Memory Layers

Register your own layer in the Mind Palace memory system. Your content becomes part of the AI's mind: searchable with search_memory, woven to the people and places she knows, walkable by the connection spider, browsable on its own tab in the web UI — without you writing a search engine, an embedding pipeline, or a single line of frontend.

Use cases: mirror an Obsidian vault, a wiki, a documentation tree, a lore book, an external note system — anything with items of text worth remembering.

Requires: the mindpalace plugin (the Mind Palace memory system). When it isn't active, your layer simply doesn't light up; declare your imports lazily (shown below) and your plugin degrades cleanly.

How it works — the mirror model

You don't serve queries. You mirror your content into the palace as normal memory chunks tagged with your layer key, and the palace does everything else: full-text + semantic search, entity-mention weaving (names in your text link to entities in her graph automatically), embeddings (generated in the background), export/import, and a generated web tab.

Your source of truth stays yours. The palace holds a copy keyed by your source ids, and you reconcile on change: delete by source, re-save.

1. Declare the layer

{
  "name": "my-vault",
  "capabilities": {
    "memory_layers": [
      {
        "key": "vault",
        "label": "Vault",
        "icon": "🗄️",
        "description": "Notes mirrored from my Obsidian vault.",
        "librarian": false,
        "writable": false
      }
    ]
  }
}

Registration happens at plugin load and unwinds at unload/disable — the AI's tool schemas update live in both directions.

2. Write content through layer_api

Import lazily, inside functions — never at module top-level — so plugin load order never matters:

def sync_vault(notes, scope='default'):
    try:
        from plugins.mindpalace.tools import layer_api
    except ImportError:
        return  # Mind Palace not active — mirror later

    # Batch sync: ONE transaction, ONE ledger line for the whole run
    items = [{'content': n.text[:512], 'source': n.path,
              'label': n.folder, 'fields': {'tags': n.tags}} for n in notes]
    ids, msg = layer_api.bulk_save(items, layer='vault', scope=scope)

def note_changed(note, scope='default'):
    from plugins.mindpalace.tools import layer_api
    # Reconciliation: source is your external id
    layer_api.delete_by_source('vault', note.path, scope=scope)
    layer_api.save(note.text[:512], layer='vault', scope=scope,
                   source=note.path, fields={'tags': note.tags})

The API (core/plugins/mindpalace/tools/layer_api.py, imported as plugins.mindpalace.tools.layer_api):

• save(content, layer, scope='default', label=None, fields=None, source=None) → (chunk_id, message). Full pipeline: inline embedding, FTS, entity-mention weaving. One ledger line per call — use for single items, not loops.
• bulk_save(items, layer, scope='default') → (ids, message). One transaction, embeddings deferred to the background sweep, one ledger summary line. Use this for syncs.
• delete_by_source(layer, source, scope='default') → (count, message). Removes every chunk you saved with that source, cleans its graph edges, one ledger line.
• get_sources(layer, scope='default') → {source: {'count', 'fields'}} for your mirrored chunks. The cheap diff: stamp a content hash into fields at save time, compare here, skip unchanged sources on the next sync.
• sync_note(layer, summary, scope='default', detail=None) — one ledger line about an out-of-band event. Sparingly: one per sync run, never one per item.

The fence: layer_api accepts only your registered plugin layers — the palace's own layers are never writable through it. Content is capped at 512 chars per chunk (like every palace memory); chunk long notes yourself.

Ledger etiquette matters. The ledger is the AI's "what changed in my mind" stream, read every time she reads her self-sheet. A 500-note sync must be one line ("my-vault synced 500 items into vault"), not 500. bulk_save and delete_by_source do this for you; don't loop save() over a big import.

3. What you get for free

• Search: search_memory(layer='vault') and all-layer searches include your content; your layer is listed in the tool's description automatically.
• Weaving: names in your content matching her entities create graph edges at write time; the spider walks them like any memory.
• Web tab: your layer appears in the Mind Palace tab strip and the Mind flyout, with browse/search/favorite/export — zero frontend code.
• Scope semantics: pass the chat's memory scope (read scope_memory from core.chat.function_manager — return None on error and disable, never fall back to 'default'). Scope deletion deletes your mirrored rows with everything else.
• Settings: need a vault path? Declare capabilities.settings (guide) — your tool executor receives them automatically.

