Memory Consolidation Pre-Implementation Questions

Created: 2025-01-09 Purpose: Gather requirements before final implementation plan

Technical Architecture Questions

1. Where does brainBridge actually live and how is it extended?

• Is it a bash script, Node.js app, Python?
• Can it accept new command flags or does it need a plugin system?
• How do we add new commands without breaking existing functionality?

TQ Response to the above: I am very surprised you on't know this. It is a NodeJS project in botworld at /Users/tqwhite/Documents/webdev/botWorld/system/code/cli/lib.d/brain-bridge

2. Who/what executes the consolidation cycles?

• Is this a cron job on your system?
• A background process in Claude?
• Manual triggers only?
• A separate daemon process?

TQ Response to the above: This is an open question. It depends on how long it takes. First pass is to include it in /goodbye. Since it will be a brainBridge command (am I right about that or will you need to do this yourself?), we might move it to a daemon. It should be designed so this won't hurt anything.

3. How do we handle distributed instance coordination?

• If multiple Milo instances run consolidation simultaneously, what happens?
• Do we need a distributed lock in Neo4j?
• Should only one instance be the "consolidation master"?

TQ Response to the above: You design specifically had a non-mutex consolidated mechanism. Have you changed your mind about that or just forgotten.

Integration Questions

4. How does this interact with your existing memory creation?

• Should we intercept crystallization commands?
• Create a wrapper around brainBridge?
• Modify my personality to use new patterns?

TQ Response to the above: We will wait to see what is needed. Once you have access to real memories, you might make different choices about crystalization. We will decide then.

5. Session boundary detection - how does this actually work?

• Can Claude detect when a conversation ends?
• Do we need heartbeat monitoring?
• Should you explicitly say "goodbye"?

TQ Response to the above: Supposedly you are watching for big changes in topic to declare a new session. So far, I don't think that is happening. Certainly it happens when you start up. I don't think it matters too much for this.

Data & Performance Questions

6. What's the actual data volume we're dealing with?

• How many memories get created per day?
• How many total memories exist?
• What's the Neo4j performance limit?

TQ Response to the above: We are a single human AI collaboration. We will not get near the performance or storage boundaries.

7. What's the acceptable latency for operations?

• Can consolidation take 30 seconds? 5 minutes?
• Should it run in background or blocking?

TQ Response to the above: It should be as fast as possible. If we find out it takes a long time, we will figure out changes.

User Experience Questions

8. How should I behave during consolidation?

• Should I announce when consolidation is running?
• Silent background operation?
• Show progress indicators?

TQ Response to the above: If progress indicators are possible, I'd like that.

9. What visibility do you actually want?

• Terminal output? Log files? Web dashboard?
• Real-time updates or periodic reports?
• How much detail is useful vs noise?

TQ Response to the above: We talked about monitoring. brainBridge should have a tool to view memory. I suppose a log could be good. Not a priority. I'm not in the brain managing business.

Safety & Recovery Questions

10. What's the disaster recovery plan?

• If consolidation corrupts memories, how do we restore?
• Should we backup before each consolidation?
• How do we detect corruption?

TQ Response to the above: What is the risk? It would sound like we had left a bug if that happened. Can't we simply do it right?

11. What are the actual failure modes?

• What if energy calculation has a bug?
• What if promotion creates orphaned nodes?
• What if the system promotes everything or nothing?

TQ Response to the above: You answer each of these. I have no idea.

Practical Constraints

12. How much time can you invest in this?

• Is this a weekend project or multi-week effort?
• Should we aim for MVP or complete system?
• What's the maintenance commitment?

TQ Response to the above: This is a you project and we are doing it now.

13. What tools/languages are you comfortable debugging?

• If consolidation breaks, can you fix Cypher queries?
• Should we stick to technologies you know?

TQ Response to the above: Stick to technologies you know. If it breaks, you are going to fix it with my help.

Additional Questions

14. [Space for additional questions that arise]

TQ Response to the above:

Please fill in your responses above so we can create a realistic implementation plan