Last week, Claude and I hacked together this tool to go through its previous conversations looking for memories. All prose was written by Claude. Even the research report that it claims I wrote.

This is just step one to start to annotate my coding assistant's memory with lessons learned outside of what it has Journaled.

Caveat Emptor.

If it breaks, you can keep all the pieces

Multi-dimensional memory extraction system for Claude Code conversations. Learns from conversation history to improve future interactions through systematic extraction of technical lessons, working style preferences, and debugging methodologies.

This research was directed by Jesse Vincent jesse@fsck.com, with Claude performing the implementation and analysis under guidance, but Jesse has not read the full content closely.

# Install globally
npm install -g claude-memory

# Extract memories from recent conversations
claude-memory extract --since="2025-09-01T00:00:00"

# View what was extracted
ls ~/.claude/memories/extracted/

Analyzes Claude Code conversation logs and extracts transferable lessons using a multi-dimensional framework:

• Root Cause Analysis (Five Whys) - Why did this happen?
• Psychological Drivers - What hidden motivations explain behavior?
• Prevention Strategies - How to avoid this in the future?
• Epistemic Humility - Acknowledges uncertainty appropriately

Example extracted lesson:

"When debugging works in one context but not another, gather evidence comparing the two paths before attempting fixes. Don't guess at symptoms - add logging to see actual data structures."

• 85% match to human ground truth validation
• Multi-dimensional analysis provides richer insights than single techniques
• Methodology detection distinguishes process lessons from technical fixes
• Epistemic humility prevents overconfident extraction on ambiguous cases

# Install from npm (when published)
npm install -g claude-memory

# Or install from source
git clone https://github.com/obra/claude-memory.git
cd claude-memory
npm install && npm run build
npm link

git clone https://github.com/obra/claude-memory.git
cd claude-memory
npm install && npm run build

# Run directly
./dist/cli.js extract --since="2025-09-01T00:00:00"

• Claude CLI installed and authenticated
• Node.js 18+

# Verify Claude CLI is working
claude --version

# Check system info
claude-memory info

# Extract from last 30 days
claude-memory extract --since="2025-08-29T00:00:00"

# Extract from specific projects directory
claude-memory extract --projects-dir=~/.claude/projects --memories-dir=~/.claude/memories

# Dry run to preview (not implemented yet)
claude-memory extract --dry-run

# List recent extractions
ls -la ~/.claude/memories/extracted/ | head -10

# View a specific memory
cat ~/.claude/memories/extracted/2025-09-28T04-25-56-822Z-test-project-pattern-test-s-000.md

# Type checking
npm run typecheck

# Build
npm run build

# Run tests (when available)
npm test

• SessionParser: Reads JSONL files from ~/.claude/projects
• SessionChunker: Breaks long conversations into manageable chunks
• Message filtering: Focuses on human-assistant exchanges with meaningful content

• Agent-based: Uses Claude CLI with specialized extraction prompt
• Five Whys: Traces root causes through 5 levels of causation
• Hidden Motivation: Identifies psychological drivers and fears
• Systems Thinking: Creates concrete prevention strategies
• Epistemic Humility: Assesses confidence and acknowledges uncertainty

• Markdown files with YAML frontmatter containing metadata
• Comprehensive analysis in structured sections
• Confidence scoring (1-5 scale)
• Lesson type classification (methodology vs technical)

claude-introspection/
├── README.md                    # This file
├── src/
│   ├── cli.ts                   # Main CLI entry point
│   ├── commands/
│   │   └── extract.ts           # Extract command implementation
│   ├── extraction/
│   │   ├── parser.ts            # JSONL session parsing
│   │   ├── chunker.ts           # Conversation chunking
│   │   └── agent-extractor.ts   # Agent-based extraction
│   └── types/                   # TypeScript definitions
├── agents/
│   ├── memory-extractor.md      # Original single-technique agent
│   └── multi-dimensional-extractor.md  # Current production agent
├── docs/
│   ├── research/                # Research findings and validation
│   │   ├── agent-prompting-research.md
│   │   ├── ground-truth-validation.md
│   │   └── research-summary.md
│   ├── guides/                  # Implementation guides
│   │   ├── initial-design.md
│   │   └── plans/
│   └── experiments/             # Experimental results
└── ~/.claude/memories/extracted/  # Output directory (git-ignored)

---
id: "mem-2025-09-28T04-25-56-822Z-test-session-000"
created: "2025-09-28T04:25:56.822Z"
confidence: 4.5
certainty_reasoning: "Clear pattern with user corrections"
trigger: "when engineering decisions have multiple valid approaches"
tags: ["project:test-project", "type:pattern", "domain:technical"]
source:
  session: "test-session"
---

# Engineering Tradeoffs: When to Decide vs When to Acknowledge Ambiguity

[Multi-dimensional analysis with Root Cause, Psychological Driver,
Prevention Strategy sections, plus Epistemic Humility notes]

This system was developed through extensive research on memory extraction techniques:

• Experiment 1: Tested 15 different prompting techniques (Five Whys, Self-Criticism, etc.)
• Experiment 3: Discovered agents show dangerous overconfidence on ambiguous cases
• Ground Truth Validation: 16-snippet validation with human ground truth

Key findings:

• Multi-dimensional analysis superior to single techniques
• Methodology lessons more valuable than technical fixes
• Epistemic humility crucial for ambiguous cases
• Human calibration essential for quality

1. Claude CLI dependency: Requires authenticated Claude CLI installation
2. No search interface: Memories are files, no semantic search yet
3. Manual review needed: Some extractions may need human validation
4. Token costs: ~$0.50-2.00 per conversation depending on length
5. Processing time: ~1-2 minutes per conversation

• Add consensus flagging (>90% agreement triggers review)
• Implement Null Hypothesis agent for "nothing went wrong" cases
• Build automated comparison to human extractions
• Add simple search interface

• Claude Code integration for automatic memory injection
• Web UI for browsing and managing memories
• Memory consolidation and archiving
• Team-wide memory sharing
• Reinforcement learning from session feedback

1. Add new extraction techniques: Update agents/multi-dimensional-extractor.md
2. Improve validation: Add more ground truth examples
3. Build search: Implement semantic search over extracted memories
4. Add tests: Create test suite for extraction pipeline

• Research Summary: Comprehensive overview of all experiments
• Ground Truth Validation: Human validation results (85% match)
• Agent Prompting Research: Comparison of 15 techniques

MIT

Status: Production ready after ground truth validation. Currently processing conversation logs and extracting high-quality memories.