dsh-memory-index

Full-text memory index for DeepSeek Harness.

It indexes the Markdown memory tree you already have — a core MEMORY.md, daily notes, a wiki, and archived sessions — into one local SQLite FTS5 database. It adds memory_search, memory_read, and memory_write, plus optional startup recall. No embeddings, no API key, no sidecar process, and no file migration.

This is the lexical-first release. Semantic retrieval is planned as an additional layer, not a replacement for the file tree.

Why this one

Most memory plugins ask you to adopt their storage format. This one assumes your memory is already a set of Markdown files and makes that tree searchable:

• Existing files stay authoritative. MEMORY.md, memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md, wiki/, and archive/sessions/ remain ordinary files you can read, edit, git diff, or delete.
• Chinese-friendly retrieval. FTS5 trigram when the SQLite build supports it, with a unicode61 fallback and CJK 3-gram expansion.
• History is searchable. Archived session Markdown can be indexed next to daily notes and long-term memory.
• Safe defaults. Read-only, no startup recall, no startup indexing until you ask for it.
• Local only. One SQLite file; no network calls and no telemetry.

It is not a replacement for an atomic-fact store, a vector memory service, or an approval-gated AGENTS.md editor. It solves a narrower problem: make the memory tree I already write to searchable from DSH.

Install

This package is not published to npm yet. Install it from a local checkout or a packed tarball. The prebuilt v0.1.0 tarball is attached to the GitHub release.

From the local checkout:

dsh plugin --profile web add "link:/absolute/path/to/dsh-memory-index"
dsh --profile web

From the packed tarball:

dsh plugin --profile web add /absolute/path/to/dsh-memory-index-0.1.0.tgz
dsh --profile web

When it is published later, the command becomes:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-memory-index

Then set workspace in the profile's cordis.patch.yml to the directory that contains your memory tree. The bundle's default uses the Harness process directory so installation never guesses a personal path; override it:

- id: memory-index
  config:
    workspace: /home/you/notes
    writeMode: readonly
    autoRecall: off
    buildOnStart: false

Run /memory-rebuild once in a new session, then /memory-status.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
memory_search	Search the configured roots; returns path:line and a snippet. Optional scope limits to one source.
memory_read	Read a file inside a configured memory root.
memory_write	Append to today's note, append to the core file, or create/replace a file under a write root.

Commands: /memory-status, /memory-rebuild (add fts to rebuild the full-text table from scratch).

Configuration

- id: memory-index
  name: dsh-memory-index
  config:
    workspace: /home/you/notes
    indexDb: .memory/index.sqlite
    roots:
      - { path: MEMORY.md, source: core }
      - { path: memory, source: daily }
      - { path: wiki, source: wiki }
      - { path: archive/sessions, source: session }
    writeRoots:
      - MEMORY.md
      - memory
    digest:
      - { path: MEMORY.md, maxChars: 3500 }
      - { path: 'memory/{today}.md', maxChars: 1500 }
      - { path: 'memory/{yesterday}.md', maxChars: 1000 }
    timeZone: Asia/Shanghai
    sourcePriority:
      core: 0
      daily: 1
      wiki: 2
      session: 3
    writeMode: readonly       # readonly | readwrite
    autoRecall: off           # off | startup
    buildOnStart: false
    maxResults: 8
    maxFileBytes: 20971520
    maxWriteBytes: 204800
    maxDigestChars: 8000

Field	Default	Meaning
workspace	required	Directory containing the memory tree. Resolved once and used as the boundary for all reads/writes.
indexDb	.memory/index.sqlite	SQLite file, relative to workspace, or :memory:.
roots	MEMORY.md, memory/, wiki/, archive/sessions/	Files or directories to index. A file root is indexed directly; a directory root is walked recursively. source labels the results.
writeRoots	MEMORY.md, memory/	Paths the agent may write. Entries ending in .md are files; others are directories.
digest	MEMORY.md, today, yesterday	Optional startup excerpt. {today} and {yesterday} use timeZone.
timeZone	system zone	Used for daily-note filenames and digest placeholders.
sourcePriority	core, daily, wiki, session	Lower ranks first in ties. Unknown sources sort last.
writeMode	readonly	Set readwrite to enable memory_write.
autoRecall	off	Set startup to add the digest as prompt context for workspace agents.
buildOnStart	false	Build the index in the background after plugin load.
maxResults	8	Default and cap for memory_search (1–20).
maxFileBytes	20 MiB	Files larger than this are skipped.
maxWriteBytes	200 KiB	Maximum content accepted by one memory_write.
maxDigestChars	8000	Character budget for the startup digest.

roots and writeRoots are independent on purpose: you can index wiki/ and archive/sessions/ while allowing writes only to memory/.

Security model

• Every path is resolved inside workspace; .. and absolute escapes are rejected.
• Existing symlink components are rejected for reads and writes, so a link inside memory/ cannot redirect a read or a write outside the workspace.
• Reads use O_NOFOLLOW; writes create a temporary file with mode 0600, fsync, and rename.
• The core file (MEMORY.md by default) is append-only.
• .env* files and paths containing credentials are excluded from indexing.
• The plugin makes no network requests.

Search behavior

• With a SQLite build that supports tokenize='trigram', FTS5 handles substring matching; otherwise the table falls back to unicode61.
• Queries are segmented with Intl.Segmenter when available, then widened with CJK 3-grams if the first pass is too narrow.
• Results are ranked by FTS5 bm25, then source priority; a lexical LIKE fallback covers short terms and tokenizer gaps.
• Line numbers are chunk start lines, so they are approximate for long chunks.

Limitations

• Lexical, not semantic. It finds words, not meanings. Embedding-based retrieval is planned as an optional layer.
• No file watcher. External edits are picked up on the next /memory-rebuild or process start with buildOnStart. memory_write indexes its own write immediately.
• Single writer. One process is assumed; SQLite uses a busy timeout, but concurrent writers from multiple processes are not coordinated beyond that.
• No cross-profile sharing by default. The database lives under workspace/.memory/; choose a shared indexDb only if you understand the locking model.
• node:sqlite may print an ExperimentalWarning on Node 22/24. The package targets ^22.19.0 || >=24.0.0.
• Linux is tested. Windows and macOS paths are implemented but not yet in CI.
• Approximate citations. A chunk's line is its heading/start line; use memory_read when exact context matters.

Roadmap

• Semantic layer, optional. Add embeddings and hybrid ranking behind the same memory_search tool; lexical FTS5 remains the offline fallback.
• Incremental watching. Replace rebuild-on-demand with a debounced watcher while keeping the manual rebuild command.
• CI for Windows and macOS. The path and symlink checks are written cross-platform; Linux is the tested target today.

Design lineage

The memory model — a core MEMORY.md, daily notes, a dream journal, a wiki, and an archived session tree — comes from OpenClaw, which is MIT-licensed. This package is an independent DSH implementation of that model; it shares no code with OpenClaw. The goal is to preserve the useful shape of an existing memory tree, not to emulate OpenClaw's runtime.

Development

npm install --ignore-scripts
npm test
npm run pack:check

Tests use node:test against temporary workspaces and cover Chinese/English search, scopes, write modes, path traversal, symlink escapes, digest rendering, and FTS rebuilds.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.