Working Memory

Working Memory is Lerim's short-term continuation handoff. It is a generated Markdown view of recent record_versions, not a second durable store.

Use it beside Context Brief:

• Context Brief: durable long-term decisions, preferences, constraints, and facts.
• Working Memory: a short-term handoff compiled from the latest context changes, with where to resume only if the next user prompt continues the same work.

Working Memory is not a task list. The next user prompt decides the next task.

The current view lives at:

~/.lerim/workspace/current/<project_id>/WORKING_MEMORY.md

Flow

flowchart TD
    A["Agent starts project work"] --> B["lerim working-memory show"]
    B --> C{"Current artifact exists?"}
    C -- "yes" --> D["Read live freshness preface and WORKING_MEMORY.md"]
    C -- "no" --> E["lerim working-memory status"]
    E --> F["Suggested action: refresh"]
    D --> G{"Recent DB records changed or window moved?"}
    G -- "yes" --> H["lerim working-memory refresh"]
    G -- "no" --> I["Use current Working Memory with Context Brief"]
    H --> J["Load short-window record_versions"]
    J --> K["Resolve current records and replacements"]
    K --> L["Compile handoff with DSPy"]
    L --> M["Copy WORKING_MEMORY.md and manifest to workspace/current"]
    M --> D

Generation

Working Memory uses a DSPy compile step, like Context Brief, but over a shorter input horizon. The deterministic part loads recent record_versions, fetches the current record for each changed record, follows superseded_by_record_id when needed, and validates that every generated line cites supplied records.

The default recency window is two hours. A current Working Memory artifact becomes stale when:

• the stable current file is missing
• the manifest is missing
• cited records disappeared from the live DB
• project records changed after the artifact was generated
• the two-hour short-term window has moved past the artifact age

Sections

The Markdown artifact uses stable sections:

1. Summary
2. Start Here
3. Recent Changes
4. Current Context
5. Recently Replaced / Archived
6. Open Questions
7. Workspace Snapshot
8. Sources

The important invariant is current truth. Superseded and archived records may appear in Recent Changes or Recently Replaced / Archived, but Current Context uses active records or their replacements. Start Here must stay evidence-backed and must not invent generic next actions.

Commands

lerim working-memory show
lerim working-memory status
lerim working-memory path
lerim working-memory refresh
lerim working-memory refresh --force

show, status, and path are fast local reads. refresh writes a dated run folder under:

~/.lerim/workspace/YYYY/MM/DD/working-memory/working-memory-<timestamp>-<id>/

The latest successful run is copied to:

~/.lerim/workspace/current/<project_id>/
  WORKING_MEMORY.md
  WORKING_MEMORY.manifest.json