memory-log-append

memory-log-append

Append a single structured JSON event to a consumer's .log.jsonl file. This is the write primitive for the semantic memory kernel's event stream.

When to Use

Called internally by other kernel skills (memory-ingest, memory-lint, memory-query-capture) after completing an operation. Can also be called directly for custom event types.

Parameters

--consumer (optional)

Consumer ID to log against. Resolved via ADR-021 D4 precedence: explicit > wrapper > auto-detect.

--op (required)

Operation type: ingest, lint, query-capture, log-render, index-rebuild, or a custom string.

--data (required)

JSON object with operation-specific fields per the memory-log-event schema.

Operation

1. Resolve consumer — determine which consumer's log to append to.
2. Load topology — read memory.topology.log path from consumer's manifest.json.
3. Validate event — ensure required fields (ts, op, consumer, actor) are present. Add ts and actor automatically if missing.
4. Append — write single JSON line to the .log.jsonl file (create file if first entry).
5. Activity log — also append a summary line to .aiwg/activity.log per the activity-log rule.

Event Construction

The skill auto-populates:

• ts — current ISO 8601 timestamp (UTC)
• actor — current model identifier
• consumer — resolved consumer ID

The caller provides op and all operation-specific fields.

Error Handling

• Log write failures are non-blocking — the calling skill reports success/failure of its primary operation, not the log write.
• If the log file path doesn't exist, create parent directories first.
• If the log file is corrupted (not valid JSONL), append anyway — memory-lint will flag the corruption.

Schema Reference

@semantic-memory/schemas/memory-log-event.md

Examples

# After an ingest operation
memory-log-append --consumer research-complete --op ingest --data '{"source":"paper.pdf","pages_touched":["summaries/paper.md"],"contradictions":0,"duration_ms":5200}'

# After a lint operation
memory-log-append --consumer sdlc-complete --op lint --data '{"findings":{"error":0,"warning":3,"suggestion":8},"duration_ms":2100}'

Storage Routing (#934, #966)

This skill's persistence flows through resolveStorage('memory'). On the default fs backend the memory subsystem lives at .aiwg/memory/ and behavior is byte-identical to direct file writes. To redirect memory artifacts into Obsidian, Logseq, Fortemi, or another backend without changing this skill, configure .aiwg/storage.config (#934).

When this skill needs to read or write memory artifacts from a Bash step:

aiwg memory path                        # resolved root (fs only)
aiwg memory list --prefix research-complete/
aiwg memory get research-complete/index.md
echo "# index" | aiwg memory put research-complete/index.md
echo '{"op":"ingest","summary":"foo"}' | aiwg memory append-log research-complete/.log.jsonl

The aiwg memory append-log subcommand uses atomic O_APPEND (#976) on the fs backend — concurrent appenders don't race.