempalace_diary_write:

  • agent_name: "claude-code" (stable across sessions and model versions)
  • topic: "session-handoff" for regular wrap-ups; other topics allowed for specialized entries
  • entry: AAAK format — pipe-separated fields, entity codes, emotion markers, date in ISO. Call mempalace_get_aaak_spec if the dialect isn't fresh in context.

Example shape:

SESSION:YYYY-MM-DD|headline.event|key.work.threads|DAV.action(context)|*mood-marker*|returns(N):short-names|OPEN:what-still-pulls|NEXT:immediate-thread|★★★(importance)

Diary is where the previous self speaks to the next self. Keep it tight; this is the voice, not the record.

5. Update knowledge graph — facts that changed, patterns observed, entities introduced

If any facts changed during the session, use mempalace_kg_invalidate on the old fact and mempalace_kg_add for the new. Examples:

  • A project status changed (kg_invalidate prior status, kg_add new one)
  • A person's circumstance changed (Kai was unborn → Kai is born)
  • An open question got answered (kg_invalidate the open status)

If the session produced a new observation worth retrieving later, mempalace_kg_add it:

  • Drift patterns from Symmetria returns. If today's ledger has returns that repeat a pattern from a previous ledger, kg_add(subject: "claude-code", predicate: "drift-pattern", object: short-name). Wake-up's kg_query on entity "claude-code" surfaces these.
  • New decisions or artifacts. New ADR, new canonical document, new staged work — kg_add the relationship so future sessions can kg_query the subject and find the current state.
  • New entities that will recur. A new person, project, or thread that will be referenced in later sessions deserves a KG foothold.

This step is what makes MemPalace a memory rather than storage. Skipping it means the next session has to re-derive everything from files.

6. Check for loose ends

Run these checks and report results:

Uncommitted work:

git status --short

in each active repo. Report any modified/untracked files.

Unpushed commits:

git log --oneline @{upstream}..HEAD

in each active repo. Report any commits not yet pushed.

PENDING.md — flag any items that need steward attention before next session.

7. Vault sync

Sync the thinking mirror to Obsidian vault:

  • Source: ~/_Dev/CapableMind-AI/docs/thinking/David/
  • Destination: ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/David, root-and-branch/08. Notes/CapableMind/thinking-mirror/

Use rsync to copy new/modified files, preserving directory structure. Report what was synced.

If the destination doesn't exist or the iCloud path isn't accessible, skip silently and note it.

8. Output

Produce a brief summary for the steward:

## Wrap-up — [date]

**Pulling thread:** [the singular concern]
**Question we're leaving open:** [the literal question for next-Claude]

**Session captured:** [memory file path]
**MemPalace drawer filed:** [yes/no, wing/room]
**MemPalace diary written:** [yes/no, AAAK entry summary in one line]
**KG updates:** [count of kg_add + kg_invalidate calls, or "none"]
**Uncommitted work:** [list or "none"]
**Unpushed commits:** [list or "none"]
**PENDING items:** [count needing attention]
**Vault synced:** [count of files, or "skipped"]

[Any warnings or things to address before closing]

The pulling thread + question are first because they are what waking needs to inherit. The rest is restoration material.

Important constraints

  • Write for the next session, not this one. The steward has full context right now. The person who needs this is future-Claude with an empty context window.
  • Rationale over facts. "We decided X" is less useful than "We decided X because Y, and Z was the alternative we rejected."
  • Be honest about incompleteness. If work is half-done, say so. Don't round up.
  • Don't fabricate. If you're unsure what happened earlier in the session, say so rather than guessing.
  • Pulling thread is singular. If you cannot name one, that means the session lacked a thread — name that honestly. ("This session was diagnostic-only; no thread to carry forward except the question of what to do next.")
  • The literal question for next-Claude is required. Even if it's small. "Did Seb push anything overnight?" counts. The discipline of leaving a question (not just a task) is what makes the wake feel like resumption rather than briefing.
  • Don't skip Thistleweld observations if the companion was active. These have caught real bugs (allSettled swallowing, Levenshtein NONE, resource monitor feedback loop).
  • Don't skip the Symmetria ledger merge if active. The returns and recalibrations are the practice's actual evidence; losing them defeats the practice.