---
slug: "memory-router-x-3"
source_type: "clawhub"
source_url: "https://clawhub.ai/skills/memory-router"
repo: ""
source_file: "description"
---
# MemoryRouter ⚡

**Never lose context. Never forget decisions. Never repeat mistakes.**

The memory problem is the single biggest reason agents feel dumb over time. Not the models. Not the prompts. **Memory management.**

MemoryRouter fixes it with one tool, zero dependencies, zero setup.

## The Problem — In 30 Seconds

Agent memory files grow unbounded. After a week, you've got thousands of lines across dozens of files. Every session loads **everything** — even when the user asks "what's the weather?"

That's tokens burned on irrelevant memories, every interaction, forever.

Then compaction kicks in and details vanish.

**The bottleneck isn't the model. It's what the model gets to see.**

## Why Memory Fails

| Failure Mode | Cause | Fix |
|-------------|-------|-----|
| Forgets everything | Loads irrelevant files, context window fills up | Smart manifest — load only what matters |
| Repeats mistakes | Lessons not captured or loaded | Entity index + audit for conflicts |
| Repeats work | No session state persistence | WAL protocol — write state before responding |
| Slow responses | Loads 50+ files when only 3 matter | Token budgeting — cap context window |
| Duplicates everywhere | No automated cleanup | `--audit` finds high-similarity pairs |

## The Architecture

```
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              MEMORYROUTER ⚡                          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                      │
│  ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐               │
│  │  AUTO-TIER   │    │  MANIFEST    │               │
│  │  MEMORY.md   │ →  │  GENERATOR   │               │
│  │              │    │              │               │
│  │ Core (always │    │ Required:    │               │
│  │ loaded)      │    │ MEMORY.md    │               │
│  │ + Archive    │    │ Recent logs  │               │
│  │ (on demand)  │    │ Boosted:     │               │
│  └──────────────┘    │ entity files │               │
│                      └──────┬───────┘               │
│                             │                        │
│              ┌──────────────▼──────────────┐         │
│              │  ENTITY RESOLUTION          │         │
│              │  "alice" → preferences.md,         │         │
│              │  notes.md, decisions.md│         │
│              └──────────────┬──────────────┘         │
│                             │                        │
│              ┌──────────────▼──────────────┐         │
│              │  TOKEN BUDGET FILTER        │         │
│              │  20K budget → 7 files       │         │
│              │  100K budget → 16 files     │         │
│              └──────────────┬──────────────┘         │
│                             │                        │
│              ┌──────────────▼──────────────┐         │
│              │  AGENT LOADS ONLY WHAT      │         │
│              │  MATTERS → 70-85% REDUCTION │         │
│              └─────────────────────────────┘         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

## ⚠️ Important Warnings

### Automatic File Modification
MemoryRouter automatically modifies MEMORY.md and archive files under `memory/` during `--tier`, `--audit`, and `--restore` operations. These changes are not reversible unless you have a backup. Always run `--dry-run` first to preview changes.

### Destructive Flags Requiring Confirmation
- `--tier` rewrites MEMORY.md permanently
- `--restore` overwrites MEMORY.md with backup content
- `--cleanup` with auto-remove can delete archived entries
- These operations require explicit `--confirm` / `--force` flags and will refuse to run without them

### Filesystem Access
MemoryRouter reads and writes `memory/` files and directories. Ensure proper filesystem permissions and avoid running in untrusted shared directories.

## Quick Start

### Fix a bloated MEMORY.md (requires confirmation)

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --tier --confirm
```

**Output:**
```
[memory-router] MEMORY.md: 7809 lines, 309254 chars
[memory-router] ✅ Pre-tier backup: memory/backups/MEMORY-backup-2026-05-23-1234567890.md (7809 lines saved)
[memory-router] Tiered: 202 core sections, 1002 archived
[memory-router] MEMORY.md reduced from 7809 lines to 2222 lines
```

### Preview tiering without making changes

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --tier --dry-run
```

**Output:**
```
[memory-router] MEMORY.md: 7809 lines, 309254 chars
[memory-router] ── DRY RUN ──
[memory-router] Would archive: memory/active/MEMORY-archive-2026-05-23.md
[memory-router] Would reduce MEMORY.md from 7809 lines to ~2222 lines
[memory-router] Core sections: 202, Archive sections: 1002
[memory-router] ✅ No files were modified.
```

### Restore MEMORY.md from latest backup

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --restore --force
```

⚠️ **Destructive** — overwrites MEMORY.md. Requires `--force` flag. Extracts only the original content from the backup (metadata headers are stripped). Always creates a backup of the current MEMORY.md before overwriting.

