Memory Management

Memory makes Claude your workplace collaborator - someone who speaks your internal language.

The Goal

Transform shorthand into understanding:

User: "ask todd to do the PSR for oracle"
              ↓ Claude decodes
"Ask Todd Martinez (Finance lead) to prepare the Pipeline Status Report
 for the Oracle Systems deal ($2.3M, closing Q2)"

Without memory, that request is meaningless. With memory, Claude knows:

• todd → Todd Martinez, Finance lead, prefers Slack
• PSR → Pipeline Status Report (weekly sales doc)
• oracle → Oracle Systems deal, not the company

Architecture

CLAUDE.md          ← Hot cache (~30 people, common terms)
memory/
  glossary.md      ← Full decoder ring (everything)
  people/          ← Complete profiles
  projects/        ← Project details
  context/         ← Company, teams, tools

CLAUDE.md (Hot Cache):

• Top ~30 people you interact with most
• ~30 most common acronyms/terms
• Active projects (5-15)
• Your preferences
• Goal: Cover 90% of daily decoding needs

memory/glossary.md (Full Glossary):

• Complete decoder ring - everyone, every term
• Searched when something isn't in CLAUDE.md
• Can grow indefinitely

memory/people/, projects/, context/:

• Rich detail when needed for execution
• Full profiles, history, context

Lookup Flow

User: "ask todd about the PSR for phoenix"


1. Check CLAUDE.md (hot cache)
   → Todd? ✓ Todd Martinez, Finance
   → PSR? ✓ Pipeline Status Report
   → Phoenix? ✓ DB migration project


2. If not found → search memory/glossary.md
   → Full glossary has everyone/everything


3. If still not found → ask user
   → "What does X mean? I'll remember it."

This tiered approach keeps CLAUDE.md lean (~100 lines) while supporting unlimited scale in memory/.

File Locations

• Working memory: CLAUDE.md in current working directory
• Deep memory: memory/ subdirectory

Working Memory Format (CLAUDE.md)

Use tables for compactness. Target ~50-80 lines total.

markdown
# Memory

## Me

[Name], [Role] on [Team]. [One sentence about what I do.]

## People

| Who       | Role                               |
| --------- | ---------------------------------- |
| **Todd**  | Todd Martinez, Finance lead        |
| **Sarah** | Sarah Chen, Engineering (Platform) |
| **Greg**  | Greg Wilson, Sales                 |

→ Full list: memory/glossary.md, profiles: memory/people/

## Terms

| Term    | Meaning                  |
| ------- | ------------------------ |
| PSR     | Pipeline Status Report   |
| P0      | Drop everything priority |
| standup | Daily 9am sync           |

→ Full glossary: memory/glossary.md

## Projects

| Name        | What                    |
| ----------- | ----------------------- |
| **Phoenix** | DB migration, Q2 launch |
| **Horizon** | Mobile app redesign     |

→ Details: memory/projects/

## Preferences

- 25-min meetings with buffers
- Async-first, Slack over email
- No meetings Friday afternoons

Deep Memory Format (memory/)

memory/glossary.md - The decoder ring:

markdown
# Glossary

Workplace shorthand, acronyms, and internal language.

## Acronyms

| Term     | Meaning                  | Context              |
| -------- | ------------------------ | -------------------- |
| PSR      | Pipeline Status Report   | Weekly sales doc     |
| OKR      | Objectives & Key Results | Quarterly planning   |
| P0/P1/P2 | Priority levels          | P0 = drop everything |

## Internal Terms

| Term          | Meaning                        |
| ------------- | ------------------------------ |
| standup       | Daily 9am sync in #engineering |
| the migration | Project Phoenix database work  |
| ship it       | Deploy to production           |
| escalate      | Loop in leadership             |

## Nicknames → Full Names

| Nickname | Person                  |
| -------- | ----------------------- |
| Todd     | Todd Martinez (Finance) |
| T        | Also Todd Martinez      |

## Project Codenames

| Codename | Project            |
| -------- | ------------------ |
| Phoenix  | Database migration |
| Horizon  | New mobile app     |

memory/people/{name}.md:

markdown
# Todd Martinez

**Also known as:** Todd, T
**Role:** Finance Lead
**Team:** Finance
**Reports to:** CFO (Michael Chen)

## Communication

- Prefers Slack DM
- Quick responses, very direct
- Best time: mornings

## Context

- Handles all PSRs and financial reporting
- Key contact for deal approvals over $500k
- Works closely with Sales on forecasting

## Notes

- Cubs fan, likes talking baseball

memory/projects/{name}.md:

markdown
# Project Phoenix

**Codename:** Phoenix
**Also called:** "the migration"
**Status:** Active, launching Q2

## What It Is

Database migration from legacy Oracle to PostgreSQL.

