operating-protocol

A working protocol that tells coding agents how to load project context and use Universal Memory during a session. It defines when to read instructions, bootstrap memory, and save durable facts.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to start sessions with the right context, select relevant skills, and record stable constraints, preferences, decisions, and operational learnings.
Why use it?
It reduces repeated setup and helps agents follow the project's current rules and established decisions.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/yanamorelli/universal-memory/operating-protocol
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/YanAmorelli/universal-memory
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 767 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00767
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00383
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00153
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00077

Measured yesterday against content hash b4b7f111a881, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

operating-protocol scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

docs/agents/operating-protocol.md · 93 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 93 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Operating Protocol For Agents

Agents should use Universal Memory as a controlled context and mutation surface.

Session Start

  1. Read the host instruction file that applies to the workspace.
  2. Bootstrap Universal Memory once before planning or editing.
  3. Treat the returned project context as active and select only relevant skills.

Prefer the MCP tool when it is available:

bootstrap()

Otherwise, use the equivalent CLI command:

umem bootstrap --format json

The aggregate preserves the existing status, project-context, and skills-list contracts. Treat data.context as active context and inspect data.skills.list. Then request metadata only for relevant skills with umem skills detail <skill-id-or-name> --format json or MCP get_skill_detail. Do not repeat bootstrap on later interactions in the same conversation or session. Use status, context, list_skills, and layout status separately only when the task needs an explicit follow-up diagnostic.

During Work

Use facts only for durable information:

  • stable project constraints;
  • durable user preferences;
  • architectural decisions;
  • fixed bugs or important operational learnings;
  • obsolete fact cleanup when prior memory is no longer true;
  • recurring workflow evidence that may become a skill.

Do not record transient logs, raw command output, secrets, or uncertain inferences. Do not record raw prompts, private customer data, or one-off task progress.

In shared-layout projects, treat umem/ as reviewable project content and .umem/ as private operational state. Project facts, rules, and user-facing skills that collaborators should inherit belong under umem/; local notes, private facts, audit logs, snapshots, locks, and operational skills stay under .umem/.

Ask before publishing context that could expose local operating details, private investigations, customer data, credentials, or an operational skill. Sharing an operational skill such as universal-memory requires explicit approval through umem skills share ... --category operational --yes or MCP share_skill(..., category="operational", confirm_operational=true).

Read the full file on GitHub · 93 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 93 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A b4b7f111a881

Subscribe to this mod's changes

operating-protocol is an agent published in the GitHub repository YanAmorelli/universal-memory (6 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 767 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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