Memory Validate Skill

Validate your knowledge notes against the current state of the codebase to detect stale content.

When to Use

• Periodic knowledge base maintenance
• After major refactoring
• Before relying on old documentation
• To identify notes that need updating

Usage

/mem-validate project:my-project
/mem-validate project:my-project noteType:decision
/mem-validate project:my-project limit:10

How It Works

1. Extract File References

- Scans note content for file path mentions - Patterns like src/utils/helper.ts, code block paths, etc.

1. Check File Existence

- If referenced files are deleted: note is definitely stale - If some files missing: note is likely stale

1. AI Comparison (for existing files)

- Reads current file content (first 2000 chars) - Uses AI to compare documented knowledge vs actual code - Returns staleness verdict with confidence score

Workflow

1. Run Validation

- Call mem_validate for the project - Default limit: 20 notes (AI validation is slow)

1. Present Results

- Group by status: stale, current, unable to validate - Show confidence scores for stale notes - List files that have changed

1. Offer Actions

- For stale notes: offer to update via mem_supersede - For notes without file references: note that manual review may be needed

Output Format

# Content Validation Results

**Checked**: 15 notes
**Stale**: 3
**Current**: 10
**Unable to validate**: 2

## Stale Notes

These notes may need to be updated or superseded:

### `research/2024-01-15_api-design.md`
- **Confidence**: 85%
- **Reason**: The API endpoint handlers have been refactored to use a different pattern
- **Referenced files**: src/api/handlers.ts, src/middleware/auth.ts

### `decisions/authentication-strategy.md`
- **Confidence**: 92%
- **Reason**: All referenced files have been deleted

## Unable to Validate

- `research/general-tips.md`: No file references found in note content

---
Use `mem_supersede` to update stale notes with current information.

Follow-up Actions

For each stale note, offer:

1. Update: Read current files and create superseding note with mem_supersede
2. Skip: Leave as-is (user decides later)
3. Delete: If content is no longer relevant

Notes

• Validation is AI-powered and may take 30-60 seconds per note
• Uses claude -p with haiku model for fast validation
• Notes without file references cannot be automatically validated
• High confidence (>80%) suggests the note should definitely be reviewed