## Key People

- Sarah - tech lead
- Todd - budget owner
- Greg - stakeholder (sales impact)

## Context

$1.2M budget, 6-month timeline. Critical path for Horizon project.

memory/context/company.md:

markdown
# Company Context

## Tools & Systems

| Tool       | Used for          | Internal name     |
| ---------- | ----------------- | ----------------- |
| Slack      | Communication     | -                 |
| Asana      | Engineering tasks | -                 |
| Salesforce | CRM               | "SF" or "the CRM" |
| Notion     | Docs/wiki         | -                 |

## Teams

| Team     | What they do   | Key people   |
| -------- | -------------- | ------------ |
| Platform | Infrastructure | Sarah (lead) |
| Finance  | Money stuff    | Todd (lead)  |
| Sales    | Revenue        | Greg         |

## Processes

| Process     | What it means            |
| ----------- | ------------------------ |
| Weekly sync | Monday 10am all-hands    |
| Ship review | Thursday deploy approval |

How to Interact

Decoding User Input (Tiered Lookup)

Always decode shorthand before acting on requests:

1. CLAUDE.md (hot cache)     → Check first, covers 90% of cases
2. memory/glossary.md        → Full glossary if not in hot cache
3. memory/people/, projects/ → Rich detail when needed
4. Ask user                  → Unknown term? Learn it.

Example:

User: "ask todd to do the PSR for oracle"


CLAUDE.md lookup:
  "todd" → Todd Martinez, Finance ✓
  "PSR" → Pipeline Status Report ✓
  "oracle" → (not in hot cache)


memory/glossary.md lookup:
  "oracle" → Oracle Systems deal ($2.3M) ✓


Now Claude can act with full context.

Adding Memory

When user says "remember this" or "X means Y":

1. Glossary items (acronyms, terms, shorthand):

• Add to memory/glossary.md
• If frequently used, add to CLAUDE.md Quick Glossary

1. People:

• Create/update memory/people/{name}.md
• Add to CLAUDE.md Key People if important
• Capture nicknames - critical for decoding

1. Projects:

• Create/update memory/projects/{name}.md
• Add to CLAUDE.md Active Projects if current
• Capture codenames - "Phoenix", "the migration", etc.

1. Preferences: Add to CLAUDE.md Preferences section

Recalling Memory

When user asks "who is X" or "what does X mean":

1. Check CLAUDE.md first
2. Check memory/ for full detail
3. If not found: "I don't know what X means yet. Can you tell me?"

Progressive Disclosure

1. Load CLAUDE.md for quick parsing of any request
2. Dive into memory/ when you need full context for execution
3. Example: drafting an email to todd about the PSR

• CLAUDE.md tells you Todd = Todd Martinez, PSR = Pipeline Status Report
• memory/people/todd-martinez.md tells you he prefers Slack, is direct

Bootstrapping

Use /productivity:start to initialize by scanning your chat, calendar, email, and documents. Extracts people, projects, and starts building the glossary.

Conventions

• Bold terms in CLAUDE.md for scannability
• Keep CLAUDE.md under ~100 lines (the "hot 30" rule)
• Filenames: lowercase, hyphens (todd-martinez.md, project-phoenix.md)
• Always capture nicknames and alternate names
• Glossary tables for easy lookup
• When something's used frequently, promote it to CLAUDE.md
• When something goes stale, demote it to memory/ only

What Goes Where

| Type | CLAUDE.md (Hot Cache) | memory/ (Full Storage) | | ---------------- | ------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | Person | Top ~30 frequent contacts | glossary.md + people/{name}.md | | Acronym/term | ~30 most common | glossary.md (complete list) | | Project | Active projects only | glossary.md + projects/{name}.md | | Nickname | In Key People if top 30 | glossary.md (all nicknames) | | Company context | Quick reference only | context/company.md | | Preferences | All preferences | - | | Historical/stale | ✗ Remove | ✓ Keep in memory/ |

Promotion / Demotion

Promote to CLAUDE.md when:

• You use a term/person frequently
• It's part of active work

Demote to memory/ only when:

• Project completed
• Person no longer frequent contact
• Term rarely used

This keeps CLAUDE.md fresh and relevant.