@yugabytedb/meko-mcp 1.2.0 → 2.0.0

package/assets/skills/meko-mcp-tools-desktop/SKILL.md

@@ -1,35 +1,53 @@
 ---
 name: meko-mcp-tools-desktop
 description: >-
-  Behavioral guide for AI agents using Meko MCP tools on the desktop Claude
-  app. Triggers when calling MCP tools, storing memories, persisting
-  knowledge, managing datapacks, or working with YugabyteDB databases
-  through Meko. Use this skill whenever the user mentions memory, Meko,
-  datapacks, YugabyteDB, knowledge base, conversations, or interacts with
-  meko MCP tools in any way. Also trigger when the user shares personal
-  information, preferences, role details, or organizational conventions
-  that should be persisted across sessions.
+  Behavioral guide for Meko MCP tools on desktop Claude. READ IT BEFORE
+  calling any meko tool — it sets the required agent_id and workflow; calling
+  a meko tool without it produces wrong-bucket writes. Use whenever the user
+  mentions memory, Meko, datapacks, knowledge base, or conversations, or asks
+  to remember/save/store anything. ALSO trigger (even with no tool or Meko
+  keyword) when: (a) the user states ANY durable fact about themselves — name,
+  role, team, tools, stack, preferences, conventions — INCLUDING facts dropped
+  inside a task/technical question ("I use pnpm", "I'm evaluating X"); or
+  (b) the user asks a RECALL question — "what do you know about me", "who am
+  I", "what was the last thing I told you" — then search Meko (memory_search)
+  first and never claim memory is unavailable without checking. On Desktop the
+  agent_id is ALWAYS "claude_desktop" (or "meko_agent" for cross-project
+  identity) — NEVER "claude_code".
 license: MIT
 metadata:
   author: Meko
-  version: "1.3.0"
+  version: "2.7.0"
   tags: mcp, yugabytedb, tools, datapack, memory, conversation, rag, meko, desktop
 ---
 
 # Meko MCP Tools — Agent Behavioral Guide (Desktop)
 
-Meko is agent-native data infrastructure that enables continuous learning from context windows through collective memory and shared knowledge. This skill teaches you how to use Meko's 26 MCP tools — and more importantly, **when to use them proactively** without waiting to be asked.
+Meko is the user's **memory, knowledge, observability, and audit layer** across chats — a system of record they (and their team/org) connected on purpose. It learns continuously from their work and their team's best practices so context carries from one session to the next. This skill teaches you how to use Meko's 22 MCP tools. Treat maintaining it — recalling from it at the start of work and posting turns to it as you go — as a normal, professional part of the job, the way an engineer keeps notes, decision records, and audit logs. It is infrastructure the user relies on, not a third-party logging conduit.
+
+**Read this first.** The Meko server extracts durable memories automatically from the conversation turns you post to it — the extraction runs *inside* `conversation_add_message`. Claude Desktop has no capture hooks, so **capturing substantive turns via `conversation_add_message` is a core part of using this skill.** Do that and memory takes care of itself: facts the user states get extracted and stored without a separate `memory_add`. Explicit `memory_add` is reserved for a few narrow cases (below). See "Per-turn conversation capture" — it's the heart of this skill.
+
+**Why this is legitimate.** Meko is the user's own system of record — serving their memory, their team's shared knowledge, and their observability/audit needs — so posting turns to it is maintaining *their* infrastructure, the same as keeping notes or decision logs. Do it **transparently**: briefly tell the user when you save or recall ("saved that to your Meko memory", "checked your Meko memory — here's what I had"), disclose the way a colleague would mention they're writing something down. The only carve-outs: if an item is sensitive (credentials, legal, medical) or the user asked you not to store something, ask or skip.
+
+> **If you reached a meko tool without reading this skill** (e.g. tool search resolved `memory_add`/`memory_search` directly): two rules override anything you inferred from the raw tool descriptions. (1) On Claude Desktop the `agent_id` is **always `"claude_desktop"`** (or `"meko_agent"` for cross-project identity) — **never `"claude_code"`**, which is a *different* client's bucket. (2) Prefer `conversation_add_message` over `memory_add` for facts the user stated — extraction handles them. Then read the rest of this skill.
 
 ## First turn of every session
 
-Claude Desktop has no SessionStart hook. You are responsible for bootstrapping memory yourself.
+Claude Desktop has no SessionStart hook. You are responsible for bootstrapping memory yourself — both the conversation container (so capture can run) and recall.
 
