# Memory Policy

This policy defines what the local agent OS may remember, where memories belong, and how agents should use local or SSH-tunneled LLM services.

## Memory Scopes

**User memory** is for durable facts about the human: preferences, goals, constraints, and confirmed working style. Agents may read relevant user memory, but must not write confirmed user memory without explicit confirmation.

**Agent memory** is for agent-specific behavior: lessons, tool habits, recurring mistakes, and operating improvements. Hermes writes Hermes memory. Leonard writes Leonard memory.

**Project memory** is for active work: briefs, status, decisions, open questions, task logs, and handoffs. Project memory is the default place for task-specific facts.

**Shared memory** is for reusable workflows, prompts, terms, and decisions that help more than one agent or project.

## Write Rules

- Save only durable information that is likely to matter in a future session.
- Prefer project memory unless the item clearly belongs to user, agent, or shared memory.
- Put uncertain user-memory candidates in `01_user/proposed_memory.md`.
- Do not store secrets, credentials, tokens, private keys, or sensitive personal data.
- Do not infer user preferences from a single weak signal.
- Archive stale or superseded memory instead of deleting it.

## Retrieval Rules

- Load only the memory needed for the current task.
- Prefer concise summaries over raw logs.
- Prefer recent, high-confidence, project-specific memory.
- Use vector retrieval for semantic recall, **not** as the source of truth.
- Cite the Markdown source file when a memory materially affects a decision.

## Local LLM Use

- Local LLMs may be used for summarization, tagging, deduplication, and memory candidate extraction. Stronger models should review ambiguous user-memory updates and major architecture decisions.
- If a local LLM is reached through an SSH tunnel, treat it as a local service endpoint. Do not send secrets or private user memory unless the user has approved that machine as trusted.

Default local endpoints:
- Ollama local: `http://127.0.0.1:11434`
- Ollama via SSH tunnel: `http://127.0.0.1:11435`

## Compression Rules

- Raw notes become session summaries.
- Session summaries become durable memory items.
- Durable memory items update project status, agent lessons, or confirmed user memory.
- Routine boot context should stay under 1500 tokens unless the task requires more.