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@yhyu13 yhyu13 commented May 6, 2026

feat: Hippocampus Memory System — Phases 1, 2, 3

Summary

Implements a complete neuroscience-inspired episodic/spatial memory system for OpenWolf, tracking file operations across sessions with valence detection, fast recall, and long-term consolidation.

7 commits | 12,221 lines added | 178 deleted


What Is This?

The hippocampus memory system addresses a fundamental gap in OpenWolf's intelligence:

Current OpenWolf (Before Hippocampus)
OpenWolf tracks what exists and what you told it:

anatomy.md — what files contain (static map)
cerebrum.md — what you corrected it to remember (explicit)
buglog.json — bugs you explicitly logged (manual)
memory.md — chronological log (flat, unindexed)
But it has no memory of what happened across sessions in a structured, queryable way.

Why Hippocampus Matters

  1. Implicit Learning Without Explicit Corrections
    Cerebrum requires you to explicitly correct Claude. Hippocampus watches silently and learns from actions — file edited 8 times? That's trauma, worth remembering. No explicit correction needed.

  2. Spatial Memory — "Where" vs "What"
    A log says "file X was edited." Hippocampus says "file X was edited 8 times by you across 3 sessions, always in src/auth/, the errors were TypeErrors about undefined properties." That's context-aware memory.

  3. Automatic Problem Detection
    Files with high trauma scores are signals: "this code is problematic." Claude can use this to prioritize testing, be more careful with edits, or proactively suggest fixes.

  4. Recall with Scoring
    Instead of grepping a flat memory.md, openwolf recall /src/ returns ranked results weighted by recency, intensity, and valence. Most relevant events surface first.

  5. Token Savings
    When Claude knows "I already fixed this exact bug in this file 3 weeks ago" before starting work, it doesn't re-do the investigation. The cue-index makes this O(1) lookup instead of scanning.

  6. Long-term Memory That Decays Like Real Memory
    5%/week decay for low-value events, trauma never decays. Important stuff persists, noise fades. This is how biological memory actually works.

The Analogy
Human Memory Hippocampus
Episodic memory hippocampus.json (who what when where)
Fast indexing (where did I put my keys?) cue-index.json (fast path lookup)
Consolidation during sleep neocortex.json (long-term storage)
Emotional intensity = better recall trauma valence = high intensity = important
Forgetting low-importance details 5%/week decay for neutral events
Bottom line: Without hippocampus, OpenWolf is a reactive tool that learns only when explicitly told. With it, OpenWolf becomes a proactive memory system that watches, indexes, recalls, and consolidates — like a real second brain.


What This Adds

Phase 1 — Hippocampus Core (✅ 98 tests)

  • src/hippocampus/types.ts — WolfEvent, Valence, ConsolidationStage types
  • src/hippocampus/index.ts — Hippocampus class with addEvent(), recall(), getTraumas()
  • src/hippocampus/event-store.ts — hippocampus.json CRUD operations
  • src/templates/hippocampus.json — Template for openwolf init
  • Hook wiring: post-write (capture events), pre-read (trauma warnings)

Phase 2 — Recall System (✅ 109 tests)

  • src/hippocampus/cue-index.ts — Fast lookup index (location_index, tag_index, trauma_index)
  • src/hippocampus/cue-recall.ts — Scoring algorithm (location 55%, recency 20%, valence 15%, intensity 10%)
  • src/cli/recall.tsopenwolf recall <path> CLI command
  • Match modes: exact, prefix, glob, parent, sibling
  • src/templates/cue-index.json — Template for cue-index

Phase 3 — Consolidation (✅ 37 tests)

  • src/hippocampus/consolidation.ts — Neocortex transfer, decay logic, consolidation scoring
  • src/templates/neocortex.json — Long-term memory template
  • Decay: 5%/week for neutral/reward/penalty, trauma never decays
  • Daemon wiring: hippocampus-consolidation cron task (daily 3 AM)

New Files

src/hippocampus/
├── index.ts              # Hippocampus class
├── types.ts              # Type definitions
├── event-store.ts        # hippocampus.json CRUD
├── cue-index.ts          # Cue index builder
├── cue-recall.ts         # Recall algorithm
└── consolidation.ts       # Neocortex + decay logic

src/cli/
└── recall.ts             # openwolf recall CLI

src/templates/
├── hippocampus.json      # Short-term store template
├── cue-index.json        # Cue index template
└── neocortex.json       # Long-term store template

docs2/
├── 00-hippocampus-memory-system.md
├── 01-event-model.md
├── 02-cue-system.md
├── 03-consolidation.md
├── 04-implementation-spec.md
├── 05-hook-integration.md
├── PLAN.md
├── phase1/test/ (T1-T8, 98 tests)
├── phase2/test/ (T9-T12, 109 tests)
├── phase3/test/ (T13-T16, 37 tests)
└── critic/ (critique docs)

New CLI Commands

# Recall events by file path
openwolf recall /path/to/file.ts

# Prefix match (all files under directory)
openwolf recall --match-mode prefix /path/to/src/

# JSON output
openwolf recall --json /path/to/file.ts

# State cue (error matching)
openwolf recall --type state --error "TypeError" /path/to/src/

Test Results

Suite Tests Status
T1-T8 Phase 1 98 ✅ Pass
T9-T12 Phase 2 109 ✅ Pass
T13-T16 Phase 3 37 ✅ Pass
Total 244 ✅ All pass

Known Defects (Documented)

  • D3: Index batch-persist — cue-index.json persists every 10 events, not on every add
  • D4: Parent match mode — exact key lookup instead of prefix matching

Breaking Changes

  • None. Pure additive feature.

