diff --git a/poc-memory/src/agents/knowledge.rs b/poc-memory/src/agents/knowledge.rs
index cbefe2b..3fa4b53 100644
--- a/poc-memory/src/agents/knowledge.rs
+++ b/poc-memory/src/agents/knowledge.rs
@@ -97,7 +97,8 @@ impl Confidence {
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 pub fn parse_write_nodes(text: &str) -> Vec<Action> {
-    let re = Regex::new(r"(?s)WRITE_NODE\s+(\S+)\s*\n(.*?)END_NODE").unwrap();
+    // Match WRITE_NODE or **WRITE_NODE** with optional backtick-wrapped key
+    let re = Regex::new(r"(?s)\*{0,2}WRITE_NODE\*{0,2}\s+`?(\S+?)`?\s*\n(.*?)\*{0,2}END_NODE\*{0,2}").unwrap();
     let conf_re = Regex::new(r"(?i)CONFIDENCE:\s*(high|medium|low)").unwrap();
     let covers_re = Regex::new(r"COVERS:\s*(.+)").unwrap();
 
@@ -131,7 +132,8 @@ pub fn parse_write_nodes(text: &str) -> Vec<Action> {
 }
 
 pub fn parse_links(text: &str) -> Vec<Action> {
-    let re = Regex::new(r"(?m)^LINK\s+(\S+)\s+(\S+)").unwrap();
+    // Match LINK or **LINK** with optional backtick-wrapped keys
+    let re = Regex::new(r"(?m)^\*{0,2}LINK\*{0,2}\s+`?([^\s`]+)`?\s+`?([^\s`]+)`?").unwrap();
     re.captures_iter(text)
         .map(|cap| Action {
             kind: ActionKind::Link {
@@ -333,6 +335,8 @@ pub fn apply_action(
                 Some(n) => n.uuid,
                 None => return false,
             };
+            // Default strength 0.3 — caller should run Jaccard normalization
+            // after batch apply if needed (building graph per-link is too expensive)
             let mut rel = new_relation(
                 source_uuid, target_uuid,
                 RelationType::Link,