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Agent Memory
Skill

/bm-status

Show the Basic Memory plugin's current state for this project — active project, capture folders, output style, recent session checkpoints, and whether Basic Memory is reachable.

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From plugin
basic-memory
4.1k26 skills5 commands1 MCP
Install
$ npx -y skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory --skill bm-status --agent claude-code

How it fires

How this skill gets triggered: by you, by Claude, or both.

  • Fires itselfAuto-invocation. Claude auto-loads it when your prompt matches the work.Auto-invocation is when the right skill fires by itself at the right moment, driven by a FLOW.md router and a hook, instead of you invoking it by name. It is the difference between a skill being installed and a skill actually getting used.Read the full definition →
  • You can call itInvoke it directly when you want it.
  • Slash command/bm-status

Context preview

The summary Claude sees to decide when to auto-load this skill.

Show the Basic Memory plugin's current state for this project — active project, capture folders, output style, recent session checkpoints, and whether Basic Memory is reachable.

SKILL.md

bm-status.SKILL.md
name: bm-status
description: Show the Basic Memory plugin's current state for this project — active project, capture folders, output style, recent session checkpoints, and whether Basic Memory is reachable.
disable-model-invocation: true

Basic Memory status

Report the plugin's current state for this project, then present a concise summary. This is a quick diagnostic — gather the facts and lay them out; don't over-investigate.

Gather

1. **CLI reachable?** Run `basic-memory --version`, then `bm --version`, then `uvx --prerelease=allow basic-memory --version`. If no launcher resolves, report the CLI status as unavailable and continue with MCP/config checks. The plugin hooks can still use their uv-managed environment.

2. **Configuration.** Read the `basicMemory` block with the hooks' precedence. For the user-level base, append `settings.json` to the literal value of `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` when that environment variable is present; do not trim it, expand `~`, or treat an empty value as unset. Use `~/.claude/settings.json` only when the variable is absent. Then the project's `.claude/settings.json` and `.claude/settings.local.json` override per key. Report the result, noting when a value comes from the user-level block versus the project:

  • From the `basicMemory` block: `primaryProject` (or note none is pinned — the

default project is used), `secondaryProjects` (team/shared read sources), `teamProjects` (share targets for `/basic-memory:bm-share`), `captureFolder` (default `sessions`), `rememberFolder` (default `bm-remember`), `preCompactCapture` mode (default `extractive`), `sessionProfile` (default `general`), `repository` (coding profile only), `captureEvents` (default `true`).

  • From the **root** settings object (not `basicMemory`): whether `outputStyle` is

`basic-memory` — i.e. whether the capture reflexes are on.

3. **Core hook health.** With the first available launcher, run `basic-memory hook status --harness claude --project-dir <project-root>`. Report its shared inbox path, pending envelopes, archived envelopes, pending checkpoint requests, last flush, settings state, resolved primary project, capture state, capture folder, Basic Memory version, and uv version. Inbox counts are global across supported harnesses; do not attribute a backlog solely to Claude. Treat this command's settings resolution as canonical for hook behavior; if it disagrees with the manually merged config, show the mismatch. If no launcher resolves, mark these fields unavailable and continue.

4. **Recent checkpoints.** `search_notes` with `metadata_filters={"type": "session"}`, `page_size` 5, scoped to `primaryProject` if one is set. When `sessionProfile` is `coding`, also query `metadata_filters={"type": "coding_session", "repository": "<configured repository>"}`, then merge, deduplicate, sort newest first, and keep the newest five. List them by title + permalink.

5. **Active tasks.** `search_notes` with `metadata_filters={"type": "task", "status": "active"}` — report just the count.

When scoping these queries to `primaryProject`, pass it as `project`, or as `project_id` if it's an `external_id` UUID (a bare UUID in `project` won't route).

Present

Lay it out like this (fill in real values; write "—" or a short note for anything you couldn't determine, rather than failing the whole report):

## Basic Memory status

- CLI:               basic-memory <version>
- Project:           <primaryProject, or "default project (not pinned)">
- Reads from (team): <secondaryProjects joined, or "none">
- Share targets:     <teamProjects keys joined, or "none">
- Capture folder:    <captureFolder>
- Remember folder:   <rememberFolder>
- Output style:      <enabled | not enabled>
- PreCompact:        <mode>
- Session profile:   <general | coding>
- Repository:        <owner/name or none>
- Event capture:     <enabled | disabled>
- Shared hook inbox: <path or unavailable>
- Shared pending envelopes: <count or unavailable>
- Shared archived envelopes: <count or unavailable>
- Pending checkpoint requests: <count or unavailable>
- Last flush:        <timestamp, never, or unavailable>
- Hook runtime:      basic-memory <version>; uv <version or missing>
- Recent checkpoints: <n across session and coding_session>
    - <title> — <permalink>
    ...
- Active tasks:      <n>

If there are no checkpoints yet, say "none yet" and remind the user that checkpoints are written automatically before context compaction (and that a `primaryProject` must be set for them to be written).

Warn when event capture is enabled and pending envelopes are accumulating or the last flush is `never`, while noting that another harness may contribute to the shared counts. Do not warn about an empty inbox when capture is disabled.

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