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Procedural memory and learned workflows

Collie can learn the shape of repeated work without recording the contents of your screen or turning observation into permission.

This is different from fact memory:

  • Semantic memory stores reviewed facts and preferences.
  • Episodic history stores session and audit receipts.
  • Procedural memory notices repeated action sequences across separate sessions.
  • Preference memory remains an explicitly reviewable kind of semantic memory.

Privacy boundary

Raw procedural observations are device-only. A row contains an application, action, object category, privacy-reduced object identity, outcome, session, project, and a few allowlisted operational labels.

Collie does not put screen pixels, page or email bodies, typed text, clipboard contents, prompts, model responses, credentials, URL paths/query strings, or complete shell commands in this journal. Web targets are reduced to their origin. Commands are reduced to the executable. Files inside a project use a relative path; external files use only their basename.

Password managers, private/incognito windows, password fields, and user-configured applications are excluded. Learning can be paused immediately and raw observations expire after 30 days by default.

collie routine status
collie routine pause
collie routine resume
collie routine exclude --app "My private app"
collie routine retention --days 14
collie routine purge --yes

Purge deletes raw observations. It does not silently delete an accepted derived workflow.

Discovery and review

Discovery mines action sequences that appeared in at least two distinct sessions. Candidate summaries and local embeddings are derived on the device.

collie routine discover
collie routine candidates
collie routine candidates --query "test a release"
collie routine accept routine_ID --yes
collie routine dismiss routine_ID --yes
collie routine workflows

Accept and dismiss are explicit, confirmed review actions. An accepted learned workflow has no authority: it is useful context and a future automation draft, not an executable permission. Frequency, confidence, model output, web content, and synced state can never grant authority.

Multi-device sync

Only derived candidates and accepted workflows are eligible for Connected Mode. They are sealed, encrypted on the device, and decrypted only by another device holding the user's recovery key. The Online adapter has no code path that stages or imports the raw event table.

Imported routines are restricted to the same user and are forced back to zero authority at the receiving-device boundary.