Skill.md
Session Dream
Claude Code ships with an autoDream background service that fires after 5+ sessions spanning 24+ hours. It scans historical conversation logs and consolidates insights into your project's MEMORY.md topic files automatically. Useful — but not immediate.
If you spend three hours debugging a subtle issue and resolve it today, autoDream won't capture it until the threshold is met. If context compaction happens tonight, the reasoning behind what you learned disappears into the summary. Next session, Claude starts fresh with no memory of what you worked through.
session-dream closes that gap: trigger memory distillation on demand, without waiting for autoDream to run.
Four-Phase Distillation Process
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Orient | Read existing MEMORY.md — map what's already covered, avoid duplicates |
| Gather | Scan the current conversation — classify signals by value tier |
| Consolidate | Write or update topic files — refine contradictions rather than overwrite |
| Prune & Index | Update MEMORY.md pointers — keep it under the 200-line limit |
Signal Value Tiers
High-value — always distill:
- Architectural decisions with reasoning — "chose X over Y because Z"
- Dead ends — "tried A, hit wall B, don't retry" is often more valuable than the solution
- Corrections to prior memory
- Constraints not written anywhere — implicit rules that only exist in someone's head
Medium-value — distill if not easily discoverable:
- Project-specific naming conventions
- Environment-specific quirks
- Current blockers and their root cause
Always skip:
- File paths read, commands run
- Implementation details visible in the code
- Step-by-step narration of what was done
How to Trigger
- Say
dreamor/dream - Say "save session memories", "distill this session", "what should I remember from this session?"
- At the end of any long, productive session before switching context
Relationship to Other Memory Skills
session-dream is on-demand distillation: run it when a session wraps up. compact-with-memory is pre-compression distillation: run it when the context window is filling up. memory-architect is structural cleanup: run it when MEMORY.md has accumulated redundant or stale entries.
The three skills cover different points in the memory lifecycle and work best together.
Limitation
Distillation quality depends on how explicitly decisions were articulated during the session. If reasoning wasn't stated — just implied — the memory entries will lack the **Why:** context that makes them useful. A practical habit: when making an important architectural call, say the reason out loud so it can be captured when you dream.