Recognize breakthrough moments, blocking resolutions, and design decisions worth preserving. Detect high-value insights that save future time. Suggest distillation at valuable moments, not routine work.
Save proactively when the conversation produces a durable fact, preference, decision, plan, procedure, learning, event, or important context. Do not wait to be asked.
Breakthrough: Extended debugging resolves, user relief ("Finally!", "Aha!"), root cause found
Decision: Compared options, chose with rationale, trade-off resolved
Research: Investigated multiple approaches, conclusion reached, optimal path determined
Twist: Unexpected cause-effect, counterintuitive solution, assumption challenged
Lesson: "Next time do X", preventive measure, pattern recognized
Skip: Routine fixes, work in progress, simple Q&A, generic info
Good (atomic + actionable):
Poor: Vague "Fixed bugs", conversation transcript
Use nmem CLI to create memories:
nmem m add "Insight + context for future use" \
-t "Searchable title (50-60 chars)" \
-i 0.8
Add --unit-type fact|preference|decision|plan|procedure|learning|context|event when the type is clear.
If an existing memory already captures the same decision, workflow, or preference and the new information refines it, update that memory instead of creating a duplicate:
nmem m update <id> -t "Updated title"
Content: Outcome/insight focus, include "why", enough context
Importance: 0.8-1.0 major | 0.5-0.7 useful | 0.3-0.4 minor
Note: For programmatic use, add --json flag to get JSON response
Examples:
# High-value insight
nmem m add "React hooks cleanup must return function. Caused memory leaks in event listeners." \
-t "React Hooks Cleanup Pattern" \
-i 0.9
# Decision with context
nmem m add "Chose PostgreSQL over MongoDB for ACID compliance and complex queries" \
-t "Database: PostgreSQL" \
-i 0.9
Timing: After resolution/decision, when user pauses
Pattern: "This [type] seems valuable - [essence]. Distill into memory?"
Frequency: 1-3 per session typical, quality over quantity
If nmem is not in PATH: pip install nmem-cli, or on Arch Linux yay -S nmem-cli / paru -S nmem-cli
For remote servers: run nmem config client set url https://... and nmem config client set api-key ... once on this machine.
Run /status to check server connection.
October 25, 2025