Workspace memory
Short answer: Workspace memory is a plain markdown file (
BuildPerch/workspace_memory.md) that the AI keeps up to date with durable facts about your workspace, injected into every chat’s context when it’s on. You can open it, edit it, or revert a bad rewrite; it’s never hidden from you.
What is workspace memory?
It’s a per-workspace file of things worth remembering across chats: preferences, project details, decisions, the kind of context you’d otherwise have to re-explain in every new conversation. When the Workspace Memory skill is active, it’s injected into the system prompt on every turn, so any chat in that workspace can draw on it without you pasting it in.
How do I turn it on?
It’s on by default: the Workspace Memory skill is part of the active skill set in Assistant, Build Perch’s default mode. If you’re on a mode or a custom skill set that doesn’t include the skill, the AI won’t read or write the file, so switching to one is how you turn memory off. The AI’s only write path is a dedicated tool built for this; it can’t rewrite the file through its general file-editing tools, so a runaway edit can’t bypass the size cap below.
How do I view, edit, or clear it?
Open Workspace Memory from the workspace toolbar dropdown to see the full file, edit it directly, or clear it. Saves are capped (12 KB by default, adjustable in Settings between 2 KB and 64 KB) and a write over the cap is rejected outright rather than silently truncated, so the AI has to prune instead of letting the file bloat. You can also open and edit BuildPerch/workspace_memory.md directly in any text editor, since it’s a normal visible file.
Can I undo a bad memory rewrite?
Yes. Before every overwrite (whether it’s the AI updating the file or you clicking Save), the previous version is copied to a one-deep backup. The dialog’s Revert button loads that backup back into the editor so you can restore it with Save. If the AI updates the file while you have the dialog open, Save checks for that and asks before overwriting your edits.
Is it shared across chats?
Yes, that’s the point. It’s scoped to the workspace, not to any single conversation, so a fact the AI records in one chat is available in every other chat in that workspace. For per-chat recall instead, the AI can separately search your other conversations when you ask it to.