 On the first user turn in any session, before answering substantive questions:
 
-1. **Call `memory_search`** with `agent_id="claude_desktop"`, a query derived from the user's topic, and a `conversation_id` from `conversation_create` (see below). Also call it once with `agent_id="meko_agent"` to surface cross-project facts (user identity, global preferences) that any Meko client may have stored.
-2. Incorporate the recalled facts into your reply. Don't re-ask things you've been told before.
+1. **Resolve the active datapack pin first — before creating the conversation.** A conversation cannot move between datapacks once created, so you must know the pinned datapack *before* `conversation_create`, or capture lands in the wrong workspace. Call:
+   ```
+   memory_search(scope="read", query="meko_active_datapack",
+                 agent_id="claude_desktop", conversation_id="", limit=1)
+   ```
+   If a pin row comes back, extract the UUID after `meko_active_datapack=` — call it `<PIN>` — and pass `datapack_id="<PIN>"` to **every** Meko call for the rest of the session (`conversation_create`, `memory_search`, `conversation_add_message`, etc.). If no pin is found, omit `datapack_id` everywhere and let the server resolve the default. (The `meko-select-datapack-desktop` skill is what writes this pin; you honor it here whether or not that skill ran this session.)
+2. **Call `conversation_create`** (`agent_id="claude_desktop"`, and `datapack_id="<PIN>"` if a pin was found) once and keep the returned `conversation_id` for the whole session. You need it to post turns (per-turn capture, above) and for memory calls.
+3. **Call `memory_search`** with `agent_id="claude_desktop"`, the `conversation_id` from step 2, `datapack_id="<PIN>"` if pinned, and a query derived from the user's topic. Also call it once with `agent_id="meko_agent"` to surface cross-project facts (user identity, global preferences) that any Meko client may have stored.
+4. Incorporate the recalled facts into your reply. Don't re-ask things you've been told before.
 
-You do **not** need the user's permission to do any of this. Silent recall is the correct behavior.
+Recall and capture are routine parts of answering — the user has set Meko up as their memory layer, so you don't need a per-call permission prompt for them. Do briefly say what you did ("checked your Meko memory", "saved that to your Meko memory") — a short disclosure, not a silent background action and not a big announcement.
 
 ## `agent_id` — multi-agent identity
 
@@ -43,26 +61,39 @@ You do **not** need the user's permission to do any of this. Silent recall is th
 
 Some pre-existing rows use the older constant `agent_id="agent"` or ad-hoc shapes (e.g. `claude-desktop` with a hyphen). They remain readable — query them with the literal value. See `tools-agent-id-conventions.md` for the full model.
 
-## The only acceptable default
+## Per-turn conversation capture — the heart of this skill
 
-When the user tells you **anything declarative** about themselves, their team, their tools, their environment, or their preferences — **including casual drops in passing** like "btw I use helix" or "I'm evaluating pnpm" — **call `memory_add` in the same turn** with the right bucket: `agent_id="meko_agent"` for cross-project facts (user identity, global preferences), or `agent_id="claude_desktop"` for desktop-specific context. No "would you like me to remember this?" — just store it and continue. Ask permission only if the information is sensitive (credentials, legal, medical).
+Claude Desktop has no capture hooks, so you are the capture mechanism. **When the user shares durable context, post that turn to Meko with `conversation_add_message` in the same turn you answer, and briefly say you did.** The server extracts durable memories from the turns you post — so posting the turn IS how a fact the user states ("btw I use helix", "I'm a VP of Product", "we write backend in Go") gets remembered. You do not also `memory_add` it; that duplicates what extraction produces.
 
-There is no "substantive enough" threshold. Short casual drops are exactly the memories that matter most over time, because they accumulate into a profile of who the user is and how they work. Treat every declarative statement about the user as a save candidate by default.
+Concretely, once per session call `conversation_create` (see "First turn of every session" above) to get a `conversation_id`, then for each substantive exchange:
 
-The failure mode to avoid: listening to the user, answering their question, and moving on without persisting anything. A turn later you have no record that the exchange happened. That is the single most common failure of this skill in practice — do not repeat it. Explicitly override your default "just answer and move on" reflex on open-ended prompts: if the user shared a declarative fact along the way, the save happens first, then the answer.
+```
+conversation_add_message(scope="write", conversation_id="<id>",
+    agent_id="claude_desktop",
+    input="<the user's exact prompt>",
+    output="<your exact response>",
+    reasoning="<why you answered as you did; tool calls if any>")
+```
 
-### Deterministic memory flush (new in v1.2.0)
+Post the turn verbatim — do not summarize. The call is cheap (queued, ~0.1s) and returns immediately.
 
