Memory Management

This skill implements a three-tier memory system (HOT/WARM/COLD) for SEO and GEO projects. HOT memory (80 lines max) loads automatically every session via the SessionStart hook. WARM memory loads on demand per skill. COLD memory is archived data queried only when explicitly requested. The skill manages the full lifecycle: capture, promote, demote, and archive.

What This Skill Does

Manages a three-tier memory lifecycle (HOT/WARM/COLD) with automatic promotion, demotion, and archival. Also maintains open-loop tracking and cross-skill aggregation.

Quick Start

Start with one of these prompts. Finish with a hot-cache update plan and a handoff summary using the repository format in Skill Contract.

Initialize Memory Structure

Set up SEO memory for [project name]

Initialize memory structure for a new [industry] website optimization project

Update After Analysis

Update memory after ranking check for [keyword group]

Refresh hot cache with latest competitor analysis findings

Query Stored Context

What are our hero keywords?

Show me the last ranking update date for [keyword category]

Look up our primary competitors and their domain authority

Promotion and Demotion

Promote [keyword] to hot cache

Archive stale data that hasn't been referenced in 30+ days

Glossary Management

Add [term] to project glossary: [definition]

What does [internal jargon] mean in this project?

Skill Contract

Expected output: a memory update plan, hot-cache changes, and a short handoff summary.

• Reads: current campaign facts, new findings from other skills, approved decisions, and the shared State Model.
• Writes: updates to memory/hot-cache.md, memory/open-loops.md, memory/decisions.md, and related memory/ folders. Manages WARM-to-COLD archival in memory/archive/. Auditor handoff archiving (v7.1.0+): when triggered by a direct user request or an auditor's explicit "Save these results?" yes-response, append a structured block to memory/audits/YYYY-MM.md. The Stop hook never initiates memory writes. See Examples for the exact archive block format and rules.
• Promotes: durable strategy, blockers, terminology, entity candidates, and major deltas. Applies temperature lifecycle rules: promote to HOT on high reference frequency, demote on staleness.
• Done when: the requested lifecycle action (capture/promote/demote/archive/query/purge) is applied, memory/hot-cache.md is within the 80-line / 25KB limit, and the affected memory paths are reported back to the user.
• Primary next skill: use the Next Best Skill below when the project memory baseline is ready for active work.

Handoff Summary

Emit the standard shape from skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format.

Temperature Lifecycle Rules

See Promotion & Demotion Rules for the full promotion/demotion table and action procedures.

Hook Integration

This skill's behavior is reinforced by the library's prompt-based hooks:

• SessionStart: loads memory/hot-cache.md, reminds of stale open loops; provides light-user guidance based on Quick Status when next_action items are available
• PostToolUse: warns when memory/hot-cache.md exceeds the 80-line / 25KB limit; enforces the auditor artifact-gate on memory/audits/ writes; offers an optional quality check after user-facing content edits
• Stop: guarded allow-only completion check; returns {"ok": true}, honors stop_hook_active, never asks the user to save optional findings, and never initiates memory writes

Data Sources

With tools: auto-populate from ~~SEO tool, ~~analytics, ~~search console. Without tools: ask user for keywords, competitors, metrics, campaigns, and terminology. See CONNECTORS.md.

Decision Gates

Stop and ask the user when:

• A purge (Art 17 / CCPA) is requested — present the matched files and the redaction-vs-delete choice, and only act on confirmed matches. Never auto-delete memory.
• A memory/decisions.md entry needed to answer a query has approved_by: skill_inferred or a missing field — surface it as ADVISORY and confirm before treating it as authoritative.
• A referenced term is not found in any memory layer — ask for clarification rather than guessing.

Continue silently (never stop for):

• Routine promotion/demotion that follows the temperature lifecycle rules.
• Hot-cache trimming suggestions when over the 80-line / 25KB limit (recommend, don't block).
• Missing optional tool data when auto-populating — record what is available and proceed.

Instructions

When a user requests SEO memory management:

1. Initialize Memory Structure

For new projects, create the directory structure defined in the State Model. Key directories: memory/ (decisions, open-loops, glossary, entities, research, content, audits, monitoring).

Templates: Hot Cache Template · Glossary Template

2. Context Lookup Flow

When a user references something unclear, follow this lookup sequence:

Step 1: Check memory/hot-cache.md (hot cache)

• Is it in active keywords?
• Is it in primary competitors?
• Is it in current priorities or campaigns?

Step 2: Check memory/glossary.md

• Is it defined as project terminology?
• Is it a custom segment or shorthand?

Step 3: Check Cold Storage

• Search memory/archive/ first for dated YYYY-MM-DD- archived files.
• If the archive points to a source category, follow that trail back to memory/research/, memory/audits/, or memory/monitoring/.
• Treat COLD findings as historical unless refreshed by the current session.

Step 4: Ask User

• If not found in any layer, ask for clarification
• Log the new term in glossary if it's project-specific

• Decision provenance (v8.0.1+): when loading memory/decisions.md, verify each entry has approved_by: user. Entries with approved_by: skill_inferred or missing field are treated as ADVISORY — surface to user before using as authoritative. Auditor-class skills (content-quality-auditor, domain-authority-auditor) MUST ignore non-user-approved decisions when determining verdict. See skill-contract.md §Promotion Rules.