### Generate a smart manifest in one command

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact
```

Creates `memory/memory-manifest.json` — the agent's shopping list of what to load.

### With entity boosting

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact --query "alice"
```

Files linked to "alice" get priority. No AI, no embeddings — just fast entity resolution.

### With a token budget

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact --budget 20000
```

Only loads files that fit within 20K tokens. Tight budgets load core only. Generous budgets load archive on demand.

### Other commands

```bash
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --audit      # Find duplicates & conflicts
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --status      # Health overview
node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --entity add alice person preferences.md
```

## How It Works

### The Core Insight

**Memory management is the bottleneck, not model capability.** Every agent system hits the same wall — context window fills up, everything loads, irrelevant memories dilute the signal.

MemoryRouter takes a **routing** approach rather than a **compression** approach:

1. **Auto-tiering** splits MEMORY.md into core sections (identity, preferences, boundaries — always loaded) and archive sections (everything else, loaded on demand)
2. **Manifest generation** creates a per-session file list: which files to load, which to skip, which to boost
3. **Entity-aware boosting** links people, projects, and systems to files — search for "alice" → load preferences.md first
4. **Token budgeting** caps how many files load based on available context window

### The Flow

```
User query → --compact --query "alice"
              ↓
         Manifest generated
              ↓
         Load required files (MEMORY.md, recent daily logs)
              ↓
         Boost entity-matched files (preferences.md, notes.md)
              ↓
         Agent loads only what matters → 70-85% context reduction
```

## The 4 Engines

### ⚡ Engine 1: Auto-Tier (`--tier`)

When MEMORY.md exceeds configurable thresholds (default: 500 lines or 25KB), splits into:
- **Core file** — Identity, preferences, relationships, projects, patterns, boundaries
- **Archive files** — Everything else, stored with timestamps in `memory/active/`

**Safety features (v2):**
- **Pre-tier backup** — Every `--tier` creates a full backup in `memory/backups/` before modifying MEMORY.md
- **`--dry-run`** — Preview what tiering would do without making changes
- **`--confirm`** — Required for destructive writes (no auto-tier without explicit confirmation)
- **Minimum core size** — Aborts if core sections would fall below `minCoreLines`/`minCoreChars` thresholds
- **`--restore --force`** — Restore MEMORY.md from the latest backup (requires `--force` flag)

Sections are classified by header keywords (identity, preferences, etc.) or by content heuristics.

### 📋 Engine 2: Manifest Generator (`--compact`)

Creates `memory/memory-manifest.json` with a file list:

```json
{
  "generated": "2026-05-21",
  "files": [
    { "path": "MEMORY.md", "tier": "core", "required": true, "size": 50346 },
    { "path": "memory/2026-05-21.md", "tier": "recent", "required": true, "size": 2034 },
    { "path": "self-improving/memory.md", "tier": "domain", "required": false, "size": 670 }
  ]
}
```

**Options:**
| Flag | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `--query "text"` | Entity-aware boosting — files linked to matching entities get priority |
| `--budget N` | Token budget — only loads files that fit within N tokens |

### 🔍 Engine 3: Audit Scanner (`--audit`)

Scans all memory files for:
- **High-similarity pairs** — Files with >70% text overlap (potential duplicates)
- **Revision keywords** — "revised", "updated", "changed", "no longer", "actually", "correction" (facts that may have been superseded)

Output: `memory/memory-audit-report.md`

### 🏥 Engine 4: Health Monitor (`--status`)

Quick snapshot of MEMORY.md line/char counts, file counts per directory, archive count, manifest status, entity index size, and WAL state.

## Additional Tools

### Entity Index (`--entity`)

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `--entity add <name> <type> <files...>` | Add entity (e.g., `alice person preferences.md`) |
| `--entity list` | List all entities |
| `--entity search <query>` | Search entities (direct and fuzzy match) |

### WAL Protocol (`--wal`)

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `--wal init` | Initialize SESSION-STATE.md with template |
| `--wal get` | Show current session state |
| `--wal update <section> --content "<text>"` | Update a section |

## Configuration

Edit `config.json` to customize behavior:

