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.

System role: Campaign Memory Loop. It defines how project context is captured, promoted, archived, and handed off across sessions. It is the sole executor of WARM-to-COLD archival and the aggregator for cross-skill project status queries.

When This Must Trigger

Use this whenever project state should survive the current session — even if the user doesn't use memory terminology:

• User says "remember this", "save this", "keep track of this"
• User asks "what did we decide", "what do we know", "project status"
• Setting up memory structure for a new SEO project
• After completing audits, ranking checks, or performance reports (Stop hook reminds automatically)
• When project context needs updating (new keywords, competitors, priorities)
• When you need to look up historical data or project-specific terminology
• After 30+ days of work to clean up and archive stale data
• When open-loops.md has items older than 7 days (SessionStart hook reminds automatically)

What This Skill Does

1. HOT tier management: Maintains memory/hot-cache.md (80 lines max) — loaded automatically every session by SessionStart hook
2. WARM Storage: Organizes dated findings in memory/ subdirectories — loaded on demand by relevant skills
3. COLD Archive: Moves stale data (90+ days unreferenced) to memory/archive/ with date prefix
4. Promotion: Elevates frequently-referenced findings from WARM to HOT (3+ refs in 7 days, or 2+ skill refs)
5. Demotion: Moves unreferenced HOT items to WARM (30 days), WARM to COLD (90 days)
6. Cross-Skill Aggregation: When user asks "what do we know", aggregates from all memory/ subdirectories
7. Open Loop Tracking: Maintains memory/open-loops.md, reminds user of stale items via SessionStart hook
8. Wiki Layer (Phase 1-3): Maintains memory/wiki/index.md (auto-refreshed structured index of WARM files, project-isolated), generates compiled entity/keyword/topic pages with contradiction detection, runs wiki lint for orphans/stale claims/hash mismatches, and previews WARM retirement candidates. See references/wiki spec.

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 Wiki Index

Refresh wiki index

Build wiki index for [project name]

Generates memory/wiki/index.md from existing WARM files. Required once to enable wiki features; subsequent refreshes happen automatically.

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/. Compiles memory/wiki/index.md (auto-refreshed) and wiki compiled pages (user-confirmed). Sole writer of wiki (with delegated auto-refresh): memory-management owns all wiki writes semantically. For performance, two narrowly-scoped auto-refresh operations are delegated to the PostToolUse and Stop hooks in hooks/hooks.json — specifically, index rebuilds of memory/wiki/index.md and append operations on memory/wiki/log.md. These hooks act on behalf of memory-management using the schema defined in this skill; any wiki-compiled page (entity/keyword/topic) still requires explicit memory-management invocation. Auditor handoff archiving (v7.1.0+): when triggered (by the Stop hook, by a direct user request, or via an auditor's "Save these results?" yes-response), append a structured block to memory/audits/YYYY-MM.md. The archive is consumed by /seo:p2-review for the 2026-07-10 tombstone evaluation tied to ADR-001. See references/examples.md 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.
• Next handoff: use the Next Best Skill below when the project memory baseline is ready for active work.

Handoff Summary

Emit this shape when finishing the skill (see skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format for the authoritative format):

• Status: DONE / DONE_WITH_CONCERNS / BLOCKED / NEEDS_INPUT
• Objective: what was analyzed, created, or fixed
• Key Findings / Output: the highest-signal result
• Evidence: URLs, data points, or sections reviewed
• Open Loops: blockers, missing inputs, or unresolved risks
• Recommended Next Skill: one primary next move

Temperature Lifecycle Rules

See references/promotion-demotion-rules.md 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; loads memory/wiki/<project>/index.md (or global index.md) if it exists; provides light-user guidance based on Quick Status when next_action items are available
• PostToolUse: after any WARM file write, silently refreshes memory/wiki/index.md (Phase 1); prompts to update compiled pages (Phase 2)
• Stop: prompts to save session findings, auto-saves veto issues to hot-cache; appends changelog entry to index.md bottom

Data Sources

See CONNECTORS.md for tool category placeholders.

With ~~SEO tool + ~~analytics + ~~search console connected: Automatically populate memory from historical data: keyword rankings over time, competitor domain authority changes, traffic metrics, conversion data, backlink profile evolution. The skill will fetch current rankings, alert on significant changes, and update both hot cache and cold storage.

With manual data only: Ask the user to provide:

1. Current target keywords with priority levels
2. Primary competitors (3-5 domains)
3. Key performance metrics and last update date
4. Active campaigns and their status
5. Any project-specific terminology or abbreviations

Proceed with memory structure creation using provided data. Note in memory/hot-cache.md which data requires manual updates vs. automated refresh.

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) plus memory/wiki/ (auto-managed compiled index with optional per-project subdirectories).

Templates: hot-cache-template.md · glossary-template.md · Wiki spec

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 Wiki Index (memory/wiki/index.md or project-level) — locate relevant WARM files

Step 3: Check memory/glossary.md

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

Step 4: Check Cold Storage

• Search memory/research/keywords/ for historical keyword context
• Search memory/research/competitors/ for past analyses
• Search memory/monitoring/reports/ for archived mentions

Step 5: 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 → Step 2 extracts keyword list → Step 3 runs ranking check → Step 4 updates memory/hot-cache.md and memory/monitoring/rank-history/YYYY-MM-DD-ranks.csv.

3. Promotion & Demotion Logic

Reference: See references/promotion-demotion-rules.md 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 references/update-triggers-integration.md 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

After delivering any memory update or aggregation to the user, ask:

"Save these results for future sessions?"

If yes, write a dated summary to the appropriate memory/ path using filename YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md containing:

• One-line verdict or headline finding
• Top 3-5 actionable items
• Open loops or blockers
• Source data references

If any veto-level issue was found (CORE-EEAT T04, C01, R10 or CITE T03, T05, T09), also append a one-liner to memory/hot-cache.md without asking.

Validation Checkpoints

Structure: memory/hot-cache.md ≤80 lines; directory matches state model; glossary.md populated; timestamped filenames.

Content: hot-cache "Last Updated" current; every keyword has rank + target + status; every competitor has DA + position; campaigns have status + ETA.

Lookups: term reference finds correct layer; promotion/demotion round-trip works; glossary covers all shorthand.

Updates after events: ranking check → memory/monitoring/rank-history/ dated snapshot; competitor analysis → memory/research/competitors/ dated file; audit → top action items in hot-cache; monthly report → metrics snapshot refreshed.

Examples, Advanced Features & Practical Limitations

Reference: See references/examples.md 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, wiki lint), and practical limitations (concurrent access, cold storage retrieval, data freshness, wiki compilation).

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 matching entries from memory/entities/<slug>.md, memory/entities/candidates.md, and surfaces references in other files for manual review
4. Logs the purge to memory/audits/gdpr-purges.md with date + subject requested

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

• references/examples.md — Worked examples, advanced features, practical limitations, and the auditor handoff archive block format & rules
• references/promotion-demotion-rules.md — Full promotion/demotion table and action procedures
• references/update-triggers-integration.md — 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.