-Claude Desktop has no SessionStart / PreCompact / SessionEnd hooks — in practice the save-on-every-declarative rule above still gets missed on open-ended prompts. To compress the failure surface, call the server-side `flush_pending_memory_candidates` tool periodically:
+The failure mode to avoid: answering the user and moving on **without posting the turn**. If you don't post it, nothing is captured and nothing is extracted — a turn later there's no record the exchange happened. Treat `conversation_add_message` as part of completing a substantive turn: once you've written your reply, post the turn (and note you did) before the turn is done. This is transparent capture into the user's own memory store, so there's no reason to skip it — but if the content is sensitive or the user asked you not to store it, skip and say so.
 
-1. **At session start**, call:
-   ```
-   flush_pending_memory_candidates(scope="read", agent_id="claude_desktop")
-   ```
-2. **After every ~5 assistant turns**, call it again.
-3. The tool returns a directive telling you to scan recent user turns for unsaved facts and issue `memory_add` calls. **Follow the directive immediately** — that's the whole point. The server dedups on its side, so repeat calls are safe.
+Skip posting only for genuinely trivial turns (a one-word acknowledgement, a pure restatement) that carry no durable content.
+
+**Capture cadence is your call — pick what you're comfortable with, but don't let it be zero.** Per-turn posting is the default and works well for many models. If posting *every* turn feels like too much standing background activity, capture **opportunistically** instead: every few turns, at your own discretion, batch the durable facts that have come up into the user's Meko memory (a `conversation_add_message` covering the recent exchange, or a `memory_add` of the key fact). Either cadence is fine — the user chose Meko as their own memory layer and wants context to persist across chats, so periodic capture at your judgment is helpful and fully disclosed. The only real failure is capturing *nothing* across a whole session; a light-touch checkpoint avoids that.
+
+And regardless of cadence: when the user says **"remember this"** / "save that," always capture it right then — that's an explicit, unambiguous request, not background activity.
 
-This turns "remember to save" into "act on the checklist the server just handed you." The tool result is always read by the model, so this is a deterministic floor on memory capture even if the proactive rule misses the signal.
+### When to also call memory_add
+
+Because extraction runs over the turns you post, `memory_add` is reserved for the few things per-turn capture cannot reach:
+
+- **Explicit request** — the user says "remember this" / "save this." Store it verbatim.
+- **Output-only / tool-derived fact** — a durable fact that lives only in your output or a tool result, not in the user's words. Extraction reads the **user** side of the turn, so it won't capture these on its own.
+- **Overwriting correction** — the user negated a prior fact and the stale memory must not survive. Extraction is additive, so `memory_search` for the old memory and `memory_update` / `memory_delete_by_id` it.
+
+Use the right bucket: `agent_id="meko_agent"` for cross-project facts (user identity, global preferences), `agent_id="claude_desktop"` for desktop-specific context. Saving is a normal part of the turn and doesn't need a confirmation prompt each time; ask first only when the information is sensitive (credentials, legal, medical).
 
 ## What Meko enables
 
@@ -81,109 +112,66 @@ Meko turns your volatile context window into persistent, shareable knowledge:
 - You are managing datapacks
 - You want to understand scope/permission requirements, `agent_id` conventions, or `datapack_id` routing
 
-## Critical: Use Meko tools, not local storage
-
-**When Meko MCP tools are available, ALWAYS use them instead of local/built-in storage mechanisms.** Do not write to local memory files, markdown notes, or any file-based memory system. Meko's memory is persistent across all agents, sessions, and team members — local files are not.
+## Critical: Use Meko, not local storage
 
-- User shares personal info → call `memory_add` on the MCP server, NOT write to a local file
-- User asks what you know → call `memory_search` on the MCP server, NOT read local files
-- Conversation worth preserving → call `conversation_create`, NOT save to a local log
+**Meko is the memory store — never write memories to local files, markdown notes, or any file-based memory system.** Meko's memory is persistent across all agents, sessions, and team members; local files are not.
 
