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Search Protocols

Protocol Selection

Before searching, classify the task:

Signal Mode Search Radius
Quick status check, monitoring heartbeat core + active
Normal question, lookup normal active + warm
"Find everything about X" deep all tiers
Strategy, complex analysis deep all tiers
Brainstorm, "what if", ideation creative random from cold+archive

Search Order (All Modes)

  1. Index files first — MOC or _index.md files are pre-built navigation. Check them before searching.
  2. Follow links — If an index points to [[crm/acme]], read the card directly. Don't search for "Acme."
  3. Semantic search — Only when indexes don't cover the query.
  4. Grep — Last resort for exact strings, IDs, phone numbers.

Tier Filtering

Pre-filter with grep

# Find all active cards
grep -rl "^tier: active" vault/crm/

# Find all cold+ cards for deep search
grep -rl "^tier: \(cold\|archive\)" vault/crm/

# Find high-relevance cards
grep -l "^relevance: 0\.9" vault/crm/

Combine with semantic search

  1. Grep for tier → get file list
  2. Read relevant files → answer question

This is cheaper than searching all 400+ cards semantically.

Heartbeat Protocol

Heartbeats are frequent, automated checks. Minimize cost:

  1. Read state file (always loaded)
  2. Check only core + active tier cards matching current projects
  3. Skip warm/cold/archive entirely
  4. Total reads: 0-5 files per heartbeat

Normal Protocol

Default for user questions:

  1. Check index/MOC for direct link
  2. If not found: semantic search with default radius (active + warm)
  3. Read top 3-5 results
  4. Touch any card you read: memory-engine.py touch <file>

Deep Protocol

For complex, multi-step analysis:

  1. Check indexes
  2. Semantic search across ALL tiers (no filtering)
  3. Read all relevant results (up to 10-15 files)
  4. Cross-reference cards for connections
  5. Touch all read cards

Creative Protocol

Deliberately non-directed. Goal: surface unexpected connections.

python3 memory-engine.py creative 5 vault/
  1. Get 5 random cards from cold/archive
  2. Read each one
  3. For each card, ask: "How could this connect to my current task?"
  4. If a connection exists → touch the card (promotes it back)
  5. If no connection → leave it (continues to decay)

When to use creative mode

  • Stuck on a problem
  • Looking for new angles
  • User says "brainstorm" or "what if"
  • Exploring forgotten knowledge
  • Weekly reflection sessions

What makes it work

Human creativity often comes from random associations — shower thoughts, dreams, serendipitous encounters. Creative mode simulates this by pulling forgotten cards back into working memory. The randomness is the feature, not a bug.

Touch Discipline

Touching a card resets its decay. Over-touching defeats the purpose.

Touch when:

  • You read the card's content to answer a question
  • You update the card with new information
  • User explicitly discusses the entity

Don't touch when:

  • Card appears in search results but you didn't open it
  • Running automated scans or reports
  • Bulk migration or formatting changes
  • Card mentioned in passing but not substantively used

Cost Awareness

Mode Typical reads Token cost
Heartbeat 0-5 files ~2K tokens
Normal 3-8 files ~5K tokens
Deep 10-20 files ~15K tokens
Creative 5 files ~3K tokens

Optimize by reading index files first — they're cheap navigation that prevents expensive full-text searches.