Memory Bank Initialization Skill (v6.12)

Overview

This skill bootstraps a complete memory-bank documentation system for any project. It creates the directory structure, initial files, and optionally a first task file — everything needed to start tracking work with the mb-text-workflow or mb-db-workflow skills.

When to Use

• Starting a new project that needs task tracking
• Adopting memory-bank documentation on an existing project that lacks it
• Creating a fork/adaptation of the memory-bank system for a specific project type

Prerequisites

1. Determine the project root directory (absolute path)
2. Determine the project name and purpose
3. Decide if this project uses text-based (markdown) or DB-native workflow
4. Know the current time and timezone

Workflow

Step 1: Create Directory Structure

cd <project-root>
mkdir -p memory-bank/{tasks,sessions,edits/$(date +%Y-%m-%d),implementation-details}

Step 2: Create Core Files

memory-bank/tasks.md

# Memory Bank — <Project Name>

*Created: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*
*Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*

## Overview

[Brief description of the project and what this memory bank tracks]

## Active Tasks

| ID | Title | Status | Priority | Started | Dependencies | Details |
|----|-------|--------|----------|---------|--------------|---------|

## Completed Tasks

| ID | Title | Status | Priority | Started | Completed | Dependencies | Details |
|----|-------|--------|----------|---------|-----------|--------------|---------|

## Status Summary

- **Active**: 0
- **Completed**: 0
- **Paused**: 0
- **Total**: 0

memory-bank/session_cache.md

# Session Cache

*Created: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*
*Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*

## Current Session
**Started**: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ
**Focus Task**: None
**Session File**: None
**Status**: 🔄 No active session

## Overview
- Active: 0 | Paused: 0 | Completed: 0
- Last Session: -
- Current Period: <morning|afternoon|evening|night>

## Task Registry

## Active Tasks

## Session History (Last 5)

## System Status
- **Memory Bank**: 🔄 Initialized, no tasks yet
- **Project**: 🔄 Ready for work

memory-bank/activeContext.md

# Active Context

*Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*

## Current Tasks

## Completed Tasks (Recent)

## Next Steps

## System Status

memory-bank/edit_history.md

# Edit History

*Created: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*
*Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*

---

## YYYY-MM-DD

#### HH:MM:SS TZ - INIT: Memory bank initialized
- Created `memory-bank/tasks.md` - Task registry
- Created `memory-bank/session_cache.md` - Session tracking
- Created `memory-bank/activeContext.md` - Current context
- Created `memory-bank/edit_history.md` - Edit history (this file)
- Created `memory-bank/implementation-details/` - Knowledge layer directory

Step 3: Create Optional Knowledge Layer Files

If the project has existing architecture or context worth capturing:

• memory-bank/techContext.md — Stack, dependencies, build system
• memory-bank/productContext.md — Goals, user stories, features
• memory-bank/systemPatterns.md — Conventions, patterns, standards
• memory-bank/changelog.md — Feature/release tracking
• memory-bank/errorLog.md — Known issues and fixes

Step 4: Create First Task (Optional)

If there's immediate work to track:

# Create task file
cat > memory-bank/tasks/T1.md << 'EOF'
# T1: [Title]

*Created: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*
*Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS TZ*

**Status**: 🔄 **IN PROGRESS**
**Priority**: HIGH

## Details
[Brief description]

## Progress
1. 🔄 [Current item]
2. ⬜ [Next item]

## Files
EOF

# Update tasks.md registry
# (prepend T1 to Active Tasks table)

Step 5: Commit Initialization

git add memory-bank/
git commit -m "(docs)INIT: Initialize memory bank — v6.12 protocol, task tracking ready"

Post-Initialization

After initialization, use mb-text-workflow or mb-db-workflow for all subsequent updates:

1. Create edit chunks in memory-bank/edits/YYYY-MM-DD/
2. Update task files in memory-bank/tasks/
3. Regenerate memory-bank/edit_history.md
4. Commit with format: (type)TID: Headline - Details

Project-Specific Adaptations

For different project types, customize:

Research projects:

• Add papers/ directory in implementation-details
• Track literature review progress in tasks

Web/apps:

• Add api-endpoints.md, ui-components.md
• Track feature phases (MVP, v2, etc.)

DevOps/infrastructure:

• Add deployment.md, monitoring.md
• Track environment parity

Anti-Patterns

• NEVER initialize a memory bank inside another project's memory-bank directory
• NEVER use relative paths or tildes in file references
• NEVER skip the edit_history.md — it's the audit trail
• NEVER commit generated views (edit_history.md) without their source chunks

References

• mb-text-workflow — For text-based projects
• mb-db-workflow — For DB-native projects
• v6.12 Full Rules