ReMe pattern: define prospective memory as a schedule your agent can tick off

The Stack

Steps

1. 1

   Define the reminder schedule and validate it

   Write reminders.json with an id, trigger (cron: for recurring, delay: for one-shot), and intent for each reminder. CI checks the structure; the scheduling loop and execution are fenced.

   cat > reminders.json <<'JSON'
   {
     "version": 1,
     "reminders": [
       {
         "id": "weekly-digest",
         "trigger": "cron:0 8 * * MON",
         "intent": "Compose and send the Monday morning digest to the newsletter list",
         "action": "compose_and_send_digest"
       },
       {
         "id": "deploy-verify",
         "trigger": "delay:1h",
         "intent": "Verify the deploy completed and smoke-test the preview URL",
         "action": "verify_deploy_status"
       }
     ]
   }
   JSON
   node -e '
   const fs = require("fs");
   const r = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync("reminders.json", "utf8"));
   function bad(m) { console.error("BAD: " + m); process.exit(1); }
   if (typeof r.version !== "number") bad("version must be a number");
   if (!Array.isArray(r.reminders) || r.reminders.length === 0) bad("reminders must be a non-empty array");
   for (const rem of r.reminders) {
     if (!rem.id) bad("each reminder must have an id");
     if (!rem.trigger) bad("reminder " + rem.id + " must have a trigger");
     if (!/^(cron:|delay:)/.test(rem.trigger)) bad("reminder " + rem.id + " trigger must start with cron: or delay:");
     if (!rem.intent || rem.intent.length < 10) bad("reminder " + rem.id + " needs a real intent (>=10 chars)");
   }
   const counts = { cron: 0, delay: 0 };
   r.reminders.forEach(function(rem) { counts[rem.trigger.split(":")[0]]++; });
   const summary = Object.entries(counts).filter(function(e){return e[1]>0;}).map(function(e){return e[1]+"x "+e[0];}).join(", ");
   console.log("reminders OK: " + r.reminders.length + " reminder(s) (" + summary + ") all valid");
   '

2. 2

   Wire up the scheduling loop (the execution step, not checked by CI)

   Load reminders.json at agent start. On each tick, check which cron triggers fire now and which delay triggers have elapsed, then execute the action for each due reminder. For anything production-critical, back this with a real durable job queue. The scheduling logic and action execution are fenced.