Memory Merger
Published by monkilabs in opencastle
What this skill does
Reviews mature LESSONS-LEARNED.md entries, rewrites them as permanent rules in skill/instruction files, archives graduated lessons. Use when graduating lessons into skills, promoting validated lessons, updating skills from past learnings, archiving mature lessons, codifying repeated patterns, or cleaning up a crowded LESSONS-LEARNED.md.
Add Memory Merger to your agent
Review the source and files first. When you are ready, copy the prompt instruction or use the CLI command supported by your environment.
Install with a prompt
Paste this into a compatible coding agent:
add this skill "memory-merger" from https://github.com/monkilabs/opencastleInstall with the CLI
Run this command in a controlled environment after reviewing the repository:
npx skills add https://github.com/monkilabs/opencastle --skill memory-mergerSkill instructions
Memory Merger
Run Criteria
Combined signals to identify merge candidates.
| Criterion | Signal / Threshold |
|---|---|
| File size | LESSONS-LEARNED.md > 50 entries |
| Citation count | Cited 3+ times across sessions |
| Age | >60 days and still relevant |
| Category cluster | 5+ lessons in same category |
| Severity | Marked high or blocking |
| Discretionary | Curator / maintainer judgement (stale file) |
Workflow (numbered)
- Scan LESSONS-LEARNED.md for candidate entries (frequency, severity, age).
- Map each candidate to target file, section.
- Draft exact edit (concise rule or example).
- Apply edit with attribution comment.
- Archive migrated lesson in LESSONS-LEARNED.md with merge note.
- Update index; run validation checks.
Merge Protocol
3 — Draft Edit
Lesson: LES-XXX — [title]
Target: [file path]
Section: [section name]
Edit: [exact text]
Strategies: add rule, add anti-pattern, add code example, expand existing rule, add table row.
4 — Apply & Attribute
Edit target file; add <!-- Merged from LES-XXX --> attribution inline.
5 — Archive
Move merged lessons to ## Archived (Merged) at the bottom of LESSONS-LEARNED.md:
### LES-XXX: [title] → Merged to `[target]` on YYYY-MM-DD
Never delete lessons — archive for traceability.
6 — Update Index
Update ## Index by Category in LESSONS-LEARNED.md to mark archived lessons.
Automating the scan
# Find lessons cited 3+ times across sessions
rg -c "LES-[0-9]+" .opencastle/logs/events.ndjson | awk -F: '$2 >= 3 {print $1}'
# Find lessons referenced in recent retries
rg "retry.*LES-[0-9]+" .opencastle/logs/events.ndjson | rg -o "LES-[0-9]+" | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20
Quality Gates (validation checkpoints)
- No duplicate rules created in target files or other skills
- Archived lesson references target file and date
- Target file still passes lint/markdown checks (if applicable)
- Keyword search in the target file confirms the merge applied
Anti-Patterns
- Merge too eagerly — must meet 3+ citations or 60+ day threshold
- Copy verbatim — rewrite as rules/guidelines, not incident reports
- Merge conflicting lessons — resolve conflict first
- Create new files for merged content — merge INTO existing files only
Files included
- SKILL.md