cortex-debug-memory

Debug Memory — Fix, Rate, Protect, and Restore

Keywords

debug, fix, bad memory, wrong, delete, forget, protect, rate, quality, restore, checkpoint, undo, stale, incorrect, mark useful, mark not useful, anchor, unprotect

Overview

Tools for maintaining memory quality — rate memories as useful or not, protect critical ones from decay, forget incorrect ones, validate against the filesystem, and restore from checkpoints when things go wrong.

Use this skill when: Recall returns wrong results, memories are stale, you need to undo changes, or you want to improve retrieval quality through feedback.

Workflow

Fix Bad Memories

Soft delete (sets heat to 0, memory still exists but won't surface):

cortex:forget({
  "memory_id": <id>,
  "hard": false
})

Hard delete (permanent removal):

cortex:forget({
  "memory_id": <id>,
  "hard": true
})

Protected memories require "force": true to delete.

Rate Memory Quality

Provide feedback to train the metamemory confidence model:

cortex:rate_memory({
  "memory_id": <id>,
  "useful": true
})

Or mark as not useful:

cortex:rate_memory({
  "memory_id": <id>,
  "useful": false,
  "reason": "outdated — we no longer use this approach"
})

Ratings adjust the memory's confidence score, which affects future retrieval ranking. Over time, this trains the system to surface better results.

Protect Critical Memories

Anchor a memory (heat=1.0 permanently, injected at session start):

cortex:anchor({
  "memory_id": <id>,
  "reason": "Core architecture decision — never decay"
})

Validate Against Reality

Check if memories reference things that still exist:

cortex:validate_memory({
  "directory": "<project root>"
})

Returns a list of stale memories (referencing deleted files, moved modules, etc.) that should be forgotten or updated.

Checkpoint and Restore

Save a checkpoint before risky operations:

cortex:checkpoint({
  "action": "save",
  "label": "before-cleanup"
})