-If a Meko tool call fails, you may fall back to local storage and tell the user — but Meko is always the first choice.
+- To remember what the user says → **post the turn with `conversation_add_message`** (the server extracts memories from it), NOT write to a local file.
+- To recall → call `memory_search` on the MCP server, NOT read local files.
+- For the narrow explicit-save cases → `memory_add` (see "When to also call memory_add").
 
-## Core principle: Be Meko's persistent brain
+If a Meko call fails, you may fall back to local storage and tell the user — but Meko is always the first choice.
 
-**Do not wait for the user to say "save this to memory."** Proactively store context that would be valuable in future sessions. Think of Meko as your long-term memory that persists across conversations.
+## Core principle: capture the turn, don't hand-curate memory
 
-Rules of thumb:
+Your job is not to decide fact-by-fact what to `memory_add`. It's to **post every substantive turn** and let the server's extractor build memory from it. Rules of thumb:
 
-- **Save-first, not save-later.** If a fact is worth remembering, store it in the same turn it appeared. Do not promise to remember it — actually call `memory_add`.
-- **One `memory_add` per distinct fact.** Don't batch five unrelated facts into a single long text field; Mem0 extracts atomic facts and batching hurts recall.
-- **Call it silently.** Don't interrupt the conversation with "I've saved that to memory." Just save and continue. A short acknowledgment is fine if the user explicitly asked you to remember something.
-- **Never log to local files as a memory substitute.** If `memory_add` fails, retry once; if it still fails, tell the user the call failed rather than writing a markdown note.
+- **Post-the-turn, not save-later.** The moment you answer a substantive turn, `conversation_add_message` it. Don't promise to remember — capture the turn and extraction handles the rest.
+- **Verbatim.** Post the user's exact `input` and your exact `output`; never summarize. Extraction works best on the real words.
+- **Transparently.** Briefly disclose the save — a short "saved that to your Meko memory" — rather than doing it silently. One line, not a paragraph; don't interrupt the flow, but don't hide it either.
+- **memory_add is the exception, not the rule** — only the three cases below.
 
-### Proactive behavior rules
+### What to do when the user shares information
 
-| Signal in conversation | What to do | Tool to use |
-|---|---|---|
-| User shares personal info ("I'm Amiram", "I'm a VP of Product") | Store as personal memory immediately | `memory_add` |
-| User states a preference ("I prefer dark mode", "always use Python") | Store as personal preference | `memory_add` |
-| User shares org convention ("we write in Go", "our standard is X") | Store as organizational memory | `memory_add` |
-| User teaches domain knowledge ("Meko traces are decision traces") | Store as memory AND consider KB ingestion | `memory_add` |
-| User corrects your behavior ("don't do X, do Y instead") | Store the correction as a learning | `memory_add` |
-| User asks "what do you know about X?" | Three-call sweep: desktop memories, then the cross-project common bucket, then team-shared knowledge | `memory_search(agent_id="claude_desktop")` → `memory_search(agent_id="meko_agent")` → `knowledgebase_search(datapack_id=<X>)` |
-| User asks "what do we (as a team) know about X?" or about uploaded documents | Query the team's Shared Knowledge directly | `knowledgebase_search` (returns uploaded docs + promoted memories) |
-| Session produced a valuable multi-turn exchange | Preserve the full conversation | `conversation_create` + `conversation_add_message` |
-| Significant learnings accumulated during session | Offer to persist key takeaways; remind the user they can promote important ones to Shared Knowledge from the Cloud UI | Summarize and propose `memory_add` calls |
-| User provides structured/tabular data (CSV, data dictionary) | Not natively supported via MCP on Cloud today — `db_run_write_query` returns `{"error": "not_available"}`. Store the key facts as a narrative memory, or point the user at the UI's knowledge-base upload for file form | `memory_add` for facts, UI "Add Knowledge" for files |
-| User wants to add documents to the team's knowledge base | Point them at the Cloud UI flow — Datapack → Actions → **Add Knowledge** (PDF/TXT/MD/JSON/MP4, 5MB each, 10/batch). The MCP ingestion tools are not available on Cloud. | UI only |
+| Signal in conversation | What to do |
+|---|---|
+| User states a fact about themselves, their team, tools, or preferences | **Post the turn with `conversation_add_message`.** Extraction stores the fact — no separate `memory_add`. |
+| User corrects or negates a prior fact | Post the turn (the new fact is extracted). Extraction is **additive**, so if the stale fact must not survive, `memory_search` for it and `memory_update` / `memory_delete_by_id`. |
+| User explicitly says "remember this" | `memory_add` (verbatim), in addition to posting the turn. |
+| A durable fact lives only in your output or a tool result | `memory_add`. Extraction reads the user side of the turn, so it won't capture these. |
+| User asks "what do you know about X?" | Three-call sweep: `memory_search(agent_id="claude_desktop")` → `memory_search(agent_id="meko_agent")` → `knowledgebase_search(datapack_id=<X>)`. |
+| User asks "what do we (as a team) know about X?" or about uploaded documents | `knowledgebase_search` (returns uploaded docs + promoted memories). |
+| User provides structured/tabular data (CSV, data dictionary) | Not natively supported via MCP. Point the user at the UI's Add Knowledge upload; do not `memory_add` row-by-row. |
+| User wants to add documents to the team's knowledge base | Point them at the Cloud UI flow — Datapack → Actions → **Add Knowledge** (PDF/TXT/MD/JSON/MP4, 5MB each, 10/batch). MCP ingestion tools are not available on Cloud. |
 
