An index that outgrew its own budget

/ork:dream STEP 5.5 + context-file-budget-guard, #3741 · measured: this repo's MEMORY.md at 22,234 B, 127.7% of 17,408 · 2026-08-31

Why the budget existed and still did not bind

dream SKILL.md   "target <= 17 KB, trim hooks, never drop an entry"    prose, single-file invariant, no demotion rule
budget guard     ASKs before an over-budget MEMORY.md write            skipped in BYPASS mode: the population that writes it most
measured         six projects at or over 17,408 B; this repo 22,234 B; MEMORY-ARCHIVE.md 23 KB, unbudgeted by design

Two fixes, one rule. The guard now returns advisory context in bypass mode (a systemMessage would be dropped by the write-edit dispatcher; context is the channel the model reads). And dream gets an executable budget pass: report by section, then demote by RULE, oldest first, never by judgement, behind the existing ask gate.

Try it: paste an index, pick a ceiling

Same rule as scripts/dream/scripts/index-budget.mjs: Handoffs older than 7 days (date from the filename), Feedback/Project older than N days (here: a fake age from the entry order), never hub_/user_/Policy. Ages are simulated in the browser; the script uses real file mtimes.

# Demo Memory

## Hubs (2)
- [cc versions](hub_cc_versions.md) · index of every CC-version memory
- [merge train](hub_merge_train.md) · index of merge-train memories

## Policy (2)
- [no paid spend](feedback_no_paid_spend.md) · never spend money unprompted
- [no history rewrite](feedback_no_public_history_rewrite.md) · never rewrite published history

## Handoffs
- [08-30 sweep](project_handoff_2026_08_30_sweep.md) · a long handoff line describing everything that happened that day in some detail
- [08-25 full day](project_handoff_2026_08_25_full_day.md) · another long handoff line describing everything that happened that day

## Feedback (3)
- [rtk grep hides matches](feedback_rtk_grep_hides.md) · hard 25-match ceiling, disclosed in the header
- [gh watch banned](feedback_gh_watch_banned.md) · poll sparsely with a background monitor
- [worktree needs two installs](feedback_worktree_two_installs.md) · root + src/hooks

## Project (1)
- [eval weekly cap](project_eval_weekly_cap.md) · red skill-eval on CI = HTTP 429

> 10 memory files total. Every file is indexed exactly once across this file and [MEMORY-ARCHIVE.md](MEMORY-ARCHIVE.md).

ceiling (bytes) handoff days entry days