Triggering Patterns

Verbatim user phrasings that should make an AI reach for trellis mem. Calibrate instinct against these — if a user message hits one of these patterns and you do not reach for mem, you probably missed an obvious recall.

Patterns are grouped by the intent behind the phrasing, not the surface words. The same intent shows up in different languages and registers.

Past-solution recall

The user is asking "how did we (or I) solve this before". Past dialogue holds the answer; the codebase shows the result but not the reasoning.

"How did we solve this last time?"
"What did we end up doing about X?"
"We dealt with this once already, didn't we?"
"上次怎么解的?"
"之前是怎么搞定 X 的?"
"我记得以前修过类似的"

Reach: trellis mem search "<symptom keyword>" --global --limit 10, then context into the hit that looks closest.

Decision retrieval

The user is referencing a decision that lives in old dialogue, not in any committed file. Look in brainstorm windows.

"What was the decision on X?"
"Did we decide to use Postgres or SQLite?"
"The rationale for choosing X over Y was…?"
"我们当时为啥选了 X 而不是 Y?"
"关于 X 我们之前是怎么定的?"
"之前讨论过 X 的方案吗?"

Reach: trellis mem search "<decision keyword>" to find the session, then extract <id> --phase brainstorm to recover the discussion.

Cross-session continuation

The user resumed work after a gap and the context is implicit.

"Where were we?"
"Continue from last time."
"Pick up where we left off."
"继续上次的"
"我们上次做到哪了"
"接着昨天那个任务"

Reach: trellis mem list --task <current-task-dir> to find the most recent sessions tied to the active task, then extract the last one.

Familiar-bug debugging

The current bug feels like one already seen. Past sessions probably hold the resolution path.

"I feel like I've hit this before."
"Doesn't this look like that bug from last month?"
"Same kind of timeout I had in X."
"这个错好像之前见过"
"这个 bug 是不是上次那个?"
"怎么又是这个 error?"

Reach: trellis mem search "<error message fragment>" --global. Anchor on a short, distinctive token from the actual error string.

Self-pattern spotting

The user is asking whether they keep repeating the same kind of mistake or decision.

"Do I always make this mistake?"
"How often have I run into X?"
"Is this a recurring thing for me?"
"我每次都踩这个坑吗?"
"我老犯这个错?"
"这类问题之前出现过几次?"

Reach: trellis mem search "<topic>" --global --limit 50 and scan the dates / projects in the listing. Optionally extract two or three for comparison.

Finish-work retrospective (on demand)

The user explicitly wants to look back at this task — not as a forced step, only when they ask.

"Summarize what we did in this task."
"What were the key decisions / surprises?"
"Write up the lessons from this round."
"总结一下这次的经验"
"记一下这次踩的坑"
"复盘下这个任务"

Reach: identify the current task's session id (from .trellis/.runtime/sessions/*.json or mem list --task <task-dir>), then extract <id> --phase brainstorm and --phase implement. Present a summary — surface concrete file:line citations where possible. Whether to also write the summary somewhere (PRD, spec, notes file) is the user's call; offer, don't auto-write.

Anti-patterns: do NOT reach for `mem` here

"What does this function do?" → read the file.
"Why is this test failing?" → read the test output and the file.
"What's the right pattern for X in our codebase?" → grep / read spec files.
"What's the latest npm version of Y?" → call npm view.
"Fix this bug." → debug. Reach for mem only if you suspect prior context exists; otherwise it is noise.

The bar stays: would a senior teammate ask "didn't we already talk about this?" before answering? If yes, reach for mem. If no, don't.

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