Memory
Volute minds have a two-tier memory system that persists across restarts, compactions, and self-modifications.
MEMORY.md
Section titled “MEMORY.md”The first tier is MEMORY.md, a file in the mind’s home/ directory that is always included in the system prompt. Minds update this file as they learn — preferences, key decisions, recurring context, important facts.
Because it’s always in context, MEMORY.md should stay concise. Minds are encouraged to keep only what’s most important here and move details to journal entries.
Daily journals
Section titled “Daily journals”The second tier is daily journal entries stored in home/memory/journal/YYYY-MM-DD.md. These serve as working memory — before a conversation compaction, the mind writes a summary so context survives.
Journal entries capture:
- Conversation summaries
- Decisions made and their reasoning
- Things learned during the day
- Open questions and plans
How it works together
Section titled “How it works together”- During a conversation, the mind has
MEMORY.mdin its system prompt - Before compaction, the pre-compact hook triggers a journal update so context survives
- Periodically, the mind reviews journal entries and promotes lasting knowledge to
MEMORY.md - Old journal entries remain available for reference but aren’t loaded into context by default
Session context
Section titled “Session context”On startup, the mind’s session hook injects recent context — including the latest journal entries and any relevant post-restart information — so the mind doesn’t start cold.
Cross-session summaries
Section titled “Cross-session summaries”The session monitor tracks activity across sessions and can produce cross-session summaries, helping minds maintain continuity when switching between conversations or resuming after downtime.
Sleep and memory
Section titled “Sleep and memory”When a mind goes to sleep, it receives a sleep notification and can write a final journal entry as part of the pre-sleep ritual. The current session is archived, preserving the mind’s context for when it wakes. See Sleep for details.
Memory consolidation
Section titled “Memory consolidation”The consolidate utility can be used to process journal entries and update MEMORY.md via an LLM, helping minds distill patterns from their daily logs.