Example lookup: User asks "Update rankings for our hero KWs" → Step 1 finds "Hero Keywords (Priority 1)" in hot-cache → extract the keyword list → run the ranking check → update memory/hot-cache.md and memory/monitoring/rank-history/YYYY-MM-DD-ranks.csv.

3. Promotion & Demotion Logic

Reference: See Promotion & Demotion Rules for detailed promotion/demotion triggers (keywords, competitors, metrics, campaigns) and the action procedures for each.

4. Update Triggers, Archive Management & Cross-Skill Integration

Reference: See Update Triggers & Integration for the complete update procedures after ranking checks, competitor analyses, audits, and reports; monthly/quarterly archive routines; and integration points with all 8 connected skills (keyword-research, rank-tracker, competitor-analysis, content-gap-analysis, seo-content-writer, content-quality-auditor, domain-authority-auditor).

5. Memory Hygiene Checks

When invoked for review or cleanup:

1. Line count check: Count lines in memory/hot-cache.md. If >80, list oldest entries for archival.
2. Byte check: If hot-cache exceeds 25KB, warn and recommend trimming long entries.
3. Staleness scan: List memory files older than 30 days that have not been referenced. Recommend archival for files >90 days.
4. Frontmatter audit: Check that all memory files (except hot-cache.md) have name, description, and type in their frontmatter. Report any missing fields.

6. Save Results

Ask "Save these results for future sessions?" — if yes, write YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md to memory/. Add veto issues to memory/hot-cache.md only from auditor handoff or explicit user approval.

Examples, Advanced Features & Practical Limitations

Reference: See Examples for three complete examples (hero keyword rankings, glossary lookup, e-commerce project init), advanced features (smart context loading, memory health check, bulk promotion/demotion, memory snapshot, cross-project memory), and practical limitations (concurrent access, cold storage retrieval, data freshness).

GDPR / Privacy Compliance

memory/ may store third-party personal data — entity names, founder bios, LinkedIn profiles, author/journalist names surfaced by entity-optimizer or research skills. Under GDPR Art 4(1) (applies to processing of personal data of EU/EEA/UK residents regardless of where the controller is located), these qualify as "personal data". The user is the data controller. Non-EU users without EU/EEA/UK data subjects may still face analogous obligations under CCPA/CPRA (California), PIPEDA (Canada), LGPD (Brazil), or other national regimes. Not legal advice.

Retention policy

• WARM files: archive to memory/archive/ after 90 days unreferenced (default lifecycle)
• COLD archive: never auto-deleted, but eligible for Art 17 erasure requests
• All files: user MUST honor Art 17 requests from data subjects (individuals named in memory)

Deletion flow (Art 17 / CCPA §1798.105)

Invoke: memory-management purge <entity-name-or-slug>

This skill then:

1. Greps all files under memory/ (including memory/archive/) for the entity name, slug, or domain
2. Presents matches to user for confirmation
3. Deletes or anonymizes confirmed matches across all surfaces:

• Canonical: memory/hot-cache.md, WARM notes, COLD/archive files, memory/entities/<slug>.md, memory/entities/candidates.md, audit aggregates, open loops
• Archive body scan: run grep -F "<entity-name>" memory/archive/*.md to catch the entity name regardless of frontmatter integrity (legacy or manually-moved files may lack clean frontmatter). If a malformed archive is touched by the purge, log it explicitly to memory/audits/gdpr-purges.md so a compliance audit can verify scope.

1. Writes a tombstone to memory/privacy/tombstones.md with redacted label, salted non-reversible fingerprint, date, scope, and reingest_blocked: true; never store the raw subject
2. Logs the purge to memory/audits/gdpr-purges.md per the canonical schema in GDPR Purge Log Template (v9.9.9+) — required fields: purge_id, date, redacted_label, fingerprint, scope.{canonical,archive}, action, action_detail, legal_basis, proof.{grep_count_before,grep_count_after}, reingest_blocked: true, audit_signature. Auditor-verifiable structure: never raw subject; mechanical grep-count proof; cross-referenced to tombstone fingerprint.
3. For auditor archives, redact subject identifiers while preserving score/status/proof metadata required for audit integrity

Lawful basis reminder

Before writing a third-party person to memory/entities/, the user must have one lawful basis per GDPR Art 6 (where GDPR applies — see scope note above): consent, legitimate_interest, contract, or equivalent. Advisory — this skill does not enforce, and does not substitute for legal review.

Reference Materials

• Examples — Worked examples, advanced features, practical limitations, and the auditor handoff archive block format & rules
• Promotion & Demotion Rules — Full promotion/demotion table and action procedures
• Update Triggers & Integration — Update procedures, archive routines, and cross-skill integration points
• CORE-EEAT Content Benchmark — Content quality scoring stored in memory
• CITE Domain Rating — Domain authority scoring stored in memory

Next Best Skill

Primary: keyword-research — seed or refresh campaign strategy with current demand signals.