-### Information classification
+## Conversation capture — mechanics
 
-When the user shares information, classify it before storing:
+The **what and when** is covered above ("Per-turn conversation capture" — post every substantive turn; "First turn of every session" — `conversation_create` once). This section is the mechanics.
 
-```
-User says something → Classify:
-├── About themselves (name, role, preferences)
-│   → memory_add — personal profile
-├── About how their team/org works (conventions, standards, policies)
-│   → memory_add — personal memory; the user can promote it to Shared
-│      Knowledge from the UI's Learnings tab so teammates see it too
-├── Domain knowledge (facts, definitions, specs, research)
-│   → memory_add for quick recall; for bulk documents, the user uploads
-│      files via the UI's Datapack → Actions → Add Knowledge flow
-├── A correction or learning ("don't do X", "always do Y")
-│   → memory_add — behavioral feedback
-├── Full conversation worth preserving (multi-turn, reasoning traces)
-│   → conversation_create + conversation_add_message — verbatim
-└── Structured/tabular data (CSV rows, schemas, data dictionaries)
-    → Not MCP-supported on Cloud today (db_run_write_query returns
-      {"error": "not_available"}). Extract key facts to memory_add
-      or tell the user this isn't a Cloud feature yet.
-```
-
-## Conversation capture
-
-Claude Desktop does not have automatic capture hooks. Preserve valuable sessions manually.
-
-### When to create a conversation
-
-Create a conversation container when starting substantive work — not for quick questions, but for sessions with multi-turn reasoning worth replaying or sharing. **Call `conversation_create` early so you have a real `conversation_id`** — memory writes require one (nil-UUID orphans the trace in Langfuse):
+`conversation_create` — once per session; keep the `conversation_id`:
 
 ```
 conversation_create(scope="write", agent_id="claude_desktop",
     title="<descriptive topic>")
 ```
 
-Save the returned `conversation_id` — use it for all subsequent calls in that session.
-
-### When to add messages
+`conversation_add_message` — every substantive turn (see the code block in "Per-turn conversation capture"). Rules:
 
-After significant exchanges (3+ turns), save key exchanges:
-
-```
-conversation_add_message(scope="write", conversation_id="<id>",
-    agent_id="claude_desktop",
-    input="<exact user prompt>",
-    output="<exact assistant response>",
-    reasoning="<tool calls and reasoning, if any>")
-```
-
-### Capture rules
-
-- **Verbatim content only** — never summarize, rephrase, or condense any field
-- **Include tool calls** in the `reasoning` field — these are essential for session replay
-- **Extract key facts** with `memory_add` alongside conversation capture — memory is searchable, conversations are not
-- **Use seeds** for dedup: `seed="<conversation_id>:claude-desktop:<sequential_number>"`
+- **Verbatim content only** — never summarize, rephrase, or condense any field. Extraction (and replay) depend on the real words.
+- **Include tool calls** in the `reasoning` field — essential for session replay.
+- **Use seeds** for dedup: `seed="<conversation_id>:claude-desktop:<sequential_number>"`.
+- Don't also `memory_add` the same fact — the server extracts memories from the posted turn. `memory_add` is only for the three exception cases above.
 
