How Memory Works

Atlas remembers things about you across conversations — your name, your projects, your preferences, what you talked about last week. None of this lives in the cloud. It’s all stored as plain Markdown files inside your vault, on your computer.

The Three Layers

Atlas organizes memory into three layers, each serving a different purpose:

1. Identity Files

Location: <your vault>/atlas/identity/

These files define who Atlas is and who you are. They’re loaded at startup and included in every conversation:

• persona.md — Atlas’s personality, communication style, and capabilities
• user.md — Your profile: name, role, location, preferences, and a short snapshot
• intro.md — First-run onboarding (renamed to .done after you complete setup)

Learn more about identity files

2. Long-Term Memory

Location: <your vault>/atlas/memory/long-term/

This is where Atlas stores what it learns about you over time:

• facts.md — The main memory file, with sections for facts, goals, relationships, and projects
• session-*.md — Summaries written at the end of each conversation

Learn more about long-term memory

3. Session History

Location: <your vault>/atlas/memory/sessions/

Every conversation is saved as a transcript. Sessions auto-resume if you return within 4 hours, and are summarized when they end.

Learn more about sessions

How Atlas Accesses Memory During a Chat

By default, Atlas uses lean context mode — a design that keeps the system prompt small and efficient. Rather than loading all your memory files into every message, Atlas gets a brief overview and then looks things up on demand:

Each conversation starts with:
  - Your identity snapshot (3–5 sentences about you)
  - Relevant notes from your vault (found via search)
  - A map of what memory files exist

When Atlas needs more detail, it uses:
  - read_memory_file — reads a specific memory file in full
  - memory_search — searches across all memory files

This means Atlas might say “let me check your notes on that” and read a file mid-conversation. That’s normal — it’s accessing your memory on demand rather than preloading everything.

Memory Is Just Files

Because everything is stored as plain Markdown, you have full control:

• Read any memory file directly in your vault
• Edit them to correct or add information
• Back them up as part of your normal vault backup
• Delete anything you don’t want Atlas to remember

Atlas doesn’t have a separate database or cloud storage for your personal memory. If you move your vault to a new computer, all your memory comes with it.

Tip

If Atlas gets something wrong about you — your job title changed, you moved to a new city — the fastest fix is to tell Atlas directly in chat (“I moved to Austin”) and ask it to update your memory. Or open atlas/identity/user.md directly and edit it yourself.

Memory File Structure

<your vault>/
└── atlas/
    ├── identity/
    │   ├── persona.md       ← Atlas's personality
    │   ├── user.md          ← Your profile
    │   └── intro.md         ← First-run setup (or intro.md.done)
    ├── memory/
    │   ├── long-term/
    │   │   ├── facts.md     ← Your facts, goals, relationships, projects
    │   │   └── session-*.md ← Session summaries
    │   └── sessions/
    │       ├── *.jsonl      ← Full conversation transcripts
    │       └── *.meta.json  ← Session metadata (topic, date)
    └── rules/
        ├── rules.md         ← Behavioral rules
        ├── tools.md         ← Tool guidance
        └── allowed-tools.md ← Tool opt-out list

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Next: Identity Files