By name: read-working-memory description: Read your daily Working Memory briefing to understand current context. Contains active focus areas, priorities, unresolved flags, and recent knowledge changes. Load this automatically at the beginning of sessions for cross-tool continuity.
Read Working Memory
Start every session with context. Claude Code hooks prefer Context Bundle when available: owner identity, AI Identity, active scope, active rules, and Working Memory. Working Memory alone is the lighter fallback.
When to Use
At session start:
- Beginning of a new conversation
- Returning to a project after a break
- When context about recent work would help
During session:
- User asks "what am I working on?" or "what's my context?"
- User references recent priorities or decisions
- Need to understand what's been happening across tools
Skip when:
- Already loaded this session
- User explicitly wants a fresh start
- Working on an isolated, context-independent task
Usage
Prefer Context Bundle for startup context:
nmem --json context --source-app claude-code
Read Working Memory alone when you only need current priorities:
nmem wm read
If the runtime already knows the current project or agent lane, add --space "<space name>" to either command. Multi-agent orchestrators can set NMEM_AGENT_ID="<agent-slug>" before launching Claude Code so hooks read the right AI Identity automatically. Add NMEM_SPACE only when that whole run should override the identity's default space. Use NMEM_HOST_AGENT_ID only for advanced host-id aliases.
Fallback for local-only (when nmem is not installed):
cat ~/ai-now/memory.md
This fallback is only for older local-only Default-space setups.
What You'll Find
The Working Memory briefing contains:
- Active Focus Areas — Topics you're currently engaged with, ranked by recent activity
- Priorities — Items flagged as important or needing attention
- Unresolved Flags — Contradictions, stale information, or items needing verification
- Recent Activity — What changed in your knowledge base since the last briefing
- Deep Links — References to specific memories for further exploration
How to Use This Context
- Read once at session start — don't re-read unless asked
- Reference naturally — mention relevant context when it connects to the current task
- Avoid duplicate reads — if Context Bundle was already injected and includes Working Memory, do not read Working Memory again
- Don't overwhelm — share only the parts relevant to what the user is working on
- Cross-tool continuity — insights saved in other tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex) appear here
Troubleshooting
If nmem is not in PATH: pip install nmem-cli, pipx install nmem-cli, or on Arch Linux yay -S nmem-cli / paru -S nmem-cli
If Nowledge Mem is on a remote server, run nmem config client set url https://... and nmem config client set api-key ... once on this machine, or use NMEM_API_URL / NMEM_API_KEY for a temporary override.