---

name: User Memory description: Long-term user profile memory that persists across Claude Code sessions when_to_use: Automatic - runs via hooks, no manual invocation needed version: 4.0.0

User Memory

Persistent user profile memory for Claude Code. Two implementations - pick your flavor:

Quick Start

Option A: Minimal (Shell-only)

Copy# Add to ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "~/.claude/skills/user-memory/minimal/session-start.sh"
      }]
    }],
    "Stop": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "~/.claude/skills/user-memory/minimal/stop-memory.sh"
      }]
    }]
  }
}

Done. No npm install needed.

Option B: MCP Server (Full)

Copycd ~/.claude/skills/user-memory/mcp
npm install

Copy{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "~/.claude/skills/user-memory/mcp/src/hooks/session-start.sh"
      }]
    }],
    "Stop": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "~/.claude/skills/user-memory/mcp/src/hooks/stop-memory.sh"
      }]
    }]
  },
  "mcpServers": {
    "user-memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["tsx", "~/.claude/skills/user-memory/mcp/src/mcp-server.ts"]
    }
  }
}

---

How It Works

CopySessionStart hook
    ↓
    Loads ~/.claude/user-memory/profile.json
    ↓
    Injects into session context

Stop hook (after every Claude response)
    ↓
    Reads conversation transcript
    ↓
    Extracts preferences via pattern matching
    ↓
    Deduplicates (skips already-processed turns)
    ↓
    Merges into profile.json

[MCP only] Claude can also call:
    Profile tools:
    - get_user_profile
    - update_user_profile
    - remove_preference
    - clear_user_profile
    - get_changelog
    - get_preference_metadata
    - run_decay

    Session continuity tools:
    - get_session_context
    - update_task
    - log_decision
    - add_session_context
    - set_session_summary
    - get_full_context

What Gets Stored

Storage

Copy~/.claude/user-memory/
├── profile.json         # Your preferences
├── profile-meta.json    # Confidence/decay tracking (MCP only)
├── changelog.jsonl      # Audit trail (auto-pruned)
├── .processed_turns     # Dedup tracker
└── sessions/            # Session continuity (MCP only)
    ├── session-abc123.json
    └── ...

Override location: USER_MEMORY_DIR=/custom/path

Changelog (Audit Trail)

Every profile change is logged to changelog.jsonl:

Copy{"timestamp":"2025-01-15T10:30:00Z","session_id":"abc123","action":"extract","source":"minimal/hook","changes":{"codePreferences":{"preferredStacks":["Bun"]}}}
{"timestamp":"2025-01-15T11:00:00Z","action":"update","source":"mcp/tool","changes":{"tools":{"editor":"neovim"}}}
{"timestamp":"2025-01-16T09:00:00Z","action":"clear","source":"mcp/tool","changes":{"userId":"default"}}

MCP only: Use get_changelog tool to query the log.

Auto-pruning: Changelog keeps last 1000 entries and removes entries older than 90 days.

Session Continuity (MCP only)

Track task progress and decisions across sessions. Resume where you left off.

Storage

Copy~/.claude/user-memory/sessions/
├── session-abc123.json    # Session with tasks, decisions, context
├── session-def456.json
└── ...

Tools

Auto-pruning

Sessions older than 30 days are automatically removed.

Negation Handling

The extraction system understands when you want to remove preferences:

Negation patterns have higher priority than positive patterns, so "I prefer Bun over npm" will add Bun and remove npm atomically.

Decay & Confidence (MCP only)

Preferences decay over time if not reinforced. This prevents stale preferences from persisting forever.

How it works

1. Each preference has a confidence score (0.0 - 1.0)
2. Confidence decays exponentially: confidence * 0.5^(days / 30)
3. When confidence drops below 0.1, preference is auto-removed
4. Mentioning a preference again reinforces it (+0.3 confidence)

Example timeline

MCP tools for decay

Auto-decay on SessionStart

When using MCP mode, decay is automatically checked at session start:

• Only runs if 24+ hours since last decay
• Removes preferences below confidence threshold
• Prunes old changelog entries
• Zero latency impact (runs async)

Profile Schema

Copyinterface UserProfile {
  userId: string;
  schemaVersion: 1;
  lastUpdated: string;

  bio?: string;
  work?: {
    role?: string;
    focusAreas?: string[];
    languages?: string[];
  };
  codePreferences?: {
    tone?: "direct" | "neutral" | "friendly";
    detailLevel?: "high" | "medium" | "low";
    avoidExamples?: string[];
    preferredStacks?: string[];
  };
  tools?: {
    editor?: string;
    infra?: string[];
  };
  interests?: string[];
  custom?: Record<string, unknown>;
}

Swizzling

Switch modes anytime - both use the same profile.json:

Copy# Switch from minimal → mcp
# Just update hooks paths in settings.json and add mcpServers

# Switch from mcp → minimal
# Remove mcpServers, update hook paths

Architecture Notes

Why Stop hook instead of SessionEnd? SessionEnd doesn't fire on Ctrl+C, terminal close, or crashes. Stop hook runs after every response - bulletproof.

Why heuristic extraction?

• Zero latency
• No API cost
• Deterministic
• MCP tools available for edge cases (mcp/ only)

Minimal vs MCP trade-offs:

Directory Structure

Copyskills/user-memory/
├── SKILL.md
├── minimal/              # Zero-dep shell scripts
│   ├── session-start.sh
│   └── stop-memory.sh
└── mcp/                  # Full TypeScript MCP
    ├── package.json
    ├── tsconfig.json
    └── src/
        ├── types.ts          # Type definitions
        ├── store.ts          # Profile storage + decay
        ├── context.ts        # Context injection builder
        ├── session.ts        # Session continuity
        ├── prompt.ts         # System prompt builder
        ├── extract-memory.ts # Pattern extraction
        ├── decay-check.ts    # Auto-decay on session start
        ├── mcp-server.ts     # MCP server (13 tools)
        └── hooks/
            ├── session-start.sh
            └── stop-memory.sh