Critical Bugfix:
- Fixed overly defensive observation validation blocking observations from being saved
- Parser now NEVER skips observations - always saves them
- Invalid or missing type defaults to "change" (generic catch-all type)
- Removed validation requiring title, subtitle, and narrative fields
- Prevents critical data loss - partial observations better than no observations
Impact:
- Before: Missing title, subtitle, OR narrative caused entire observation to be discarded
- After: ALL observations preserved regardless of field completeness
- Even partial observations contain valuable data: concepts, files_read, files_modified, facts
- LLMs make mistakes - system must be resilient and save everything
- Consistent with v4.2.5 summary fix
Technical changes:
- Updated src/sdk/parser.ts:52-67 to never skip observations
- Uses "change" as fallback type for invalid/missing types (no schema change)
- Updated ParsedObservation interface to allow null for title, subtitle, narrative
- Updated SessionStore.storeObservation signature to accept nullable fields
- Updated built worker-service.cjs
- Bumped version to 4.2.6 in all metadata files
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Improvements to SessionStart context hook file display:
1. **Remove redundant files**: Files in "Modified" list are now excluded from "Read" list
- Prevents duplication when a file was both read and modified
- Reduces token usage by eliminating redundant information
2. **Use relative paths**: Convert absolute paths to project-relative paths
- Example: /Users/alexnewman/Scripts/claude-mem/src/hooks/context.ts → src/hooks/context.ts
- Significantly reduces token consumption in context injection
- Makes file references more readable and portable
Implementation:
- Added toRelativePath() helper function to convert paths
- Added filesModifiedSet.forEach(file => filesReadSet.delete(file)) to remove duplicates
- Applied to both files_read and files_modified when building Sets
Impact: Reduces token usage in Tier 1 summaries (most recent session) where file lists are displayed.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
New structure (10 sessions total):
- Tier 3 (oldest 6): Request + Date only
- Tier 2 (middle 3): Request + Learned + Completed + Date
- Tier 1 (most recent): Full verbosity (all fields)
This provides cleaner, more focused context with less redundancy.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Introduces three-tier verbosity system to reduce redundancy and improve token efficiency:
Tier 1 (Most Recent - Position -1):
- Full verbosity with all fields shown
- Request, Learned, Completed, Next Steps, Files Read, Files Modified, Date
Tier 2 (Recent - Positions -2 to -5):
- Medium verbosity, skips Files Read (less actionable)
- Request, Learned, Completed, Next Steps, Files Modified, Date
Tier 3 (Older - Positions -6 to -30):
- Compact index with just Learned + citation link
- Format: Learned + [Details: claude-mem://session/{id}]
- Enables lazy-loading via MCP search tools
Changes:
- Increased LIMIT from 10 to 30 sessions
- Added position-based formatting logic in loop
- Token reduction: ~30% fewer tokens (~2,150 vs ~3,000)
- History expansion: 3x more sessions (30 vs 10)
Benefits:
- Reduced redundancy through natural information gradient
- More context breadth without token explosion
- MCP search becomes expansion mechanism for deeper dives
- Aligns with core philosophy: compression for efficiency, expansion on demand
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Updated contextHook to query session_summaries directly instead of using sdk_sessions table.
- Removed unnecessary complexity in output formatting, focusing on recent summaries for the project.
- Enhanced file reading and modification tracking by parsing observations directly.
- Made the database connection public in SessionStore for easier access.
- Added functionality to automatically create a session record in the database if it does not exist when storing observations or session summaries.
- Updated `storeObservation` and `storeSummary` methods to include checks for existing session records and insert new records as needed.
- Added logging for auto-created session records for better traceability.
- Added functionality to save raw user prompts for full-text search in the newHook function.
- Introduced new search endpoint 'search_user_prompts' to retrieve user prompts using FTS5.
- Created UserPromptRow and UserPromptSearchResult types for handling user prompt data.
- Implemented searchUserPrompts method in SessionSearch class to perform FTS5 queries.
- Created user_prompts table with FTS5 support and necessary triggers for data synchronization.
- Updated SessionStore to include methods for saving user prompts and managing the new table.
Root cause: Hooks provide session_id as the source of truth. We were adding
unnecessary validation (checking if sessions exist, checking status, etc.)
which caused 409 conflicts when continuing sessions after /exit.
Changes:
1. worker-service.ts: Removed 409 "Session already exists" check in handleInit
2. SessionStore.ts: Made createSDKSession idempotent using INSERT OR IGNORE
3. new-hook.ts: Simplified to just call createSDKSession - no findActiveSDKSession,
no reactivateSession logic, no status management
4. save-hook.ts: Removed session validation, use fixed port instead of session.worker_port
5. summary-hook.ts: Removed session validation, use fixed port instead of session.worker_port
Philosophy: Hooks manage lifecycle, we just save data with whatever session_id
they give us. No validation, no status checks, no guessing.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Changed summary prompts to generate discrete per-request summaries instead of cumulative session summaries. This provides better chronological memory where each summary is a clean unit representing one request/response cycle.
