## Definition **Memory scope promotion discipline** is the rule that a fact must reach stability before it is written to a memory layer with a slower decay rate. Promoting a session-level observation to project or user memory too early embeds a tentative state as canonical truth — a silent hallucination factory for future agents. ## The Decay-Tiered Write Rule The three scopes in a [[Layered Memory Architecture]] carry implicit commitments: | Scope | Decay rate | Write trigger | | ------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | Session | Fast | Any working decision in the current turn | | Project | Medium | Decision is shipped, tested, or explicitly ratified | | User | Slow | Stable preference observed across multiple sessions | The discipline: **only promote when the fact is stable at the destination layer's timescale.** A naming convention agreed in turn 3 may be reversed in turn 9 — let it live in session scope until it ships. ## Two Failure Modes to Avoid 1. **Premature promotion.** Writing a session decision to project memory before it is stable. Future agents read it as settled when it may have been superseded two turns later. 2. **Scope contamination.** Writing project facts into user memory. "User prefers PostgreSQL" is not a user preference; it is a project constraint. Misrouting it pollutes the user scope with data that expires when the project changes. ## Practical Signal for Promotion The author's heuristic from Module 6: wait until the change *ships or is otherwise stable* before writing it to a layer with slow decay. Concrete triggers: - **Session → Project**: a PR is merged, or the decision survives a full session review unchanged. - **Project → User**: a working pattern is observed across multiple independent projects. Until those triggers fire, keep the fact in the faster-decay scope — or don't write it at all. ## Relation to Auto-Memory [[Auto-memory]] agents write on their own initiative; the promotion discipline is the human policy that governs *which scope* each write targets. Without it, auto-memory defaults to writing wherever is convenient, which tends to be project scope — and project scope stales faster than user scope allows. ## Related - [[Layered Memory Architecture]] - [[Auto-memory]] - [[Context vs Memory]] - [[Architecture Decision Record]] ## Sources - [[Modern AI Software Engineering - The Orchestrators Playbook]]