Harvey Memory Profile UX — Design

Status (2026-06-18): Design settled. See memory-profile-ux-plan.md for the phased implementation plan.

Motivation

The /memory profile command set has grown organically and now has three problems:

  1. Naming inconsistency. show lists profile IDs (like list does everywhere else in Harvey). Users who type /memory profile show expecting to see the content of their current profile instead see a terse ID list. This contradicts Harvey’s established vocabulary where show <id> displays a document’s full content.

  2. Missing show (content display). There is no command to print the full text of the active workspace profile. The user must run /memory show <id> after first running /memory profile show to find the ID — a two-step process for a common action.

  3. Missing edit and rename. The only way to modify the current profile is /memory profile update, which opens $EDITOR. A user who wants to rename the workspace (the description field in the profile document) has no direct command.

Revised Command Set

Summary table

Subcommand Semantics Was
list List all profiles (active + archived) with IDs and descriptions show (old)
show Print the full content of the current active profile document (missing)
edit Open the active profile in $EDITOR and re-save on close update
use [NAME] Switch to a named template or show picker unchanged
rename NAME Update the description field of the active profile (missing)

update is kept as a deprecated alias for edit. When called, it prints:

  ⚠  /memory profile update is deprecated; use /memory profile edit

then proceeds identically to edit.

The /profile top-level alias continues to work for all subcommands:

/profile list
/profile show
/profile edit
/profile use [name]
/profile rename NAME

Subcommand Specifications

list

Replaces the current show behavior.

/memory profile list

Output format (same as current show):

Active workspace profiles:

  workspace_profile_a1b2c3  Back End Developer      (active)
  workspace_profile_d4e5f6  Technical Writer        (archived 2026-06-10)

If --all is passed, archived profiles are included (same as today). If no profiles exist, print:

  No workspace profiles found. Run /profile use to set one.

show

Displays the full content of the most recent active workspace_profile document — the text that is injected into the LLM context at session start.

/memory profile show

Output:

Active workspace profile: Back End Developer (workspace_profile_a1b2c3)

─────────────────────────────────────────────
INT. WORKSPACE PROFILE - BACK END DEVELOPER

ROLE:
  Back end developer. Primary languages: Go, Python,
  TypeScript (Deno runtime). Uses SQL for application
  data access (Postgres and SQLite3).

PREFERENCES:
  Concise code with no unnecessary comments.
  …
─────────────────────────────────────────────

If no active profile exists, print the same nudge as list.

edit

Opens the active profile in $EDITOR (same as current update).

/memory profile edit

After the user saves and closes the editor, the updated content replaces the existing profile document in the store. If the user closes the editor without changes, a message confirms no change was made.

use [NAME]

Unchanged from the current implementation. Switches to a named template or shows the interactive picker. Writes a handoff document before switching.

rename NAME

Updates the description line in the active profile document. The description appears in list output and in /status (the “Profile:” field).

/memory profile rename "Harvey Web Developer"

The rename is a targeted string replacement in the stored Fountain document: it finds the TITLE: line (or the INT. scene heading) and updates it. The profile’s ID and content are otherwise unchanged. No new document is created — this is an in-place edit.

If no active profile exists, print an error.

Memory/RAG Unified View

The TODO notes that users think of memory and RAG settings as going together. This design does not merge the two — they remain separate silos with separate commands — but acknowledges the confusion with two UX touches:

  1. /memory profile show will include a brief RAG summary at the bottom if a RAG store is active:

    RAG context: go-source (1,204 chunks, on)

    This surfaces the most relevant RAG state alongside the profile without mixing the storage models.

  2. /hint (existing command) already aggregates memory and RAG state. No change needed there.

A deeper unification — e.g., a /workspace command that shows profile, active RAG stores, active memory count, and KB status together — is left as a future design exercise once user feedback clarifies what information is most commonly needed at a glance.

Workspace Rename

/memory profile rename NAME targets the description embedded in the profile Fountain document. Specifically, it rewrites the TITLE: or INT. line in the stored .spmd file.

The current format of a profile document’s opening lines is:

INT. WORKSPACE PROFILE - BACK END DEVELOPER

After rename "Web Developer":

INT. WORKSPACE PROFILE - WEB DEVELOPER

The memory store’s Description field for the record is derived from this heading at load time, so list and /status pick up the new name automatically without requiring a store migration.

Help Text Updates

The /memory help text is updated to list all five subcommands:

/memory profile list           — list active and archived profiles
/memory profile show           — print the content of the active profile
/memory profile edit           — open the active profile in $EDITOR
/memory profile use [NAME]     — switch to a template or profile
/memory profile rename NAME    — rename the workspace in the active profile

The man page harvey-memory.7.md is updated to match.

Out of Scope