Rolling Digest
A single always-loaded document summarizing the project's current state, rewritten (not appended) on a cadence so it stays small, current, and load-bearing.
When to use
The what-is-true-now layer: current goals, active decisions, system state, loaded into every session.
Specification
| Memory type | semantic |
|---|---|
| Storage | one flat file, size-capped |
| Retrieval | always loaded |
| Update method | agent-rewritten on change or cadence; rewrite, never append |
| Decay / staleness handling | Rewriting is the decay mechanism: stale content dies at each rewrite because it must be actively re-included to survive. |
| Risk level / maturity | low / established |
Privacy and safety
Always-loaded means always-exposed; nothing sensitive belongs in a digest.
Failure modes
- Append-drift: the digest becomes a log and bloats
- Rewrites dropping still-true facts
- Cadence too slow for a fast-moving project
Assessment
The rewrite-not-append rule is the entire pattern: it converts staleness from an accumulating debt into a per-cycle filter. CLAUDE.md files that stay good are secretly rolling digests.
Evaluation method: Size trend over time (flat is healthy); spot-audit of claims against reality.