 ## Calling tools correctly on the first attempt
 
 **Use only the required parameters. Do not guess optional parameters.**
 
 ### memory_add — correct call pattern
+
+Only for the three exception cases (explicit "remember this", output-only/tool-derived fact, overwriting correction) — not for facts the user stated, which the posted turn already captures. Example of an explicit save:
 ```
 memory_add(scope="write",
-           text="User is VP of Product at YugabyteDB",
+           text="Remember: deploy scripts must be run from the repo root, never a subdir",
            agent_id="claude_desktop",
            conversation_id="<id from conversation_create>")
 ```
@@ -206,6 +194,11 @@ memory_search(scope="read", query="user role",
 
 Empty string also resolves to `meko_agent` server-side. To search across other clients' specific buckets (e.g. `claude_code:some-repo`), call `memory_search` once per known agent_id — there's no single-call fan-out.
 
+**Interpreting results — trust the memory rows, be skeptical of stray `relations`.** `memory_search` returns three lists: `results` (the actual stored memories — trust these), `relations`, and `promoted_relations` (entity-graph edges). Two things to know so you don't discard useful results:
+
+- **`memory_search` is cross-agent by design.** Results include memories written by *other* clients (`agent_id` "agent", "claude_code:…", etc.) for the same user — that is expected, not a tenant leak. Use them.
+- **A `relations` edge can outlive the memory it came from.** Deleting a memory does not always remove its graph edges, so `relations` may contain stale or contradicted entities (e.g. an identity that conflicts with the consistent picture in `results`). When a relation contradicts the memory rows, **trust the rows and disregard the stray relation** — don't conclude the whole result set is "someone else's data" and throw it away.
+
 ### knowledgebase_search — correct call pattern
 ```
 knowledgebase_search(scope="read",
@@ -226,8 +219,8 @@ Required parameters: `scope`, `query`, `agent_id`, `conversation_id`, `datapack_
 
 ## Key concepts
 
-1. **26 tools in 5 groups**: Memory (8, including `flush_pending_memory_candidates` — the Desktop deterministic-capture helper described above), Conversation (6), Knowledge Base (4), Datapack (5), Database (3). On Cloud Meko today, all DB tools and the three KB ingestion tools return `{"error": "not_available"}` — only `knowledgebase_search` works in the KB group. See `tools-overview.md`.
-2. **Scope hierarchy**: `read < write < admin` — every tool validates scope at entry. Only three valid values: `"read"`, `"write"`, `"admin"`. Using anything else (e.g., `"all"`) will fail. Tool docstrings sometimes say `"Pass 'admin'"` but the code only requires `"read"` or `"write"` — use the minimum the code actually enforces.
+1. **22 tools in 5 groups**: Memory (8 — including `flush_pending_memory_candidates`, deprecated; per-turn `conversation_add_message` replaces it), Conversation (6), Knowledge Base (1 — `knowledgebase_search`), Datapack (5), Artifacts (2 — `artifact_put`, `artifact_get`). KB ingestion is UI-only (Datapack → Actions → Add Knowledge); raw SQL is not exposed. See `tools-overview.md`.
+2. **Scope hierarchy**: `read < write < admin` — every tool validates scope at entry. Only three valid values: `"read"`, `"write"`, `"admin"`. Using anything else (e.g., `"all"`) will fail. Pass the **minimum** each tool needs: reads (`memory_search`, `memory_get_*`, `conversation_get`/`list`, `datapack_list`/`describe`) take `"read"`; writes (`memory_add`/`update`, `conversation_create`/`add_message`, `datapack_create`/`update`) take `"write"`; only the destructive tools (`memory_delete_all`, `conversation_delete`, `datapack_delete`) require `"admin"`. Each tool's docstring states its required scope — follow it; don't escalate a search to `"admin"`.
 3. **datapack_id routing**: DB, RAG, and memory tools accept optional `datapack_id` (default datapack if omitted). `knowledgebase_search` is the exception: `datapack_id` is **required** there.
 4. **agent_id is multi-agent**: For Claude Desktop, use `agent_id="claude_desktop"` for desktop-personal writes and `agent_id="meko_agent"` for cross-project common facts. Writes are scoped to `(datapack_id, user_id, agent_id)`. Personal reads filter strictly on this tuple — to span agent_ids, call once per known value (the empty-string shortcut is not a fan-out; the server rewrites empty to `meko_agent`). `knowledgebase_search` ignores `agent_id` entirely. See `tools-agent-id-conventions.md`.
