Problem
The summarizer already generates per-conversation summaries via Haiku calls (stored as -summary.txt files), but search results only display them when summary.length < 300 characters. In practice, most summaries are silently omitted, wasting the compute that generated them.
Additionally, there's no way to get a chronological overview of recent sessions — e.g., "what did I work on this past week?" — without running broad searches and mentally stitching results together.
Proposal
1. Always show summaries in search results
When a -summary.txt exists for a matched conversation, always include it in the search result (truncated to ~300 chars if needed). The current < 300 check silently drops most summaries. Suggested change in search.ts result formatting:
// Instead of: if (summary && summary.length < 300)
// Use: if (summary) { display truncated to 300 chars }
2. Timeline view (optional, lower priority)
A mode: 'timeline' parameter for the search tool that returns a chronological list of recent session summaries without requiring a specific query. Useful for:
- "What did I do last week?"
- Onboarding a new session with recent context
- Progressive disclosure: scan timeline → pick interesting sessions → read details
Design reference
This is inspired by claude-mem's Progressive Disclosure pattern (compact index → timeline → full details), which achieves ~10x token savings vs. loading full conversations. The episodic-memory plugin already has the building blocks (search with snippets + read with line-range pagination) — surfacing summaries and adding a timeline view would complete the three-layer pattern.
Environment
- episodic-memory v1.0.15
- macOS, Claude Code CLI
- ~155 MB index DB, 1587 conversations in primary project
Problem
The summarizer already generates per-conversation summaries via Haiku calls (stored as
-summary.txtfiles), but search results only display them whensummary.length < 300characters. In practice, most summaries are silently omitted, wasting the compute that generated them.Additionally, there's no way to get a chronological overview of recent sessions — e.g., "what did I work on this past week?" — without running broad searches and mentally stitching results together.
Proposal
1. Always show summaries in search results
When a
-summary.txtexists for a matched conversation, always include it in the search result (truncated to ~300 chars if needed). The current< 300check silently drops most summaries. Suggested change insearch.tsresult formatting:2. Timeline view (optional, lower priority)
A
mode: 'timeline'parameter for the search tool that returns a chronological list of recent session summaries without requiring a specific query. Useful for:Design reference
This is inspired by claude-mem's Progressive Disclosure pattern (compact index → timeline → full details), which achieves ~10x token savings vs. loading full conversations. The episodic-memory plugin already has the building blocks (search with snippets + read with line-range pagination) — surfacing summaries and adding a timeline view would complete the three-layer pattern.
Environment