Memory Manager - User Guide

Creating Memory Files

The Memory Manager extension allows you to create and organize knowledge that can be injected into Copilot Chat conversations.

Manual Memory Creation

1. Create a new .md file inside the Memory/ directory in your workspace root

   • Example: Memory/backend-database.md

2. Add YAML frontmatter at the top of the file with required fields:

   ---
   title: "Your Memory Title"
   tags:
     - backend.database.postgres
     - backend.connection-pool
   ---
   
   Your memory content goes here...
   

3. Save the file - The extension will automatically:

   • Detect the new file
   • Parse the frontmatter and content
   • Index it in the memory system
   • Make the tags available for querying

Tag System

Tags use a hierarchical dot notation:

• backend.database.postgres - Specific tag
• backend.database - Parent tag (includes all children)
• backend.* - Wildcard (matches all tags under backend)
• *.postgres - Matches postgres at any level

Using Memories in Copilot Chat

Once your memory files are created and indexed, you can query them in Copilot Chat:

1. Open Copilot Chat
2. Use the memory manager participant: @memory /memory-tag <tag>
3. Examples:
   • @memory /memory-tag backend.database - Get all database-related memories
   • @memory /memory-tag backend.* - Get all backend memories
   • @memory /memory-tag *.postgres - Get all postgres-related memories

The extension will retrieve and display all matching memory content, which Copilot can then use to answer your questions.

Example Memory File

Create Memory/postgres-connection.md:

---
title: "PostgreSQL Connection Configuration"
tags:
  - backend.database.postgres
  - backend.configuration
---

## Connection String Format

Use the following format for PostgreSQL connections:
`postgresql://username:password@hostname:port/database`

## Best Practices

- Always use connection pooling
- Set max connections based on your server capacity
- Use SSL in production environments

After saving, you can query it with:

• @memory /memory-tag backend.database.postgres
• @memory /memory-tag backend.*