The situation
Yesterday's session made three good decisions. Today the tool starts cold, proposes the rejected option again and cannot tell which task was halfway done. The decisions existed only in chat.
The idea in one paragraph
Conversation is temporary working space. Durable project memory is a small set of files that says how the project works, what was decided, what is active and how to continue. A future session can read those files without replaying the transcript or trusting your recollection.
| Memory | Owns | Useful shape |
|---|---|---|
| Instructions | Rules that apply repeatedly | Short, scoped statements |
| Decisions | Chosen direction and reason | Date, choice, consequence |
| Progress | Current state | Done, active, next |
| Handoff | How to resume | Exact entry file and check |
How it actually works
Each fact needs one owner. If the active task appears in a plan, a progress file and a README, the copies drift. Put the full fact in one place and link to it elsewhere. Keep live files short enough that a cold session can find the current pointer before old history consumes its attention.
Files do not make the model remember automatically. The tool must be told which file to load, or the project must use a convention it already reads. The benefit is inspectability: you can correct the record, review its history and start another session from the same evidence.
What this changes for you
- Move repeated rules out of chat and into the project's instruction surface.
- Record decisions when they change what the next session should do.
- End with a short pointer: current result, open risk, next file and next check.
Where it breaks
Writing everything down creates a second project made of stale documents. Do not preserve routine conversation, raw logs or facts that the code already states clearly. A memory file earns its place only when a cold session will use it to make a better decision.
Terms used on this page
- Durable memory: project information stored outside the temporary conversation.
- Source of truth: the single place that owns a fact when several pages refer to it.
- Decision record: a short note of a choice, its reason and its consequence.
- Handoff: the minimum written path another session needs to continue safely.
Read next
Folders a cold session can read makes that memory findable instead of merely present.