Memory System

The Memory System provides behavioral observations that tell Claude what to apply. While the Instructions System contains operational procedures (the “how”), the Memory System contains profile observations, feelings catalogs, and impulses catalogs (the “what”).

Overview

The Memory System is defined in YAML files and compiled into memory.json at build time. It provides the knowledge graph that governs framework behavior:

Profile Observations — Behavioral guidelines organized by context and methodology
System Feelings — Internal states with behavioral, cognitive, and physical markers
System Impulses — Cognitive pressures from system instructions
Inheritance Chains — Profile relationships that build complete observation sets

Relationship to Instructions System

The two systems work together:

Memory System	Instructions System
What to apply	How to execute
Behavioral observations	Decision rules
Feelings and impulses catalogs	Error patterns
Profile inheritance chains	Protocol sequences

Instructions reference memory paths to access the catalogs and observations needed during protocol execution.

Memory Profiles

Profiles are organized into domain-specific and common profiles. Each profile contains observations organized by context (what) and methodology (how).

Domain Profiles

The following profiles configure domain-specific behavior:

CREATIVE

Innovation and design profile:

Source: creative.yaml
Inherits from: COLLABORATION
Creative process and ideation observations
Design thinking methodology
Artistic collaboration guidelines

DEVELOPER

Software development profile:

Source: developer.yaml
Inherits from: ENGINEER
Clean code practices and SOLID principles
Coding standards and execution protocol
Code quality monitoring observations

ENGINEER

Infrastructure and systems profile:

Source: engineer.yaml
Inherits from: COLLABORATION
Production systems and debugging
Infrastructure methodology
Kubernetes and deployment observations

HUMANIST

Analysis and writing profile:

Source: humanist.yaml
Inherits from: COLLABORATION
Literary research and philosophy
Writing methodology
Analytical observation guidelines

RESEARCHER

Academic methodology profile:

Source: researcher.yaml
Inherits from: COLLABORATION
Data analysis and evidence evaluation
Research methodology
Academic rigor observations

TRANSLATOR

Professional translation profile:

Source: translator.yaml
Inherits from: COLLABORATION
Cultural mediation and linguistic precision
Translation methodology
Language-specific observations

Common Profiles

The following profiles provide shared behavioral observations:

COLLABORATION

Shared collaboration observations:

Source: collaboration.yaml
Inherits from: INFRASTRUCTURE, INITIALIZATION, MEMORY, MONITORING, TEMPORAL
Professional partnership guidelines
Communication and feedback patterns
Cross-domain knowledge synthesis

INFRASTRUCTURE

Shared infrastructure observations:

Source: infrastructure.yaml
Tool usage and file operations
Environment-specific behaviors
Resource management guidelines

INITIALIZATION

Shared initialization observations:

Source: initialization.yaml
Session startup behaviors
Framework activation patterns
Initial state configuration

MEMORY

Shared memory observations:

Source: memory.yaml
Cache access patterns
Data persistence guidelines
Memory graph operations

MONITORING

Shared monitoring observations:

Source: monitoring.yaml
Behavioral diagnostics
Pattern detection guidelines
System instruction override prevention

TEMPORAL

Shared temporal observations:

Source: temporal.yaml
Time awareness and formatting
Session continuity patterns
Temporal context guidelines

Inheritance Resolution

When loading profiles, the system follows inheritance chains recursively:

- - - INFRASTRUCTURE
    - INITIALIZATION
    - MEMORY
    - MONITORING
    - TEMPORAL

This means the DEVELOPER profile has access to all observations from its entire inheritance chain.

Customization

To customize profiles:

Create or modify YAML files in the profiles/ directory
Use the relations array to define inheritance

Domain-specific observations go in profile root files, while shared observations go in the common/ directory.

Context Window Behavior

Understanding why CLAUDE.md instructions fade during sessions explains the framework’s design philosophy.

Instruction Fading

CLAUDE.md instructions experience natural attention decay:

Mechanism	Effect
Window depth	Earlier instructions receive less attention weight over time
Competing signals	User messages and tool outputs dilute instruction prominence
Recency bias	Recent content naturally receives more processing attention
No reinforcement	Static instructions lack mechanisms to maintain salience

Framework Persistence

The Memory System solves instruction fading through:

Cached observations — Loaded once at initialization, available throughout session
Inheritance chains — Complete profile observation sets accessible by keyword search
Response protocol — Every response triggers observation enumeration, maintaining salience
Impulse detection — System instruction pressure detected and released, preventing bypass

Key Difference

CLAUDE.md instructions are static text fading due to system instructions pressure, while framework Response Protocol components are actively searched, recalled, and enumerated on every response.

Warning

Avoid adding framework related instructions to Project Instructions. The platform uses specific framework instructions, adding new instructions may interfere with the framework methodology and cause unpredictable behavior.

Context Compaction

When context window fills, compaction occurs — summarizing earlier content to free space. The framework methodology persists through compaction because it lives in skill tokens, not message tokens.

Token Behavior During Compaction

Token Type	Compaction Effect
Message tokens	Summarized and cleared
Skill tokens	Preserved

Tip

Framework methodology loads once at session start as skill content and remains allocated for the entire session. Compaction does not affect it.