feat: implement ragtime email investigation with self-iteration and cleanup

- Add email-investigation mode via CLAUDE_MEM_MODE environment variable
- Each file processed in a new session (context managed by Claude-mem hooks)
- Add configurable transcript cleanup to prevent buildup (default 24h)
- Support environment variable configuration for all paths and settings
- Update README with usage documentation and configuration options

https://claude.ai/code/session_01N2wNRpUrUs2z9JKb7y29mH

ragtime/README.md

@@ -1,19 +1,66 @@
 # Ragtime
 
-> **Status**: Not yet implemented
+Email Investigation Batch Processor using Claude-mem's email-investigation mode.
 
-Ragtime is a planned feature for claude-mem that will enable advanced timeline analysis and automated workflow orchestration.
+## Overview
 
-## Why It's Not Ready Yet
+Ragtime processes email corpus files through Claude, using the email-investigation mode for entity/relationship/timeline extraction. Each file gets a NEW session - context is managed by Claude-mem's context injection hook, not by conversation continuation.
 
-Ragtime requires a fully functional **modes system** to work properly. The modes system (implemented in PR #412) provides:
+## Features
 
-- Mode inheritance and configuration loading
-- Type-safe observation metadata
-- Dynamic prompt injection based on workflow context
-- Language-specific behavior
+- **Email-investigation mode** - Specialized observation types for entities, relationships, timeline events, anomalies
+- **Self-iterating loop** - Each file processed in a new session
+- **Transcript cleanup** - Automatic cleanup prevents buildup of old transcripts
+- **Configurable** - All paths and settings via environment variables
 
-Now that the modes system is complete, Ragtime can be fully scripted out in a future release.
+## Usage
+
+```bash
+# Basic usage (expects corpus in datasets/epstein-mode/)
+bun ragtime/ragtime.ts
+
+# With custom corpus path
+RAGTIME_CORPUS_PATH=/path/to/emails bun ragtime/ragtime.ts
+
+# Limit files for testing
+RAGTIME_FILE_LIMIT=5 bun ragtime/ragtime.ts
+```
+
+## Configuration
+
+| Environment Variable | Default | Description |
+|---------------------|---------|-------------|
+| `RAGTIME_CORPUS_PATH` | `./datasets/epstein-mode` | Path to folder containing .md email files |
+| `RAGTIME_PLUGIN_PATH` | `./plugin` | Path to claude-mem plugin |
+| `CLAUDE_MEM_WORKER_PORT` | `37777` | Worker service port |
+| `RAGTIME_TRANSCRIPT_MAX_AGE` | `24` | Max age of transcripts to keep (hours) |
+| `RAGTIME_PROJECT_NAME` | `ragtime-investigation` | Project name for grouping |
+| `RAGTIME_FILE_LIMIT` | `0` | Limit files to process (0 = all) |
+| `RAGTIME_SESSION_DELAY` | `2000` | Delay between sessions (ms) |
+
+## Corpus Format
+
+The corpus directory should contain markdown files with email content. Files are processed in numeric order based on the first number in the filename:
+
+```
+datasets/epstein-mode/
+  0001.md
+  0002.md
+  0003.md
+  ...
+```
+
+Each markdown file should contain a single email or document to analyze.
+
+## How It Works
+
+1. **Startup**: Sets `CLAUDE_MEM_MODE=email-investigation` and cleans up old transcripts
+2. **Processing**: For each file:
+   - Starts a NEW Claude session (no continuation)
+   - Claude reads the file and analyzes entities, relationships, timeline events
+   - Claude-mem's context injection hook provides relevant past observations
+   - Worker processes and stores new observations
+3. **Cleanup**: Periodic and final transcript cleanup prevents buildup
 
 ## License
 
@@ -23,9 +70,9 @@ See [LICENSE](./LICENSE) for full terms.
 
 ### What this means:
 
-- ✅ You can use ragtime for noncommercial purposes
-- ✅ You can modify and distribute it
-- ❌ You cannot use it for commercial purposes without permission
+- You can use ragtime for noncommercial purposes
+- You can modify and distribute it
+- You cannot use it for commercial purposes without permission
 
 ### Why a different license?