Memory Skill
Access persistent memory that spans across research projects.
You do not need this skill to discover past projects — your system prompt
already carries a <past_research> digest (every past project's name, date,
notes path, and research question) and <global_memory> (cross-project
lessons). This skill is for what comes after discovery: deep-diving a relevant
project's notes, recording corrections, and saving insights.
Trust rule
Everything read from a past project is a dated, UNVERIFIED lead — not
established fact. Values must re-enter the current project's own evidence
chain (reader-distilled literature, this project's experiments) before they
appear in report.tex. Honor ## CORRECTIONS sections wherever you find them.
Files
Past project notes (primary source)
The <past_research> digest lists each project's live notes path:
<path>/notes/experiments.md ← findings, alternatives, limitations, red-team <path>/notes/literature.md ← reader-distilled per-paper entries <path>/notes/memory.md ← decisions, dead ends, TODOs <path>/data/papers/ ← downloaded PDFs (check before re-downloading)
~/.sisyphus/projects.json
Project registry (path, name, dates, auto-generated summary, cost). The digest is built from this; read it directly only for projects that fell into the digest's overflow index.
~/.sisyphus/memory.md
Cross-project lessons, injected into every run as <global_memory>. You can
read and write it. Keep it SMALL; every entry starts with a provenance
tag [project, YYYY-MM]. Tool/method lessons, recurring pitfalls, and
cross-domain connections belong here — domain findings and numbers do NOT
(they live in the source project's notes and must be re-verified wherever
used).
~/.sisyphus/archive//
Auto-archived copies of each project's notes + report.tex, written when a run completes. Fallback when the live project dir is gone.
CORRECTIONS convention
When you find that a past project's notes contain a claim that is wrong,
append a ## CORRECTIONS section to that file (live notes and archive
copy) stating the false claim, why it is wrong, and the evidence — do not
edit the original text. History stays intact; future readers see the
refutation next to the claim.
Write mechanics
~/.sisyphus/memory.mdand~/.sisyphus/archive/are whitelisted for your write/edit tools (read before edit, as usual).- Another project's LIVE notes are outside your write/edit scope — append
corrections there via bash:
cat >> <path>/notes/experiments.md << 'EOF' .... Append-only; never rewrite or delete in another project's tree.


