# Advanced Memory DotAIOS works fully without anything on this page. The folder, the context files, the skills, the search: none of it needs a server, an account, a database, or an always-on machine. This page is the ladder you can climb when you want more, one optional rung at a time. Every rung is opt-in, off by default, and reversible. Skip this page entirely and you still have the whole product. ## Rung 1: The folder (you already have this) `~/aios` with your context, memory, vault, and skills. Plain files. Every connected tool reads it. This is the product. ### Keep hot memory small DotAIOS treats always-read memory as expensive. The files agents see at startup should hold only what changes decisions across many future sessions. Workflow lessons belong in skills, not in a growing journal. Run a local audit any time: ```bash npx dotaios@2.0.20 memory audit npx dotaios@2.0.20 memory audit --write-queue npx dotaios@2.0.20 memory audit --apply-skills ``` The audit never deletes memory. By default it follows DotAIOS memory routing: the last 50 `memory/events.jsonl` entries plus today/yesterday signal files. Use `--all-memory` only when you want a deeper forensic pass over older history. Older events and trimmed signals remain canonical JSONL. DotAIOS keeps each active archive below 2 MiB, rotating complete records into immutable numbered files (`events-archive.000001.jsonl`, for example). Search reads those shards automatically; there is no index to rebuild and no archived record becomes write-only. A single record may occupy its own shard up to the 4 MiB safe-read ceiling. Anything larger stops maintenance before the source is removed. Rotation uses a durable format witness and crash marker. An ambiguous archive created by the older markerless rotator is left byte-for-byte unchanged and reports `DOTAIOS_ARCHIVE_LEGACY_RECOVERY_REQUIRED` for explicit inspection; DotAIOS never guesses whether an identical shard prefix is a retry or a legitimate duplicate. A restart also repairs the narrowly proven two-name hard-link state left when a process dies during exclusive publication, while rejecting unrelated links. Execution-time runway check (2026-08-13): the live AIOS event archive is 199,021 bytes / 725 lines and the signal archive is 66,177 bytes / 203 lines. At the observed Git-visible rates of roughly 30 event lines/day and 10 signal lines/day since 2026-07-27, the coarse per-file runways were about 480 and 1,240 days under the former 4 MiB single-file limit, or about 230 and 620 days to the new 2 MiB rotation point from this snapshot. Rotation is therefore a durability bound, not a reason to add a database or persistent search index. The existing signal archive was an eligible legacy 0644 file; the next locked maintenance run narrows that exact safe case to 0600 before publication. `--write-queue` writes proposed skill patches to `memory/skill-patches/queue.md` with stable IDs, so cleanup or compaction does not duplicate the same lesson. If the queue is intentionally capped, the report shows both the total and the number shown; pass `--max-candidates ` to raise the cap. `--apply-skills` appends explicit, skill-named lessons into existing `skills//SKILL.md` files under a `Field Notes` section. It does not create missing skills, route uncertain lessons, or invent new workflow instructions; those stay in the queue for review. ## Rung 2: Phone sync Mirror your folder to a private GitHub repository that only you can see, so you can read your memory from your phone and drop notes into it from anywhere. ```bash npx dotaios@2.0.20 sync setup ``` Notes you save from another device land in `memory/inbox/`, and the `process-inbox` skill files them into the right place next time you sit down. Run `dotaios sync now` when you want to reconcile devices. Automatic sync is off by default. Turn it off any time with `dotaios sync logout`, which also removes the access token it used. ## Rung 3: Saved conversations Save useful AI sessions as local Markdown so other tools on your machine can find the decisions and open threads later. ```bash npx dotaios@2.0.20 capture enable claude-code # save sessions automatically npx dotaios@2.0.20 capture import paste # or paste one in from any tool ``` Everything lands in `memory/sessions/` as readable files you can open, edit, or delete. See [Saving conversations](sessions.md). ## Rung 4: A brief on a schedule Your folder ships with a pre-wired daily brief. It uses your computer's own scheduler, not a service of ours. ```bash npx dotaios@2.0.20 schedule install --dry-run # shows what it would do, changes nothing ``` ## Rung 5: Recipes for a deeper brain (entirely optional) Some users point heavier, self-hosted systems at the same folder. Two that the author runs himself: - **Hermes**, an agent runtime with scheduled jobs and a task board. If it is installed, `dotaios activate` registers your skills folder with it, and that is the only integration DotAIOS does. DotAIOS never installs or requires it. - **GBrain**, a local semantic index built on top of the same files. The files stay the source of truth; the index is derived and rebuildable. DotAIOS does not depend on it, talk to it, or know it exists. These are recipes, not features. They need their own setup, their own hardware, and a tolerance for tinkering. DotAIOS will never make them mandatory, and nothing in the core product changes whether you run them or not. If you never climb past rung 1, you are using DotAIOS exactly as intended.