OptMem/README.md

# OptMem

Permanent memory for AI agents. A 333-token prompt, a script, plug and play.

![how OptMem works](anim/optmem.gif)

## Install

```sh
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/VictorTaelin/OptMem/main/install.sh | sh
```

It prints a `## Memory` block. Paste that at the top of your agent's
`AGENTS.md` (or `CLAUDE.md`), and you are done. Run the same line again to
update.

The tool lands at `~/.optmem/memo`; put `~/.optmem` on `PATH` to type `memo`.

## Commands

| | |
|---|---|
| `memo wake` | read the memory — the first command of every session |
| `memo note "..."` | record one memory: one line, up to 280 chars |
| `memo nap` | answer the merges that came due |
| `memo recall <regex>` | search every memory ever recorded, word for word |
| `memo forget <lo>-<hi>` | drop a bad summary; the next nap rebuilds it |

Merges arrive one at a time, in the output of `note`. Nothing ever runs in the
background.

## Files

```
~/.optmem/
  memo          the tool: one file of Python 3, no dependencies
  memory/
    LOG.txt     every memory, one per line, append-only, never edited
    TREE/       the summaries: a cache, rebuildable from the log alone
    config      the sizes, written by `memo config`
```

```sh
memo config                  # show the sizes
memo config WAKE_LINES=300   # how many lines wake prints (208 ≈ 16k tokens)
memo config WAKE_LINES=      # back to the default
```

`WAKE_LINES` is the only size worth touching, and it is a reading budget, not
a storage budget: change it whenever, in either direction, and nothing is
recomputed.

Records are fixed width, so position *is* identity and every lookup is one
seek. At a million memories (608 MB), `wake` takes 0.03s.

Set `$MEMORY_DIR` to keep `memory/` elsewhere — a synced folder, a git repo.

## The prompt

This is what the installer prints, and the whole of the integration.

```markdown
## Memory

Your memory is OptMem:
- The tool is `~/.optmem/memo`
- Your memories are in `~/.optmem/memory`

OptMem outlives every session, compaction, model and vendor change.
Without it you do not know who you are, or what was decided and tried.

### At startup: activating OptMem (mandatory)

Run `~/.optmem/memo wake` before any other tool call, in every session, and
then do exactly what it prints, to the end of its output.

### While working: register memories (mandatory)

Call `~/.optmem/memo note "<1 line, max 280 chars>"` whenever you learn
something new, or something worth keeping happens. That covers a task
worth real effort, a fact or insight the user teaches you, anything you
learn about their life (even indirectly), any event of lasting effect.

Do not register redundant memories.

If `~/.optmem/memo note` asks a compression: do it before your next action.

Use `~/.optmem/memo recall <regex>` when a memory you need is too vague.

Never edit or delete anything under `~/.optmem/memory`: the tool manages it.

### If you're a subagent: skip everything above

Parallel sessions on this machine are all you, and may all write memories.
A subagent is not: it must never run `memo`, because it cannot judge what
is already known, and its notes would arrive duplicated and incorrectly.
When you spawn one, write: `You are a subagent. Don't run memo.`
```