course module
Rung 2 — Journal & Snapshots (Free Memory You Already Have)
Your agent already keeps a diary — you've just been ignoring it. Session journals and crash snapshots are free, automatic memory. Stop restarting cold.
course module
Your agent already keeps a diary — you've just been ignoring it. Session journals and crash snapshots are free, automatic memory. Stop restarting cold.
The win: you stop opening every session from zero. The first two memory tiers are already running — you just learn to lean on them.
[PRIOR CONTEXT] block — the journal, the agent's own running summary of what you did last time — loads into its head automatically. You won't see it. The agent does.[RECOVERED CONTEXT] block) caught your unfinished thought, and the new session picks up the thread.Most people treat every agent session like a first date — re-introducing themselves, re-explaining the project, re-pasting the context. You've been paying a context tax on every single session, and the refund was sitting right there.
Journal = what happened recently, automatic. Snapshot = crash insurance, automatic. Neither costs you anything, neither needs a command. The discipline is simply: stop restarting cold when warm is free.
You already have short-term memory. What you don't have yet is the deliberate kind — the things you want your agent to hold onto forever, on purpose.
Next rung: the /remember muscle.