Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to matrixorigin/memoria. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matrixorigin/memoria/main/.kiro/steering/memory-hygiene.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/matrixorigin/memoriaWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/matrixorigin/memoria/memory-hygiene)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/matrixorigin/memoria/memory-hygiene"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/matrixorigin/memoria/memory-hygiene/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/matrixorigin/memoria/memory-hygiene"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/matrixorigin/memoria/memory-hygiene.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00598 | $0.00598 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00299 | $0.00299 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00120 | $0.00120 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00060 | $0.00060 |
Grade A, and why
memory-hygiene 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 4d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 71 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Memory Hygiene & Self-Governance
Proactive memory health management — don't wait for the user to ask.
Proactive Governance Triggers
Run memory_governance (1h cooldown) when you notice ANY of these:
- Retrieval returns clearly outdated or contradictory results
- You stored 10+ memories in this session without any cleanup
- User mentions memory feels "noisy" or "wrong"
After governance, check the response for:
snapshot_health.auto_ratio > 50%→ suggestmemory_snapshot_delete(prefix="auto:")- Quarantined memories → inform user what was quarantined and why
Contradiction Resolution
When you detect two memories that contradict each other:
memory_searchto find both memories and their IDs- Determine which is newer/more accurate based on timestamps and context
memory_correctthe older one with the accurate information, ORmemory_purgethe wrong one if it's completely invalid- Never leave both — contradictions poison retrieval
Run memory_consolidate (30min cooldown) when:
- You found a contradiction manually
- User reports "memory says X but it should be Y" more than once in a session
- After a large batch of corrections
Snapshot Hygiene
Snapshots accumulate from auto-saves and safety snapshots. Clean periodically:
memory_snapshots(limit=20) # check current state
If too many:
memory_snapshot_delete(prefix="pre_")— purge safety snapshots from purge/correctmemory_snapshot_delete(prefix="auto:")— purge auto-generated snapshotsmemory_snapshot_delete(older_than="<3 months ago>")— age-based cleanup
Keep named snapshots the user created explicitly.
Entity Graph Maintenance
Entity extraction is automatic — every memory_store triggers regex-based extraction, with LLM extraction as a fallback when configured. No manual intervention needed.
Reflection Cadence
memory_reflect (2h cooldown) synthesizes high-level insights. Suggest it when:
- User asks "what patterns do you see" or "summarize what you know"
memory_searchreturns a high volume of results and no reflection has been done recently- Starting a new project phase — reflect on the previous phase first
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.
- 4d ago First seen · 71 lines · 598 tokens per session scan A d62e4464bb66
memory-hygiene is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository matrixorigin/memoria (596 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 598 tokens to every session, about $0.0030 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 2026-09-08.
Other instructions, from other repositories
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AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
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spec-kit AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for github/spec-kit, covering agents.md, about spec kit and specify, quickstart — add a new integration in 5 steps, integration architecture and integrationmanifest — file tracking.
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.