qhaway 0.1.8

A truncation-proof projection of a Markdown memory index: regenerate MEMORY.md to fit the loader's budget and declare what it sets aside, instead of being silently cut.

qhaway

Quechua: "to see / to watch over." The name states the cure — make the whole memory record visible instead of silently truncated.

qhaway keeps a Markdown memory index from being silently cut off when it grows past the size limit of the system that loads it.

The problem

Some agents and tools maintain memory as a directory of small Markdown files plus a single curated index (MEMORY.md) that points at them. The index is loaded into context on startup so the agent boots with a map of what it knows.

That index grows. When it grows past the loader's size limit, it is silently truncated — cut off with no error raised. The agent boots a partial self and doesn't know it: everything past the cut is invisible, and a pointer to a file that no longer exists rides along just as silently. The honest record is there on disk; the loaded view of it is a lie of omission.

This was observed live: a 36.8KB / 137-entry index against a ~24.4KB load limit, with the entire latest section — including the pointer to the most recent state — falling past the cut.

The fix

qhaway regenerates MEMORY.md itself as a truncation-proof projection of the memory files:

• Files stay the write surface. You keep writing topic .md files exactly as you do today. There is no schema to learn and no "save" API to call. qhaway only changes who writes the index — a machine, not a hand.

• It fits the budget. The regenerated index is guaranteed to come in under the loader's limit, so it is never silently cut.

• No silent loss — ever. When the index can't fit everything, it doesn't drop entries quietly. It declares the omission:

  +47 project memories not shown — run: qhaway index --type project
  

  Truncation becomes visible selection. You always know what was set aside and how to see it.

The loader keeps reading MEMORY.md exactly as before — now complete-for-what-it- claims and guaranteed under budget. Nothing downstream changes.

Install

uvx qhaway init        # `uvx qhaway install` works too

Then restart Claude Code. qhaway wires itself in at user scope — both the boot hooks (which deliver your memory at session start) and the recall / remember MCP tools — and activates in any project that already has memory; projects without memory are untouched. No clone, no per-project setup. To remove it: uvx qhaway uninstall (your MEMORY.md files are left in place).

(Requires uv — uvx fetches qhaway and a managed Python on first use.)

As a Claude Code plugin

If you'd rather load qhaway per-session from a checkout instead of installing it at user scope, point Claude Code at the bundled plugin:

git clone https://github.com/fsgeek/qhaway
claude --plugin-dir qhaway/qhaway-plugin
#    the plugin ships disabled — enable it from /plugin to opt in

Disable it from /plugin and the hooks stop firing; your MEMORY.md is left as a plain, readable, self-sufficient index — nothing broken, nothing to clean up.

As a standalone CLI

If you just want the index tool by hand (no Claude Code), install it directly:

uv tool install qhaway
# or
pipx install qhaway

Embedded and zero-infra either way: it uses stdlib SQLite (WAL mode) as a single local file. No server, no database to provision, no credentials.

Usage

# Regenerate MEMORY.md from the memory directory (the main command)
qhaway index

# See a specific slice — including entries the default index declared as omitted
qhaway index --type project
qhaway index --role <role>
qhaway index --status superseded

# Set a custom budget
qhaway index --budget <bytes>

# Inspect without writing: would it overflow? any broken links? any leftover files?
qhaway index --check

# Print the projection without writing the file
qhaway index --dry-run

To record a memory: write a topic .md file, then run qhaway index. Don't hand-edit MEMORY.md — it is fully derived, and any hand edit is preserved (see below) but won't survive into the index unless it lives in a topic file.

MCP spine (remember / recall)

After init and a restart, a Claude Code instance reaches its memory through two MCP tools instead of hand-writing files. MEMORY.md becomes a managed, read-only redirect into the SQLite-derived index; the topic files stay the source of truth.

Two verbs are exposed to the model:

• recall(type?, role?, status?) — pure read; returns the budgeted projection (omit args for the working set).
• remember(type, title, body, description?, links?) — writes a topic file then reconciles. Files stay truth; the DB is a derived, rebuildable view.

You don't run the server yourself — init wires it. Under the hood the MCP server derives its memory directory from CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR and provisions it on first use, so a brand-new project starts ready for its first remember(). (The internal commands — qhaway serve, qhaway reconcile, qhaway check — exist for debugging; a normal install never invokes them by hand.)

MEMORY.md is written born-read-only (0o444) as a friction signal — not a hard barrier — so the reflexive hand-edit is deflected toward the tools. qhaway's own writer updates it via atomic temp-file + replace.

How it works

qhaway index
  → scan the memory directory
  → parse each file into a node (frontmatter type, filename role, links, body)
  → build an index of nodes + links in SQLite
  → project the working set under the byte budget,
    appending a declared-omissions footer for anything set aside
  → write MEMORY.md

The memory files are the single source of truth. The index is rebuilt from scratch on every run, so it can never drift from the files. The same files always produce a byte-identical index.

What's preserved

MEMORY.md is fully machine-derived — there are no hand-maintained regions. If qhaway ever finds that the index was edited by hand since it last wrote it, it does not overwrite the edit: it renames the existing file to a timestamped MEMORY-<timestamp>.md and writes a fresh index. Your edit is preserved verbatim; the index rebuilds from the files. Nothing is interpreted, merged, or lost.

Design philosophy

One pain, fixed completely: truncation. Full-text search, deep audit, write tooling, and ranking sophistication are deliberately not in this version — each is a real later idea, none is this version's job.

The wager is simple: a structured index built over an existing pile of files — without replacing the pile — makes the whole thing measurably work better. The proof is use. If it removes felt pain for skeptical users who'll drop it the moment it's more friction than value, it ships; if it removes the same pain for strangers feeling the same sprawl, it spreads. Propagation is the measurement.

Status

Early (v0.1.7). The design is specified in docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-20-qhaway-mvp-design.md.