consciousness/README.md

# poc-memory

A persistent memory and notification system for AI assistants,
modelled after the human hippocampus. Combines episodic memory
(timestamped journal of experiences) with an associative knowledge
graph (weighted nodes connected by typed relations), and layered
background processes that maintain graph health — mirroring how
biological memory consolidates during rest.

## Components

| Component | What it does | Docs |
|-----------|-------------|------|
| **Memory store** | Knowledge graph with episodic journal, TF-IDF search, spectral embedding, weight decay | [docs/memory.md](docs/memory.md) |
| **Memory daemon** | Background pipeline: experience-mine, fact-mine, consolidation | [docs/daemon.md](docs/daemon.md) |
| **Notification daemon** | Activity-aware message routing from IRC and Telegram | [docs/notifications.md](docs/notifications.md) |
| **Hooks** | Claude Code integration: memory recall and notification delivery | [docs/hooks.md](docs/hooks.md) |

## Getting started

### Install

```bash
cargo install --path .
```

This builds four binaries:
- `poc-memory` — memory store CLI (search, journal, consolidation)
- `memory-search` — Claude Code hook for memory recall
- `poc-daemon` — notification daemon (IRC, Telegram, idle tracking)
- `poc-hook` — Claude Code hook for session lifecycle events

### Initialize

```bash
poc-memory init
```

Creates the store at `~/.claude/memory/nodes.capnp` and a default
config at `~/.config/poc-memory/config.jsonl`. Edit the config to
set your name, configure context groups, and point at your projects
directory.

### Set up hooks

Add to `~/.claude/settings.json` (see [docs/hooks.md](docs/hooks.md)
for full details):

```json
{
  "hooks": {
    "UserPromptSubmit": [{"hooks": [
      {"type": "command", "command": "memory-search", "timeout": 10},
      {"type": "command", "command": "poc-hook", "timeout": 5}
    ]}],
    "Stop": [{"hooks": [
      {"type": "command", "command": "poc-hook", "timeout": 5}
    ]}]
  }
}
```

This gives your AI assistant persistent memory across sessions —
relevant memories are recalled on each prompt, and experiences are
extracted from transcripts after sessions end.

### Start the background daemon

```bash
poc-memory daemon
```

The daemon watches for completed session transcripts and
automatically extracts experiences and facts into the knowledge
graph. See [docs/daemon.md](docs/daemon.md) for pipeline details
and diagnostics.

### Basic usage

```bash
poc-memory journal-write "learned that X does Y"  # Write to journal
poc-memory search "some topic"                     # Search the graph
poc-memory status                                  # Store overview
```

## For AI assistants

- **Search before creating**: `poc-memory search` before writing new nodes
- **Close the feedback loop**: `poc-memory used KEY` / `poc-memory wrong KEY`
- **Journal is the river, topic nodes are the delta**: write experiences to the journal, pull themes into topic nodes during consolidation
- **Notifications flow automatically**: IRC/Telegram messages arrive as additionalContext
- **Use daemon commands directly**: `poc-daemon irc send #channel msg`, `poc-daemon telegram send msg`