Instinctual Memory

Type: agentic-systems/types/generated-review.md

Evidence basis: code-grounded analysis of https://github.com/jasonkneen/instinctual-memory at 6acb13dc35765bf5ccfc87e445dd09c480f1c28a, with an analysis cutoff of 2026-09-30.

Evidence basis: the whole-repository boundary at Instinctual Memory commit 6acb13dc35765bf5ccfc87e445dd09c480f1c28a, with implementation and bundled design inspected but no configured deployment or observed host run (SRC-1).

Instinctual Memory appends source events to a journal, then rules or a configured language model can propose durable facts for a Git-published tree. The extractor can run after session-end backfill or through direct operator commands; caller-requested remember and correction operations provide another write path (OBJ-1, OBJ-2, RTE-1, RTE-4, RTE-5). The extraction check ties evidence text to a source event and applies schema/domain conditions, but no truth oracle or per-fact human approval is established. The semantic relation between an extracted statement and its source remains indeterminate; persistence does not amount to epistemic acceptance (EPI-RTE-1, EPI-OBJ-1, EPI-OBJ-2). Normal publication uses validated compare-and-swap; that protocol constrains writes, not factual warrant (CLM-2, RTE-4, RTE-5).

Later access comes through automatic Claude hooks, requested reads/searches, or operator-requested writeback (RTE-1, RTE-2, RTE-3, RTE-6). The start hook selects a preference by identifier; prompt retrieval uses lexical overlap and a six-fact limit. Explicit search can use relevance reranking. Eligibility, selection and ranking affect which facts are presented and in what order, not their truth status (EPI-RTE-2, EPI-RTE-3). Writeback places selected facts in a host instruction-file block. These mechanisms wire context delivery or file writing, but host loading, model uptake and behavior change were not observed (BAP-1, BAP-2, BAP-3, EPI-OBJ-4).

The runtime pass does not establish a theory route meeting conditions 1–4: it does not establish a consumed localized theory, content-directed criticism, or iteration using criticism (RTE-4). Whether criticism improves capacity for future action is uninspected. The system is not established as reflective or autonomous at this boundary, and its wired trace-fed memory path does not establish self-improvement (RTE-1, RTE-2, RTE-3, RTE-4, RTE-5, RTE-6, RTE-7, MEM-RTE-1, EPI-OBJ-1). There is no task-level faithfulness or causal benefit evidence (MEM-CLM-1).

Limitations

limitation	affected source, record, or route IDs	inspected boundary	conclusion prevented	evidence that would resolve it
No installed host, configured store, live operation, or model-service response was inspected.	SRC-1, RTE-1, RTE-2, RTE-3, RTE-4, RTE-5, RTE-6, RTE-7, MEM-RTE-1, MEM-RTE-2, MEM-RTE-3, MEM-RTE-4, EPI-OBJ-1, EPI-OBJ-2, EPI-OBJ-3, EPI-OBJ-4	Repository commit 6acb13dc35765bf5ccfc87e445dd09c480f1c28a; external host/provider operation excluded.	Actual invocation, output, candidate state, host activation and successful deployment are not established.	A retained execution trace or artifact from a configured host and store, with provider interactions identified where relevant.
No evidence-consuming truth criterion or independent factual reviewer was identified in inspected paths.	RTE-4, RTE-5, EPI-RTE-1, EPI-OBJ-1, EPI-OBJ-2	Same frozen repository boundary; extraction, change, validation and publication paths inspected.	No produced or caller-supplied fact is established as true or supported by its cited evidence.	A specified truth/evidence criterion and retained candidate-level results showing its application.
The semantic relation between extracted statements and source events is not determined by text-occurrence checks.	RTE-4, EPI-RTE-1, EPI-OBJ-1	Consolidation/check implementation at the frozen commit; no candidate instance supplied.	Whether extraction preserves, entails, reshapes or adds propositions, and any candidate-linked discovery lifecycle, remain unresolved.	An observed candidate and source event with semantic comparison, followed by evidence for any claimed criticism or revision stages.
Host use and behavioral effects were outside the evidence set; the shipped retrieval evaluation scores search results.	BAP-1, BAP-2, BAP-3, MEM-CLM-1, EPI-OBJ-3, EPI-OBJ-4	Hook, operation, writeback and evaluation paths at the frozen commit; no host session or task comparison.	Faithfulness to recalled content, downstream benefit and behavioral authority in host practice are not established.	Retained task executions comparing behavior with and without returned memory, including task outcome and exposure evidence.
The full set of supported ingestion adapters was not classified as trace-source categories.	MEM-RTE-1, RTE-4	Specialist traced session-log paths and a broader but incompletely mapped adapter set within the same repository boundary.	Completeness of trace_source beyond the supported session-logs value cannot be concluded.	Adapter-by-adapter mapping of retained inputs to the controlled trace-source categories.