Changes:
- Renamed buildFinalizePrompt() to buildSummaryPrompt() in src/sdk/prompts.ts
- Updated prompt text to focus on "THIS REQUEST" rather than "this session"
- Updated all import and function call sites in worker-service.ts and worker.ts
- Added IMPORTANT warning to emphasize request-level scope
Expected behavior: Each summary will now describe only what happened during that specific request, eliminating cumulative recaps.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Updated contextHook to support colorized output for terminal and JSON format for hooks.
- Introduced ANSI color codes for improved readability in terminal output.
- Modified the output structure to include session details with color formatting.
- Added a new method in SessionStore to aggregate files read and modified from observations for a session.
- Improved error handling for JSON parsing of file data in the new method.
Simplified dependency installation by moving from TypeScript runtime bootstrap to bash-based checks in plugin manifest. This reduces complexity and code size while maintaining the same functionality.
Changes:
- Added bash conditional dependency checks to all 5 hooks in hooks.json
- Check runs before each hook: [ ! -d "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/node_modules" ] && cd "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts" && npm install || true
- Reverted all hook TypeScript files to use simple static imports (removed dynamic imports)
- Removed src/shared/bootstrap.ts (44 lines)
- Removed ensureDependencies() calls from all hook entry points
Benefits:
- Simpler architecture using native bash instead of TypeScript
- Net reduction of 157 lines of code
- No runtime overhead when dependencies already installed
- Uses plugin manifest's command hook feature as intended
- Faster and more efficient
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Changed all hook entry points to use dynamic imports after bootstrap runs. This ensures that better-sqlite3 is installed before Node.js attempts to resolve the import.
Changes:
- Modified src/bin/hooks/*.ts to call ensureDependencies() before dynamic import
- Moved from static `import { hook } from '...'` to `const { hook } = await import('...')`
- This delays module resolution until after npm install completes
- Bumped version to 4.0.6
The previous approach failed because static imports are resolved at module link time, before any runtime code (including ensureDependencies) executes.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixed better-sqlite3 distribution by implementing self-bootstrapping hooks
that auto-install dependencies on first run. This eliminates the need for
users to have native compilation tools or manually install dependencies.
## Solution
Instead of bundling 25MB of better-sqlite3 binaries in git or requiring
manual npm install, hooks now bootstrap themselves on first execution:
1. Created `src/shared/bootstrap.ts` with `ensureDependencies()` function
2. Added bootstrap calls to all hook entry points (context, new, save, summary, cleanup)
3. Created `plugin/scripts/package.json` declaring better-sqlite3 dependency
4. Bootstrap checks if `node_modules` exists, runs `npm install` if missing
5. npm automatically downloads prebuilt better-sqlite3 binary for user's platform
## Changes
**Core Bootstrap System:**
- Added src/shared/bootstrap.ts: Auto-install dependencies using npm
- Modified all hooks (context, new, save, summary, cleanup) to call ensureDependencies()
- Created plugin/scripts/package.json with better-sqlite3 dependency
**Build & Distribution:**
- Removed node_modules copying logic from build script
- Build output is now compact (hooks + package.json, no binaries)
- Updated marketplace.json to point to GitHub for direct installation
**Documentation:**
- Updated README: GitHub Marketplace installation is now recommended method
- Installation instructions emphasize no compilation needed
- Version bumped to 4.0.5 throughout
## Benefits
- ✅ No git bloat (repo stays small, no 25MB binaries committed)
- ✅ No compilation needed (npm downloads prebuilt binaries)
- ✅ Works on all platforms (npm handles platform-specific binaries)
- ✅ Zero manual steps (hooks bootstrap themselves automatically)
- ✅ Idempotent (skips install if dependencies already exist)
Installation now works via simple:
```
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem
/plugin install claude-mem
```
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Updated `new-hook.js` to streamline logging and session management.
- Enhanced database schema initialization and migration processes.
- Improved error handling for worker startup in `worker-utils.ts`, ensuring PM2 binary and ecosystem config existence before spawning.
- Added detailed error messages for missing dependencies and spawn failures.
- Removed try-catch blocks in new-hook, save-hook, and summary-hook for cleaner flow.
- Enhanced error handling in save and summary hooks to throw errors instead of logging and returning.
- Introduced ensureWorkerRunning utility to manage worker service lifecycle and health checks.
- Replaced dynamic port allocation with a fixed port for the worker service.
- Simplified path management and removed unused port allocator utility.
- Added database schema initialization for fresh installations and improved migration handling.
BREAKING CHANGES:
- Data directory moved from ~/.claude-mem/ to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/data/
- Fresh start required - no migration from v3.x databases
- Worker service now auto-starts on SessionStart hook
New Features:
- MCP Search Server with 6 specialized search tools
- FTS5 full-text search across observations and sessions
- Auto-starting worker service in SessionStart hook
- Citation support for search results (claude-mem:// URIs)
Changes:
- Updated paths.ts to use CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT for data directory
- Added worker auto-start logic to context hook
- Updated worker service to write port file to plugin data dir
- Bumped version to 4.0.0 in package.json and plugin.json
- Created comprehensive CHANGELOG.md documenting v4.0.0 changes
- Updated README.md with v4.0.0 breaking changes and features
- Rebuilt all hooks and worker service
Technical Improvements:
- Improved error handling and graceful degradation
- Structured logging across all components
- Enhanced plugin integration with Claude Code
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
The context hook was not appearing in Claude Code sessions because it was
outputting plain text to stdout instead of using the required JSON structure
for SessionStart hooks.