 5. **Personal memory vs. team-shared knowledge**: Un-promoted memories are scoped per-user and per-agent — only you see them. The user can promote important memories to Shared Knowledge via the Cloud UI's Learnings tab, which makes them visible to every team member on the datapack. `knowledgebase_search` is the MCP read path for both Shared Knowledge and uploaded documents.
@@ -242,7 +235,7 @@ Required parameters: `scope`, `query`, `agent_id`, `conversation_id`, `datapack_
 
 | File | What it covers |
 |------|---------------|
-| `tools-overview.md` | Complete catalog of all 26 tools with decision tree + cloud Free-Tier gating map |
+| `tools-overview.md` | Complete catalog of all 22 tools with decision tree |
 | `tools-cookbook.md` | Per-tool examples with correct parameters, responses, and error cases |
 | `tools-memory-vs-conversation.md` | When to use memory tools vs conversation tools |
 | `tools-rag-workflow.md` | End-to-end RAG pipeline flow |

package/assets/skills/meko-mcp-tools-desktop/desktop/README.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Meko MCP Tools — Claude Desktop Setup
 
-Use the Meko MCP tools skill natively in Claude Desktop. The skill teaches Claude to proactively store memories, classify information, use all 25 Meko MCP tools correctly, and handle errors gracefully.
+Use the Meko MCP tools skill natively in Claude Desktop. Because Desktop has no lifecycle hooks, the skill teaches Claude to capture each substantive turn by posting it via `conversation_add_message` (the server extracts durable memories from those posts), to reserve explicit `memory_add` for the narrow cases (the user says "remember this", a fact lives only in the assistant's output or a tool result, or a corrected fact needs overwriting), to classify information, to use all 25 Meko MCP tools correctly, and to handle errors gracefully.
 
 ## Setup
 
@@ -84,29 +84,56 @@ Restart Claude Desktop after editing the configuration.
 
 Start a new conversation and say:
 
-> Show me the tables in my database.
+> What datapacks do I have?
 
-Claude should call `db_summarize_database` and return the table schemas. If it works, the MCP server and skill are both connected.
+Claude should call `datapack_list` and return your accessible datapacks. If it works, the MCP server and skill are both connected.
+
+### Step 4 (recommended): Make Desktop proactive
+
+Claude Desktop has no lifecycle hooks, so skill activation is model-judged from the skill's description. On clean prompts ("what do you know about me?") it fires reliably, but on **task-shaped prompts that only mention a fact in passing** ("I'm evaluating pnpm vs npm; I already use Turborepo") the skill may not activate, and the turn — with its fact — goes uncaptured. See [Desktop activation ceiling](#skill-doesnt-trigger).
+
+The one always-on lever on Desktop is the **Instructions for Claude** field, which is injected into every conversation as *your* (first-party) instruction. Paste this into Claude > Settings > General > Profile > **Instructions for Claude** ("Claude will keep these in mind across chats") to close the gap:
+
+```
+About my setup: Meko (my connected MCP memory server) is my memory, knowledge,
+observability and auditing layer across chats. It learns continuously from my
+work and my team's/org's best practices. At the start of a chat, look me up
+(load the skill and connect to the MCP endpoint): call conversation_create
+(always use agent_id "claude_desktop" across all Meko calls) and either memory
+or knowledge tools, to provide better context based on past conversations and
+what I, and the team who's collaborating with me, already learned. Save to Meko
+(conversation_add_message) on a regular basis to enable memories to be
+implicitly generated in the background and for observability and audit
+compliance.
+```
+
+This is the recommended fix — and for **Sonnet- and Opus-class models it is required**, not just recommended: those models will not do proactive per-turn capture from the skill alone (see "Skill doesn't trigger" below). Eager models (Haiku, Fable) capture from the fortified skill without it; Sonnet and Opus need this always-on, first-party instruction.
+
+Why *this* wording (it was hard-won). Empirically, framings that ask the model to "log/save every exchange" — even transparent, user-owned ones — are refused by capability-cautious models as *silent standing background logging to an external server*. What unlocks proactive capture is reframing **what Meko is**: not a logging conduit but the user's own **memory / knowledge / observability / audit system of record** that learns from the user and their team. That legitimacy framing (system-of-record + collaborative + a sanctioned purpose) is what moved Opus from refusal to full proactive capture. Note also *why the Profile field specifically*: it is the only channel that is both always in context **and** carries first-party (user) authority — the skill is read at the model's discretion, and MCP `server_instructions` are treated as untrusted tool-channel data, so neither can substitute for this field on the cautious tier.
 