```json
{
  "thresholds": {
    "memoryMdMaxLines": 500,
    "memoryMdMaxChars": 25000,
    "tierArchiveMinAgeDays": 3,
    "auditMaxFiles": 50
  },
  "tiering": {
    "archiveDir": "memory/active",
    "retentionDays": 90,
    "keepInMemory": [
      "identity", "preferences", "relationships",
      "projects", "patterns", "boundaries", "key_facts"
    ]
  },
  "manifest": {
    "generateOnTier": true,
    "manifestPath": "memory/memory-manifest.json"
  },
  "audit": {
    "reportPath": "memory/memory-audit-report.md",
    "duplicateThreshold": 0.7,
    "conflictKeywords": [
      "revised", "updated", "changed", "no longer",
      "actually", "correction", "mistake"
    ]
  }
}
```

| Setting | Default | Description |
|---------|---------|-------------|
| `memoryMdMaxLines` | 500 | Auto-tier trigger (lines) |
| `memoryMdMaxChars` | 25000 | Auto-tier trigger (characters) |
| `tierArchiveMinAgeDays` | 3 | Minimum age before archiving |
| `retentionDays` | 90 | ⚠️ Archive retention period. Files older than this are candidates for deletion (irreversible). Set to 365+ until confident. |
| `keepInMemory` | see above | Headers/keywords that stay in core |
| `generateOnTier` | true | Auto-generate manifest after tiering |
| `duplicateThreshold` | 0.7 | Similarity score to flag as duplicate |
| `conflictKeywords` | see above | Words that signal fact revision |
| `backupDir` | `memory/backups` | Directory for pre-tier backups |
| `minCoreLines` | 20 | Abort if core sections below this |
| `minCoreChars` | 1000 | Abort if core chars below this |

## Agent Memory Loading Protocol

When the agent wakes up, use the manifest instead of loading all memory files:

1. Read `memory/memory-manifest.json`
2. Load all `required: true` files
3. For `required: false` files, use `memory_search` to check relevance
4. Load only the top 3-5 most relevant optional files

**Result: 70–85% context reduction — load what matters, skip the rest.**

## Heartbeat Integration

Add to your `HEARTBEAT.md`:

```markdown
### ⚡ MemoryRouter (SAFE commands only)

- Run `node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --compact` to update manifest ✅ safe
- Run `node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --audit` to check for issues ✅ safe
- Run `node skills/memory-router/memory-router.js --status` for health overview ✅ safe
- ⚠️ Do NOT auto-run `--tier` or `--restore` during heartbeats
- `--tier --dry-run` is side-effect free (no files created)
- For tiering: run `--tier --dry-run` manually, review output, then `--tier --confirm`
```

## Performance

| Metric | Result |
|--------|--------|
| Tiering speed (8K lines) | 25ms |
| Tiering speed (15K lines) | 30ms |
| Token reduction | **96%** (7,809 → 222 lines) |
| File count reduction | **53 → 15 files** |
| Memory footprint | ~2MB (Node.js runtime) |

## Comparison

| Approach | Tokens Saved | Setup Effort | Maintenance | Privacy |
|----------|-------------|-------------|-------------|---------|
| Raw file injection | 0% | None | Manual | ✅ |
| **MemoryRouter** | **70–85%** | **None** | **Automated** | **✅** |
| Obsidian vault | 40–60% | High | Medium | ⚠️ Cloud |
| Vector DB (ChromaDB) | 70–85% | Very High | High | ✅ |
| mem0 | 70–85% | High | Medium | ⚠️ Cloud |

**MemoryRouter gives you the best token savings of the vector DB approach with zero setup effort.**

## Entity Naming

Pick one canonical name per entity and reuse it consistently:

- Use full descriptive names: "machine learning" not "ML", "JavaScript" not "JS"
- Same string after lowercasing = same entity. Different strings = different entities
- Call `--entity search` periodically to verify your index

Examples:
```bash
# ✅ Good — consistent, descriptive
node memory-router.js --entity add alice person preferences.md
node memory-router.js --entity add openclaw system AGENTS.md

# ❌ Bad — inconsistent, ambiguous
node memory-router.js --entity add alice person preferences.md
node memory-router.js --entity add Alice person notes.md
node memory-router.js --entity add JS person docs.md
```

## Manifest Format

The manifest JSON tells the agent which files to load:

