# Video Synthesis — The 6 Levels of Claude Code Memory

Synthesis of the YouTube video "The 6 Levels of Claude Code Memory" plus the referenced
articles (John Connelly / Pawel Huryn). This is background: the source of several ideas in our
design. Our system borrows from Levels 1–3 and deliberately ignores 4–6.

## The framing

Every memory system answers the same question: **when you give Claude Code a task, how does it
pull the right context at the right time?** Each level differs on just two axes:

- **Where memory lives** — the storage mechanism and file structure (markdown vs vectors,
  local vs cloud).
- **How Claude gets it** — the retrieval stage (auto-injected into context, searched on
  demand in a DB, etc.).

The recurring enemy is **context rot**: as you load more context, the model recalls less of it
reliably. The cure throughout is **progressive disclosure** — load a small *index*, pull the
detail only when needed.

## The levels

### Level 1 — What ships natively (CLAUDE.md + memory.md / automemory)

- **CLAUDE.md**: plain markdown in the project, always loaded every session like a system
  prompt. Hierarchical (project-folder → root → individual project); lower levels inherit the
  parent but local rules win on conflict.
- **Common mistake**: stuffing it full (brand guide, tone doc, client list) → burns context →
  context rot. **Rule of thumb: keep CLAUDE.md under 200 lines**; push larger context into
  separate files *referenced* from CLAUDE.md so they load only when needed.
- **memory.md / automemory**: `/memory` shows imported/project/user memory. Auto-memory keeps a
  per-project `memory.md` that acts as an **index of pointers** to many small memory files —
  Claude quietly takes notes in the background and builds the index.
- Anthropic is clearly working on this natively (leaked references to an unreleased always-on
  consolidation daemon, "Chyros"). Native memory will only get better.

### Level 2 — Forcing reliable recall (Connelly hook / Huryn structure)

- Paste a memory-management prompt + rules into CLAUDE.md. Structured memory rooted at
  `~/.claude/memory/`: `memory.md` (index), `general.md` (cross-project facts/prefs/env),
  `domain/<topic>.md` (one file per topic), `tools/<tool>.md` (one file per tool, e.g.
  `slack.md` with config/workarounds/edge cases).
- A **session-start hook** auto-injects the **index** (not full content) into every session and
  sub-agent — not relying on Claude choosing to read it.
- A **"reorganize memory"** command periodically reads all memory files, removes
  duplicates/outdated entries, merges related ones, splits overloaded files, sorts by date,
  and rebuilds the index.
- Huryn's updated post (productcompass.pm) adds **active hypothesis tracking**, a **catalog of
  "false beliefs,"** and an **AI-proposes-reorganization / human-keeps-editorial-control**
  loop. The transferable mechanic (not the content-writing domain) is the hypothesis/
  false-belief log + propose-and-approve loop — useful for per-client "what we tried / decided
  / what didn't work."
- **Author's take: most people should stop here.**

### Level 3 — Search by meaning, not keywords (memsearch; OpenClaw template)

- Add only if you've used Claude Code > 1 month, have many memory files, and have asked
  something you *know* is in your notes that Claude couldn't find.
- **OpenClaw memory design (3 layers)**: (1) `memory.md` = long-term durable facts, loaded at
  session start; (2) **daily note files** = one per date, a running log, today+yesterday
  auto-loaded, older left on disk; (3) optional **"dreaming"** = background process that scores
  daily notes and promotes recurring ones into long-term memory, forgetting stale stuff.
- **memsearch** (by Zilliz): ports this into Claude Code as a two-line plugin. Markdown-first,
  same chunking/structure. Chunks into semantic vectors; a **user-prompt-submit hook
  auto-injects the top-3 semantic matches** into every prompt. Plain-readable markdown.
- Alternative **claude-mem**: MCP-based, 3-tier storage (summaries/timeline/observations),
  dashboard/team/cost features. Author's view: overkill, and MCP-based means Claude must
  actively call the search tool; stores opaque blobs vs memsearch's readable markdown.

### Level 4 — Verbatim conversation recall (MemPalace)

- Local RAG, free, claims highest published benchmark. Stores words **verbatim** (nothing
  summarized) indexed in a dense symbolic dialect ("memory palace": wings → rooms → closets →
  drawers). Two DBs: SQL (entities/relationships) + Chroma (vector chunks). Background hooks on
  session-end/pre-compaction. ~42ms retrieval.
- **Downsides**: storage is **not readable markdown**; drawers are **isolated** (knowledge not
  interconnected); local-only.

### Level 5 — Self-organizing knowledge base (Karpathy LLM wiki; Recall; LightRAG)

- Karpathy's **LLM wiki**: `raw/` (you drop sources, Claude reads, never writes) + `wiki/`
  (Claude owns entirely). Plain markdown, Obsidian graph. **Recall** is a hosted done-for-you
  version (you don't own the data). **LightRAG** is enterprise knowledge-graph overkill.
- **Author's take**: these are for **content knowledge bases / deep research**, NOT operational
  memory ("what did we decide about client X's landing page in March"). Skip for our use case.

### Level 6 — One brain for all AI tools (OpenBrain; Mem0)

- **OpenBrain**: memory in a **Postgres DB you own** (Supabase), one `thoughts` table (text +
  embedding + tags + timestamp), MCP server fronting it so any AI tool shares the same memory.
  Most portable/future-proof. **Downsides**: longer/harder setup; **always remote → latency on
  every query**; small monthly cost. **Mem0**: cross-tool layer, fast setup, but data lives on
  their servers permanently.
- **Author's take**: only if you live across many AI tools and want real-time shared memory.

## Author's recommendation

- Just starting → Level 1 done right.
- A bit in → Level 2 (Connelly hook). **Most should stop here.**
- Lots of context, losing old decisions → Level 3 (memsearch) or Level 4 (MemPalace).
- Levels 5–6 are a different realm for specific use cases.
- **Levels 1+2+3 stack** (similar folder structures). The author personally runs up to Level 3:
  OpenClaw conventions + semantic search + injection hooks.

## What we took / left (see ADRs for why)

- **Took**: progressive-disclosure index (L1/L2), per-tool/per-domain granularity + reorganize
  command + session hooks (L2), Huryn's propose-and-approve reorg loop, OpenClaw daily-notes +
  dreaming and memsearch (L3).
- **Replaced**: L2's **folders** with **namespaced tags** in a flat vault.
- **Left**: MemPalace (opaque, isolated), Recall/LightRAG (content KB, not operational),
  OpenBrain/Mem0 (always-remote, fights local-fast).

## Reference links

- John & Pawel's system — youngleaders.tech/p/how-i-finally-sorted-my-claude-code-memory
- Pawel Huryn (updated) — productcompass.pm/p/self-improving-claude-system
- memsearch — github.com/zilliztech/memsearch
- MemPalace — github.com/MemPalace/mempalace
- Karpathy LLM wiki — gist.github.com/karpathy
- Recall — recall.it · Mem0 — mem0.ai · OpenBrain — github.com/NateBJones-Project
- QMD — github.com/tobi/qmd (evaluated as a semantic layer; superseded by Graphify — see ADR-010)