rememora-search

Search Rememora for Prior Knowledge

Before starting non-trivial work, check if there is relevant knowledge from prior sessions. Rememora stores memories in three tiers (L0 abstract, L1 overview, L2 content), so you can filter cheaply before paying the full token cost of a memory.

Progressive-disclosure workflow (search → timeline → get)

Do not pull full memory content up front. Use the three verbs in order.

1. rememora search --format compact — filter

Scan for relevant memories by topic. Compact output is one line per hit (~75 tokens/hit), enough to decide whether to drill in.

rememora search "<what you're looking for>" --project <project-name> --format compact

Each line looks like:

[decision] Picked Redis over Memcached — rememora://projects/foo/memories/decision/redis-caching (rank=-1.23)

Query tips:

• Use the topic or domain: "database choice", "auth middleware"
• Use the problem area: "JWT token expiration", "rate limiting"
• Use the entity name: "Stripe integration", "prisma schema"

2. rememora timeline --anchor <uri> — context around a hit

Once a hit looks promising, pull the neighbours around it to understand what else was happening when that decision was made. Sorted by creation time by default (--by ts); use --by hotness to rank peers by importance + hotness instead.

rememora timeline \
  --anchor rememora://projects/foo/memories/decision/redis-caching \
  --before 3 --after 3

You get the three closest older memories, the anchor, and the three closest newer memories — each rendered in the same compact shape.

3. rememora get <uri> — full L2 content

Only when you know you want everything: pull the full abstract + overview + content for a specific URI.

rememora get rememora://projects/foo/memories/decision/redis-caching

Example flow

# Step 1: filter
rememora search "caching strategy" --project acme --format compact
# → hit: rememora://projects/acme/memories/decision/redis-caching (rank=-2.1)

# Step 2: context
rememora timeline --anchor rememora://projects/acme/memories/decision/redis-caching --before 3 --after 3
# → see what else was decided that week

# Step 3: full content (only for the most relevant hit)
rememora get rememora://projects/acme/memories/decision/redis-caching

When to search

Situation	Search for
About to implement a feature	Prior decisions about architecture, framework choices, patterns
Debugging a problem	Prior cases with similar symptoms or in the same area
User says "we decided..." or "remember when..."	The specific decision or event
Working with unfamiliar code	Entity knowledge about that module/service
Making a trade-off choice	Prior decisions to maintain consistency

After searching

• If results are relevant: incorporate them into your approach. Mention what you found.
• If no results: proceed normally. Not everything has prior context.
• Do not fabricate memories — only use what rememora returns.

Rules

1. Search BEFORE acting — don't implement first and search after.
2. Filter cheaply first — --format compact for search, then timeline, then get. Do not default to the full search output — it burns tokens.
3. Be brief — one search, check results, move on.
4. Don't search for things you can just read — use Read/Grep for code, rememora for decisions and context.