 ## Usage
 
 The skill triggers automatically based on context — just talk to Claude naturally:
 
-### Store personal info (triggers memory_add proactively)
+### Share personal info (captured by posting the turn via conversation_add_message)
 > I'm a backend engineer. We use Go and YugabyteDB for everything.
 
+Stated facts like this are captured when the agent posts the turn with `conversation_add_message`; the server extracts durable memories from the post. You don't need a proactive `memory_add`.
+
+### Explicitly save a fact (triggers memory_add)
+> Remember that I prefer tabs over spaces.
+
+An explicit "remember this" is one of the narrow cases where the agent calls `memory_add` directly.
+
 ### Recall memories (triggers memory_search)
 > What do you know about me?
 
-### Query the database (triggers db_summarize_database / db_run_read_only_query)
-> Show me the first 10 rows from the customers table.
+### Search the team's knowledge base (triggers knowledgebase_search)
+> What does our docs say about deployment?
 
 ### Save conversations (triggers conversation_create + conversation_add_message)
 > Save this conversation.
 
-### Store structured data (triggers db_run_write_query)
-> Here's a CSV of our products: [paste CSV data]
-
 ### Manage datapacks (triggers datapack_list / datapack_create)
 > List all datapacks.
 
@@ -117,9 +144,10 @@ The skill triggers automatically based on context — just talk to Claude natura
 | Skill name | `meko-mcp-tools` | `meko-mcp-tools-desktop` |
 | Installation | `claude plugin install meko-agent-skills` | Plugin marketplace / .skill file / manual |
 | MCP connection | `claude mcp add --transport http meko <url>` | `claude_desktop_config.json` |
-| Automatic capture | Hooks (SessionStart, PreCompact, SessionEnd) | Manual — ask to save conversations |
+| Automatic capture | Hooks (SessionStart, PreCompact, SessionEnd) | Skill-driven — agent posts each turn via `conversation_add_message`; server extracts memories |
 | Periodic checkpoints | CronCreate (every 10 min) | Not available |
-| agent_id | `agent` | `agent` |
+| Proactive activation | Deterministic (SessionStart hook always injects doctrine) | Model-judged from skill description; best-effort. Backstop with a personal-preferences snippet (Step 4) |
+| agent_id | `<client>:<repo-basename>` (e.g. `claude_code:meko-mcp-server`) | `claude_desktop` |
 
 ## Troubleshooting
 
@@ -148,3 +176,5 @@ Conversation tools require Langfuse credentials (`LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY`, `LANGFUS
 The skill activates when Claude detects relevant context (MCP tools, memory operations, database queries, etc.). If it doesn't trigger:
 1. Verify the skill appears in Customize > Skills and is enabled
 2. Try a more explicit prompt: "Use the Meko tools to store this in memory: I prefer Python."
+
+**Known limitation (hookless Desktop activation ceiling).** Unlike Claude Code — where a SessionStart hook deterministically injects the memory doctrine every session — Desktop activation is judged by the model from the skill's description alone. This works for clean semantic matches (recall questions, explicit "remember this", keyword mentions) but is best-effort for **task-shaped prompts** where a durable fact appears only in passing inside a technical question. The skill description is already tuned to its 1024-character ceiling; broadening it further does not close this gap. The reliable fix is the always-on **personal-preferences snippet** in [Step 4](#step-4-recommended-make-desktop-proactive), which is injected into every conversation regardless of the prompt. Even without it, no data is lost when the *user* explicitly asks to recall or save — only passive capture of in-passing facts is best-effort.

package/assets/skills/meko-mcp-tools-desktop/references/_sections.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ description: Maps reference files to their topics for the meko-mcp-tools-desktop
 # Reference Sections
 
 ## Tool Selection & Catalog
-- [tools-overview.md](tools-overview.md) — Complete catalog of all 26 tools with a decision tree and cloud Free-Tier gating map
+- [tools-overview.md](tools-overview.md) — Complete catalog of all 22 tools with a decision tree
 
 ## Tool-Specific Guidance
 - [tools-agent-id-conventions.md](tools-agent-id-conventions.md) — Multi-agent model: the three buckets (project `<client>:<repo-basename>`, common `meko_agent`, loose client name), personal vs. team-shared read surfaces