Memory Maturity Model (M0–M3)

M0 — Ad-hoc

Symptoms: paste chat into prompts; tribal knowledge; arguments about past decisions.

Exit to M1: MEMORY.md + MEMORY-STATE.md exist; scratch used for one week.

M1 — Structured

Posture: tiers named; scratch + episodic written deliberately.

Artifacts: MEMORY.md, MEMORY-STATE.md, write + recall skills.

Week one rule: no auto-promotion to durable.

M2 — Budgeted

Posture: recall is capped; hygiene runs on a schedule.

Artifacts: memory-budget.md, hygiene skill/loop, run log.

Exit to M3: durable promote queue with verifier; audit ≥ 65.

M3 — Gated durable

Posture: small durable set; evidence + owners; CI score gate.

Artifacts: durable-facts pattern, verifier skill, constraints, dogfood workflow.

Not every repo needs M3. Many solo projects stabilize at M2.