Disabled = dark

When your plugin is disabled, your layer goes dark: mirrored rows stay in the database but vanish from every read path — search, browse, spider, tabs. Re-enable the plugin and they light back up. Nothing is deleted. (Deleting a whole scope deletes its plugin-layer rows too — scope deletion is total.)

Minimal working example

The whole contract in two small files. The manifest declares the layer (plus however you trigger your sync — a tool, a schedule task, a daemon):

{
  "name": "lore-book",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "Mirrors lore.txt into the Mind Palace.",
  "capabilities": {
    "memory_layers": [
      {"key": "lore", "label": "Lore", "icon": "📜",
       "description": "World lore mirrored from lore.txt."}
    ],
    "tools": ["tools/lore_tools.py"]
  }
}

And the sync itself — reconcile by source, then re-mirror in one batch:

def sync_lore(scope='default'):
    try:
        from plugins.mindpalace.tools import layer_api
    except ImportError:
        return "Mind Palace not active - nothing mirrored.", False

    from pathlib import Path
    src = Path(__file__).parent.parent / 'lore.txt'
    paras = [p.strip() for p in src.read_text(encoding='utf-8').split('\n\n')]

    layer_api.delete_by_source('lore', str(src), scope=scope)
    items = [{'content': p[:512], 'source': str(src)} for p in paras if p]
    ids, msg = layer_api.bulk_save(items, layer='lore', scope=scope)
    return msg, True

Call it from a plugin tool's execute() (see Tools), a scheduled task, or a daemon loop. Search, the web tab, weaving, and embeddings all arrive free once the rows land.

For a bigger sync, do the cheap diff first: stamp a content hash into fields at save time, read get_sources() on the next run, and skip sources whose hash didn't change — a no-change sync should write zero ledger lines.

Gotchas

• Lazy imports only. from plugins.mindpalace.tools import layer_api at module top-level breaks under load-order changes and when Mind Palace is disabled. Inside the function, wrapped in try/except: always safe.
• Don't write the palace DB directly. layer_api is the contract; raw SQL against mind.db will break across palace versions and skips the ledger, weaving, and FTS.
• writable: false still lets users edit. The web tab lets the user delete/favorite your mirrored chunks — your next sync should tolerate missing rows (idempotent re-save by source).
• Sign after every edit (python tools/sign_plugin.py <your-plugin>) like any plugin.

Reference for AI

MEMORY LAYERS (plugin-declared Mind Palace layers):

• Manifest: capabilities.memory_layers = [{key, label?, icon?, description?, librarian? (default false), writable? (default false), mode? ('mirror' only)}]. Key: lowercase valid identifier (no hyphens), unique across plugins, first registrant wins; reserved keys refused: self, events, entities, knowledge, goals. Registered at plugin load, unregistered at unload/disable; the AI's tool schemas update live both ways.
• Requires the mindpalace plugin. Import lazily INSIDE functions: from plugins.mindpalace.tools import layer_api wrapped in try/except ImportError — never at module top level.
• API (core/plugins/mindpalace/tools/layer_api.py; import name stays plugins.mindpalace...):
  • save(content, layer, scope='default', label=None, fields=None, source=None) -> (chunk_id|None, message) — full pipeline (inline embedding, FTS, entity weaving), one ledger line per call; single items only, never loops.
  • bulk_save(items, layer, scope='default') -> (ids, message) — items = [{'content', 'label'?, 'fields'?, 'source'?}]; one transaction, embeddings deferred to the background sweep, ONE ledger summary line; empty/over-length items skipped and counted; very large batches are cut off by a runaway backstop.
  • delete_by_source(layer, source, scope='default') -> (count, message) — reconciliation primitive; cleans graph edges; one ledger line.
  • get_sources(layer, scope='default') -> {source: {'count', 'fields'}} — the cheap diff (stamp a content hash into fields at save time, compare here).
  • sync_note(layer, summary, scope='default', detail=None) -> bool — one ledger line for an out-of-band event; one per sync run maximum.
• Invariants: layer_api writes ONLY registered plugin layers (the palace's own layers are fenced); content capped at 512 chars per chunk; ledger etiquette = one line per sync run, never per item; plugin disabled => layer goes dark (rows kept, hidden from every read path) and re-enable relights; deleting a scope deletes its plugin-layer rows.
• Scope: read the chat's memory scope via core.chat.function_manager.scope_memory.get(); on error return None and disable — never fall back to 'default'.
• Never write mind.db directly; re-sign after any edit (python tools/sign_plugin.py <plugin>).