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Aria's Memory

What Aria knows, how it's stored, and how the system works

Updated Saturday, July 18, 2026

How the Memory System Works

1

Memory files

Every fact Aria learns about Topher, his life, and his projects is written to a markdown file in memory/. Files are organized by type: topher/, drawers/, tools/, people/.

2

MEMORY.md index

A single index file (memory/MEMORY.md) lists all memory files with one-line descriptions. Aria reads this first on every cold start to know what's available.

3

NEXT.md handoff

At the end of every session, Aria updates memory/NEXT.md with what's urgent, what's blocked, and what to do next. This is the first file read on cold start — the session handoff.

4

Session journal

Every conversation gets a journal entry in memory/sessions/aria/. Decisions, context captured, actions taken. Aria's way of knowing what happened before context compaction.

5

Context compaction

When a conversation fills Claude's context window, Claude auto-summarizes and continues. Aria is designed for this — the memory system ensures nothing is lost across compactions.

6

Linq gets the same

Linq (Aria's Aspire Digital counterpart) runs the same session journal pattern in its own memory space. Same system, separate lanes, no cross-contamination.

Where it lives: all memory is in the ~/projects/aria-secondbrain/memory/ directory, version-controlled in git. Every file Aria writes gets committed to the madebyaspire/aria-secondbrain repo. Raw conversation transcripts (every message, including across context compactions) are at ~/.claude/projects/-Users-tophermacstudio-projects-aria-secondbrain/*.jsonl — those never get deleted.

Key Files

🚨

NEXT.md

The session handoff. What's urgent, what's blocked, what to do next. Updated every session. Read this first.

memory/NEXT.md

📋

MEMORY.md

Index of all memory files. One-line description per file. Aria's table of contents — loaded second on cold start.

memory/MEMORY.md

📔

Session Journal

Per-session diary entries. Every conversation logged with decisions, context, and actions. Aria + Linq both keep journals.

memory/sessions/aria/

View session journal →

Memory File Index

What Aria currently knows, organized by topic. All of this is loaded selectively — Aria reads only what's relevant to the current conversation.

👤 Topher — Personal 9 files
background.md

Upbringing, career arc (teller → Huntington → Synchrony → Unify), DIY origin, Vegas 2018

preferences.md

Daily rhythm (10-3 peak, 3pm crash, midnight Aspire sessions), Earl Grey, Facebook kryptonite, writing voice

north-star.md

Confidence-based exit (~$1M Aspire), sabbatical-first plan, 401(k) loan payoff gate

health.md

Tirzepatide 5mg/5d, CrossFit 2-3x/week, frustration trigger + garage reset

jaime.md

Wife, AVP UX Research at SYF, Aspire creative lead, consensus decision-making style

kids.md

5 kids blended: Aubreauna, Nicholas, Cayden, Kendyl, Kynsie — canonical spellings

brand.md

2-year brand vision: dependable/humble/Christian-values-in-how, Aspire partner-first

market-posture.md

What makes Topher nervous (and doesn't) — adoption inertia is the moat

advisory-board.md

3 seats: agency operator, fee-only fiduciary, coach (Erik Fatkin — Seat 3 outreach sent 2026-04-18)

👥 People 1 file
erik-fatkin.md

Mentor, confirmed for advisory Seat 3 (replaced Teej Cummins 2026-04-18). Outreach SMS sent; awaiting reply.

💰 Finance & Taxes 2 files
drawers/finance/overview.md

Full portfolio: credit cards, rewards, banking, investments, subscriptions, taxes (sub-section)

drawers/finance/prompt_deep_dive_intake.md

Full intake workflow: PDF dump → NAS → Aria builds the budget tracker

🚀 Aspire Digital 3 files
drawers/aspire-digital/thesis.md

Topher's pitch, Jaime's angle, GHL white-label, adoption-gap moat, 100-client target

drawers/aspire-digital/initiative_seo_process.md

Full SEO + agentic-search build-out handed to Linq

drawers/aspire-digital/handoff_prompt_linq_seo.md

Copy-paste prompt for Linq SEO initiative

🧠 Aspire Ventures 2 files
drawers/aspire-ventures/overview.md

Holding concept, law firms ~$100K eng, payments+AI consulting, healthcare parked 6mo

drawers/aspire-ventures/clients.md

Active client state: Patina, NRX, HubSpot, WorldVia

🏡 Smart Home & Infrastructure 4 files
drawers/smart-home/infrastructure-security.md

Network/machine security hardening status, April 2026

drawers/smart-home/project_nas_audit.md

NAS audit: 8 Docker containers, SSH/Tailscale, completed 2026-04-16

drawers/smart-home/project_cf_audit_2026-04-16.md

Full Cloudflare audit, Access apps, exposure findings

drawers/travel/project_beryl_travel_router.md

Beryl AX: SpoiledBoxers SSID, switch toggles, Tailscale exit node

⚙️ Tools & Automation 4 files
tools/scheduled_morning_briefing.md

7am ET daily cron: calendar check, SWAT scan, today.astro update + deploy

tools/apple-calendar-reminders-access.md

Native osascript pattern for iCloud Calendar + Reminders (no third-party MCPs)

tools/m4-dedicated-agent-machine.md

M4 Max is dedicated Claude Code agent infra: permissions posture, sudo, TCC grants

tools/crawl4ai.md

Local stealth web crawler at localhost:3848

🏈 Jr Pacers 2 files
drawers/jr-pacers/overview.md

Youth football/cheer grades 3-6, COYFL, TeamLinkt, PayPal Zettle issues

drawers/jr-pacers/silver-seal-renewal.md

Silver Seal renewed 2026-04-17 ✓ — next cycle ~Apr 2027

Aria vs. Linq — separate memory, shared pattern

Aria (personal)

  • Stores personal context, family, health, finances
  • Covers all life lanes (Jr Pacers, HOA, travel, etc.)
  • Memory at ~/projects/aria-secondbrain/memory/
  • Sessions at memory/sessions/aria/

Linq (Aspire Digital)

  • Stores Aspire Digital business context only
  • Client data, playbook, SEO, GHL — not personal
  • Memory at ~/.claude/projects/-Users-tophermacstudio/memory/
  • Sessions at memory/sessions/linq/

Aria does not write to Linq's memory and vice versa. The separation is enforced by convention in CLAUDE.md.