> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.seriora.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Memory

> What the archivist writes between turns, where it goes, and how you review it.

After a turn, an `archivist` role can write down what it learned. Memory is read into the system
prompt at the start of every future session, which is what makes it worth having and also what
makes every property below load-bearing.

## Three scopes

| File                  | Holds                             | Budget           |
| --------------------- | --------------------------------- | ---------------- |
| `USER.md`             | facts about you, in every project | 1,375 characters |
| `MEMORY.md`           | facts that apply everywhere       | 2,200 characters |
| `<project>/MEMORY.md` | facts about one repository        | 2,200 characters |

The budgets are per file, and per scope on purpose. A chatty global note cannot crowd out your
own preferences. They are small enough that session start never pays more than a few hundred
tokens for memory.

**seri never truncates a memory file.** A write that would overflow the budget is refused, and
the refusal comes back carrying every entry the file currently holds, so the model can consolidate
them into a replacement in the same turn. Whether it does is the model's behaviour. What the
budget guarantees is that nothing is silently dropped to make room.

## Writes are staged, not applied

The approval gate is on by default. A write lands in a pending queue and waits for you.

| Command                     | Does                                                    |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `/memory`                   | open the review panel                                   |
| `/memory list`              | the same thing. The bare form and `list` are identical. |
| `/memory pending`           | list what is waiting                                    |
| `/memory diff <id>`         | show the exact change                                   |
| `/memory approve <id>`      | apply it                                                |
| `/memory reject <id>`       | throw it away                                           |
| `/memory approval on\|off`  | turn the gate itself on or off                          |
| `/memory archivist on\|off` | run or stop the post-turn learning pass entirely        |

`<id>` also accepts `all`. Each pending entry is labelled by the file it targets, `USER.md`,
`MEMORY.md` or `myrepo/MEMORY.md`, so you can tell a global claim from a project-local one before
approving it.

`SERI_MEMORY_APPROVAL=false` and `SERI_ARCHIVIST_ENABLED=false` are the environment equivalents.

## Every write is scanned first

A memory file is re-read into every future session's prompt, so anything landing there is a
standing instruction to the model rather than a one-off answer that scrolls away. Every write is
scanned before it reaches the store or the pending queue, and refused on five categories.

| Category           | Catches                                                  |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| credential         | secrets that should never be written to a plaintext file |
| invisible-unicode  | characters a reviewer cannot see in the diff             |
| injection-phrasing | text shaped like an instruction to a future session      |
| persistence-path   | attempts to make the write outlive review                |
| agent-config       | text that tries to reconfigure the agent itself          |

## When a write takes effect

Approved writes hit disk immediately and enter the prompt the **next** time you start seri.
Nothing shifts under you mid-session, for the same reason a [rule](/guides/rules) never edits the
system prompt mid-session. That string is frozen at session start so a provider can reuse its
cached prefix.

## Skills the archivist proposes

The archivist can also propose a [skill](/guides/skills) after hard-won work, staged the same
way. It is the one artifact seri writes for you. `/skills pending` is its review queue.