An empty context is not an empty history or memory store

The Memory model and the Continuity ledger answer different questions. Memory asks where useful knowledge can live. Continuity asks which representation and identity a session operation changes. Put them together before interpreting an old answer or choosing a reset.

Trace the representation, not the word reset

These are source-backed distinctions. The editorial consequence is straightforward: an unexpected answer is a provenance problem before it is a reset problem.

Diagnose an old fact without wiping another layer

In Cedar’s correction story, the old retry limit might be present in a working memory row, another bank, a read-only fact projection, a cached injection, or retained conversation material. Seeing the old value does not identify which representation supplied it.

Memory troubleshooting therefore begins with directory and bank scope, then distinguishes stored rows from /memory view’s injected payload. The correction story requires exact returned IDs and full content before a replacement edit. A successful edit of one eligible row does not establish that transcripts, skills, exports, backups, or provider-held copies changed.

Likewise, Decision Desk’s reset ledger does not describe /clear as an export scrubber. A post-clear context can be empty while a full-history export still contains the earlier conversation. Repeating clear cannot turn that retained representation into a deletion receipt.

Scope can change while conversation identity survives

Continuity’s relocation paths can retain the persistent session identity while changing journal location or active cwd. Memory’s recorded Mnemopi per-project bank derives from resolved cwd, not Git root. The combined operating implication is to recheck memory scope after a move or directory change rather than infer it from the retained session ID.

That is a scope check, not a claim that relocation migrates a memory database. The supplied chapters establish no universal migration contract between those systems.

Extensions add another reason to avoid broad reset assumptions. Seed Desk reconstructs domain snapshots from getBranch(). Field Notes keeps selection inside a factory binding that can survive /new and session switching. The optional ctx.memory interface is neither automatically branch-local nor a transactional domain store.

Keep two meanings of fresh separate

Memory sometimes recommends a fresh startup after changing startup-dependent configuration. The named /fresh command has a narrower provider-facing purpose. Do not use the English phrase as evidence that the command reloads memory backends, discovers new tools, or rebinds extensions.

A useful paper check is to predict three independent outcomes: which messages will be active, which saved records will remain, and which runtime configuration will be rebuilt. If you cannot answer all three, use the relevant source chapter instead of choosing a stronger-sounding reset.

Source trail: Four places knowledge can live, The continuity ledger, and Models, providers, credentials and memory. Their cited implementation anchors include packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/config.ts — computeMnemopiBankScope; mnemopi/state.ts — MnemopiSessionState; session/agent-session.ts — freshSession, resetSessionContext; and session/session-context.ts — buildSessionContext.

Related chapters:

• The continuity ledger
• Return Desk missing-directory decisions
• Decision Desk resetting deliberately
• Four places knowledge can live
• The configuration this workbook teaches
• Five fictional lab stories
• The command desk
• Troubleshooting
• Package Lab: one file to an embedded host
• Models, providers, credentials and memory