build

A command that processes past Claude Code transcripts into organized memory themes, which are summaries grouped by subject.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to build or refresh stored memory from recent sessions and update the theme index while viewing progress as it runs.
Why use it?
It makes useful information from earlier coding sessions easier to find and avoids processing the same transcript again. A limit can cap the number handled in one run.

Command

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 commands/lijialex/layered-memory/build
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/LijiAlex/layered-memory
Per session 29 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 447 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 $0.00029 $0.00447
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00224
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00089
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00045

Measured 2d ago against content hash e62385c64597, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

build 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 2d ago.

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.

plugins/layered-memory/commands/build.md · 35 lines

What it actually says

Run the layered-memory build over your past session transcripts. This reads your Claude Code transcripts (newest first, skipping ones already ingested), distils them into per-theme summaries, and writes/updates ~/.claude/memory/themes/*.md and ~/.claude/memory/index.md. Existing summaries are reconciled (not overwritten blindly); a snapshot is taken before each write.

Each transcript = one model call (~$0.05). Use --limit N to cap cost on the first run, e.g. /memory:build --limit 3 ingests only the 3 newest new transcripts. Re-running continues where it left off (a processed.log ledger skips done sessions).

Execute (forwards any arguments the user passed, e.g. --limit 3):

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/build.py" $ARGUMENTS

[MUST] Run it in the FOREGROUND so the user sees progress. The script streams live [memory] … milestone lines (scanning, per-transcript reading/distilling, theme counts, reconcile). Therefore:

  • Do NOT run it in the background.
  • Do NOT pipe it to tail, head, or anything that withholds output until completion.
  • Run it as-is and surface its streaming stdout to the user as it appears.

Note for the user: builds take ~10–40s per transcript (one model call each) plus a final auto-reconcile call, so output appears gradually. For the most direct live view the user can also run the command themselves with a leading ! in the prompt, or in a real terminal.

After it exits, report the themes written, the transcript count, any errors, and where the index lives. Theme files are plain markdown under ~/.claude/memory/themes/ for inspection.

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. 2d ago First seen · 35 lines · 29 tokens per session scan A e62385c64597

Subscribe to this mod's changes

build is a command published in the GitHub repository LijiAlex/layered-memory (1 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 447 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. 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.