Changes:
- src/hooks/context.ts: Changed contextHook to return string instead of void,
removing direct console.log calls to make it more reusable
- src/bin/hooks/context-hook.ts: Wrap contextHook output in hookSpecificOutput
JSON structure with hookEventName "SessionStart" and additionalContext field
- Both TTY and stdin code paths now properly format and exit with code 0
Fixes the issue where recent session context was not being injected at session
start. Tested with npm run test:context - hook now properly outputs JSON with
recent sessions formatted as markdown.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Added SDK session, observation, and summary types to types.ts.
- Refactored worker-service to use SessionStore for session management.
- Created SessionSearch class for FTS5 full-text search and structured queries.
- Implemented SessionStore for CRUD operations on SDK sessions, observations, and summaries.
- Added migrations for database schema updates, including new columns and constraints.
- Enhanced search capabilities with filters for projects, types, concepts, and date ranges.
- Updated SQL queries in summary-hook.js and HooksDatabase.ts to improve performance and clarity.
- Introduced a subquery for fetching recent sessions with status, ensuring correct ordering and grouping.
- Enhanced logging functionality for better debugging and error tracking.
- Added comprehensive documentation in README.md to outline the new features and usage instructions.
- Updated `summary-hook.js` to improve logging and session handling.
- Modified `context.ts` to fetch recent sessions with status and summary info, enhancing output formatting.
- Added new methods in `HooksDatabase.ts` for retrieving recent sessions and their summaries.
- Improved observation retrieval logic in `context.ts` to display relevant information for active sessions.
- Enhanced prompt documentation in `prompts.ts` to clarify output expectations.
- Refactored logger methods in `logger.ts` to instance methods for better encapsulation.
- Introduced a new Logger utility to standardize logging with correlation IDs and structured context.
- Replaced console.error and console.log statements with logger methods in various modules including save.ts, summary.ts, parser.ts, HooksDatabase.ts, and worker-service.ts.
- Enhanced error handling and logging for better traceability of observations and summaries.
- Made observations.text nullable in the database schema to support structured fields.
- Added correlation IDs for tracking observations through the processing pipeline.
All 4 hook entry point scripts were missing process.exit(0) after successful
execution, causing Node processes to hang indefinitely instead of returning
control to Claude Code with exit code 0.
Root cause: In commit 6f62a56, process.exit(0) calls were removed from the
hook functions but were never added to the entry point scripts that wrap them.
Fixed files:
- src/bin/hooks/save-hook.ts (PostToolUse)
- src/bin/hooks/new-hook.ts (UserPromptSubmit)
- src/bin/hooks/summary-hook.ts (Stop)
- src/bin/hooks/context-hook.ts (SessionStart)
This restores proper hook exit behavior and prevents Claude Code from waiting
indefinitely for hook completion.
- Updated observation schema to include hierarchical fields: title, subtitle, facts, narrative, concepts, files_read, and files_modified.
- Modified the save-hook and summary-hook scripts to accommodate the new observation structure.
- Added migration logic to the HooksDatabase for adding new fields to the observations table.
- Refactored the parser to extract new fields from XML formatted observations.
- Adjusted prompt generation to reflect the new observation format and requirements.
- Updated worker service to handle new observation and summary structures.
- Introduced `getSessionById` method in HooksDatabase to retrieve session details by ID.
- Updated context, new, save, and summary hooks to utilize the new `getSessionById` method.
- Enhanced session management by adding `worker_port` and `prompt_counter` columns to relevant tables.
- Improved logging in WorkerService to provide clearer output during session initialization and processing.
- Removed redundant error logging in favor of more informative console logs.
- Updated save-hook.js and summary-hook.js to include new database columns for tracking worker ports and prompt numbers.
- Implemented migration logic to remove UNIQUE constraints from session_summaries table and added necessary indices.
- Modified HooksDatabase methods to return boolean values indicating success or failure of updates.
- Changed logging from error to info level in WorkerService for better clarity on session management and initialization.
- Added prompt_number to observations and session summaries for better tracking.
- Implemented prompt counter in SDK sessions to manage user prompts effectively.
- Updated database schema to include prompt tracking columns and removed unique constraints on session summaries.
- Modified hooks to utilize prompt_number in observations and summaries.
- Changed worker service to handle summarize requests instead of finalize, keeping the SDK agent active.
- Improved logging for better debugging and tracking of prompt numbers across sessions.
- Added WorkerService to handle long-running HTTP service with session management.
- Implemented endpoints for initializing, observing, finalizing, checking status, and deleting sessions.
- Integrated with Claude SDK for processing observations and generating responses.
- Added port allocator utility to dynamically find available ports for the service.
- Configured TypeScript settings for the project.
Alex Newman