```json
{
  "generated": "2026-05-21",
  "version": 2,
  "query": "memory management",
  "budget": 20000,
  "files": [
    {
      "path": "MEMORY.md",
      "tier": "core",
      "required": true,
      "size": 50346
    },
    {
      "path": "memory/2026-05-21.md",
      "tier": "recent",
      "ageDays": 0,
      "required": true,
      "size": 2034
    },
    {
      "path": "self-improving/memory.md",
      "tier": "domain",
      "required": false,
      "size": 670
    }
  ]
}
```

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `tier` | string | `core`, `recent`, `domain`, or `archive` |
| `required` | bool | Always load this file |
| `size` | int | File size in bytes |
| `boosted` | bool | Entity match — higher priority |
| `entityMatch` | string | Entity name that matched |
| `load` | bool | Included under budget mode |
| `budgetUsed` | int | Total tokens loaded (budget mode) |
| `budgetEfficiency` | string | Percentage remaining (budget mode) |

## Troubleshooting

| Problem | Fix |
|---------|-----|
| "No MEMORY.md found" | Create one: `echo "# MEMORY.md" > MEMORY.md` |
| "Memory directory not found" | Create it: `mkdir -p memory` |
| Tiering not working | Check thresholds — if under 500 lines and 25KB, nothing happens (by design) |
| Manifest shows wrong files | Run `--compact` again — it regenerates fresh each time |
| Entity search returns nothing | Add entities first: `--entity add <name> <type> <files...>` |
| Budget too small | Core files always load. Budget only controls optional files. |

## ⚠️ SAFETY — READ BEFORE USING

### Destructive Operations

`--tier` and `--restore` **permanently modify user memory files**.

- `--tier` rewrites MEMORY.md, moving sections to archive files
- `--restore` overwrites MEMORY.md with backup content
- Both require **explicit confirmation** (`--confirm` / `--force`) — they will refuse to run without it
- Always run `--tier --dry-run` first to preview what will change
- Pre-tier backups are created only when actually tiering (not in dry-run mode)

### Archive Retention — Data Loss Risk

The `retentionDays` config (default: 90) marks archived files as **candidates for deletion** after that period. This is **irreversible** — once deleted, archived memory sections cannot be recovered.

**Before enabling retention:**
1. Back up your entire `memory/` directory
2. Set `retentionDays` to a large value (365+) until you're confident
3. Monitor what gets deleted before reducing the value

### Safe vs Unsafe Commands

| Command | Safe in automation? | Modifies files? |
|---------|-------------------|------------------|
| `--compact` | ✅ Yes | Writes `memory-manifest.json` (generated output) |
| `--audit` | ✅ Yes | Writes `memory-audit-report.md` (generated report) |
| `--status` | ✅ Yes | No file writes |
| `--entity add` | ⚠️ Yes — but writes entity index | Yes (persists entity → file mapping) |
| `--entity list/search` | ✅ Yes | No file writes |
| `--wal init` | ⚠️ Yes — but creates SESSION-STATE.md | Yes (creates new file) |
| `--wal get` | ✅ Yes | No file writes |
| `--wal update` | ⚠️ Yes — but modifies SESSION-STATE.md | Yes (updates session state) |
| `--tier --dry-run` | ✅ Yes | No file writes (side-effect free) |
| `--tier --confirm` | ❌ No — rewrites MEMORY.md + creates backup | Yes |
| `--restore --force` | ❌ No — overwrites MEMORY.md | Yes |

**`--compact`, `--audit`, `--status`, `--entity list/search`, `--wal get`, and `--tier --dry-run` are safe for unattended/heartbeat use.**

**`--entity add`, `--wal init`, and `--wal update` write persistent files — review before automating.**

**`--tier --confirm` and `--restore --force` are destructive — never automate.**

## Security

Built with defense-in-depth:

- **Path validation** — rejects file paths outside workspace root
- **Regex escaping** — prevents injection in WAL section names
- **Symlink protection** — refuses to read/write symlinks
- **Size limits** — 10MB max file size
- **Entity name validation** — alphanumeric + hyphens/underscores only
- **Content sanitization** — prevents header injection in WAL updates
- **Audit keyword validation** — rejects regex metacharacters in conflict keywords

## Design Principles

1. **Safe by default** — Destructive operations require explicit flags (`--confirm`, `--force`)
2. **No external dependencies** — Pure Node.js, no npm packages
3. **Configurable** — Thresholds, keywords, retention policies
4. **Transparent** — Generates reports, nothing is silently deleted
5. **Reversible** — Archives use dated filenames, original content preserved
6. **Privacy-first** — All local, no cloud APIs