Backward Compatibility

  • openwolf init creates new files alongside existing .wolf/ files
  • Existing hooks remain functional

Test Plan

pnpm build
node docs2/phase1/test/T1_T2_build-init.sh
node docs2/phase1/test/T3_event-store.test.ts
node docs2/phase1/test/T4_hippocampus.test.ts
bash docs2/phase1/test/T5_T8_runtime.sh

node docs2/phase2/test/T9_cue-index.test.ts
node docs2/phase2/test/T10_recall.test.ts
bash docs2/phase2/test/T11_recall-cli.test.sh
bash docs2/phase2/test/T12_integration.test.sh

node docs2/phase3/test/T13_consolidation.test.ts
node docs2/phase3/test/T14_decay.test.ts
node docs2/phase3/test/T15_neocortex.test.ts
bash docs2/phase3/test/T16_integration.test.sh

Generated by Claude Code

yhyu13 and others added 8 commits May 6, 2026 10:51
Add neuroscience-inspired episodic memory system for OpenWolf:
- src/hippocampus/: types, event-store, index modules
- src/templates/hippocampus.json: init template
- Wire post-write hook to capture events
- Wire pre-read hook to show trauma warnings
- docs2/: design docs and plan for hippocampus extension

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add T1_T2_build-init.sh: build integrity + init tests
- Add T3_event-store.test.ts: 41 unit tests for event-store CRUD
- Add T4_hippocampus.test.ts: 29 unit tests for Hippocampus class
- Add T5_T8_runtime.sh: 17 runtime integration tests for hooks
- Add TEST_RESULTS.md: full test results log
- Fix event-store.ts: correct event ordering in filterEvents
- Fix init.ts: properly fill project_root, created_at fields

All 98 tests passing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Implementation:
- src/hippocampus/cue-index.ts: CueIndex CRUD with batch persistence
- src/hippocampus/cue-recall.ts: Recall algorithm with scoring
- src/hippocampus/index.ts: Added recall() method, batch index persist
- src/hippocampus/types.ts: Added Cue/Recall types
- src/cli/recall.ts: openwolf recall CLI command
- src/hooks/pre-write.ts: Hippocampus trauma warnings
- src/cli/init.ts: Wire cue-index.json creation

Test suite (109 tests passing):
- T9: Cue index CRUD + batch persist (37 tests)
- T10: Recall API + scoring + filters (57 tests)
- T11: Recall CLI + output formats (9 tests)
- T12: Integration + persistence (6 tests)

Known issue (D4): Parent match mode has a prefix lookup bug

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Delete accidentally committed .js files in src/hippocampus/
- Add src/**/*.js to .gitignore to prevent future commits

These .js files are TypeScript source duplicates that should
only exist as .ts files. Compiled output goes to dist/.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add phase2_hippocampus_usage.md with live demo findings
- Change export to export type for type-only exports in hippocampus/index.ts

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add Neocortex long-term memory store (neocortex.json)
- Add exponential decay logic (5%/week, trauma never decays)
- Add consolidation scoring (intensity + valence + access count + recency)
- Wire hippocampus-consolidation cron task (daily at 3 AM)
- Add Phase 3 test suite (T13-T16, 37 tests passing)
- Add critic review for Phase 3 consolidation implementation

New files:
- src/hippocampus/consolidation.ts
- src/templates/neocortex.json
- docs2/phase3/test/ (T13-T16 tests)

Modified:
- src/hippocampus/index.ts (consolidate methods)
- src/cli/init.ts (neocortex initialization)
- src/daemon/cron-engine.ts (consolidate_hippocampus action)
- src/templates/cron-manifest.json (hippocampus-consolidation task)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add hippocampus memory system section (episodic memory, valence, recall)
- Add recall command to commands list
- Add hippocampus.json, cue-index.json, neocortex.json to What It Creates
- Update Quick Start with local install option: ./scripts/install.sh
- Add docs2/critic/5_CRITIC_PLAN.md with plan review findings

New:
- scripts/install.sh - installs local openwolf globally

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
… to hooks

- init.ts: copyHookScripts() now copies hippocampus/ module to .wolf/hippocampus/
  so hooks can import it (was missing since Phase 2 hippocampus addition)
- pre-read/pre-write: use hippocampus.recall() with match_mode:parent to surface
  related traumas from sibling/parent files, not just exact path matches
- post-write: surface past learnings on multi-edit, store files_involved as
  relative paths for consistent path matching
- pre-read/pre-write: convert filePath to relative before getTraumas()/recall()
  to fix path mismatch bug where stored absolute paths never matched

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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