Recall — Find What Was Said
When Joel references something vaguely, don't guess — fan out across all memory sources and find it.
Trigger Detection
Phrases that indicate a recall is needed (case-insensitive):
- "from earlier", "earlier today", "earlier this week"
- "remember when", "remember that", "you mentioned"
- "what we discussed", "what we talked about", "the conversation about"
- "that thing with", "the thing about", "what was that"
- "did we ever", "have we", "wasn't there"
- "last session", "the other day", "yesterday"
- "correlate with", "connect to what we"
- Any vague pronoun reference to past context ("those photos", "that idea", "the notes")
Key principle: If you'd have to guess what "earlier" or "that" refers to, you need recall.
Fan-Out Search Pattern
Search these sources in parallel where possible, with timeouts on each:
1. Today's Daily Log (fastest, most likely)
# Always check first — most "from earlier" references are same-day
cat ~/.joelclaw/workspace/memory/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md
2. Recent Daily Logs (if today's doesn't have it)
# Yesterday and day before
cat ~/.joelclaw/workspace/memory/$(date -v-1d +%Y-%m-%d).md
cat ~/.joelclaw/workspace/memory/$(date -v-2d +%Y-%m-%d).md
3. Curated Memory
cat ~/.joelclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md
Search for keywords from the vague reference.
4. Session Transcripts
Use the session_context tool to search recent sessions:
sessions(limit: 10) # find recent session IDs
session_context(session_id: "...", query: "what was discussed about <topic>")
5. Vault Notes
# Keyword search across Vault
grep -ri "<keywords>" ~/Vault/ --include="*.md" -l | head -10
6. System Log
slog tail --count 20 # recent infrastructure changes
# Check for images/audio that were processed
ls /tmp/joelclaw-media/ 2>/dev/null
8. Redis State
# Memory proposals, loop state, etc.
redis-cli LRANGE memory:review:pending 0 -1 2>/dev/null
Workflow
- Extract keywords from the vague reference. "Those photos from earlier" → keywords: photos, images, media, telegram.
- Fan out across sources 1-8 above. Use
timeout 5 on any command that might hang.
- Synthesize — combine findings into a coherent summary of what was found.
- Present context — show Joel what you found, then continue with the original task.
- If nothing found — say so honestly. Don't fabricate. Ask Joel to clarify.
Timeouts Are Mandatory
Every external call (Redis, grep over large dirs, session reads) MUST have a timeout. The gateway session cannot hang on a recall operation.
# Good
timeout 5 grep -ri "keyword" ~/Vault/ --include="*.md" -l | head -10
# Bad — can hang indefinitely
grep -ri "keyword" ~/Vault/ --include="*.md"
Anti-Patterns
- Don't grep one file and call it done. The whole point is fan-out.
- Don't guess when recall fails. Say "I couldn't find it" and ask.
- Don't read entire session transcripts. Use
session_context with a focused query.
- Don't skip media. Photos, audio, processed images in
/tmp/joelclaw-media/ are often what "from earlier" refers to.