Data Model

Memory Unit

A Memory Unit is the atomic element of MIF. It contains:

Property	Required	Type	Description
id	REQUIRED	UUID	Globally unique identifier
content	REQUIRED	String	The memory content (Markdown)
type	REQUIRED	Enum	Memory classification (see below)
created	REQUIRED	DateTime	When the memory was created
modified	RECOMMENDED	DateTime	When last modified
ontology	RECOMMENDED	Object	Reference to applied ontology
namespace	RECOMMENDED	String	Hierarchical scope
tags	OPTIONAL	Array	Classification tags
entities	OPTIONAL	Array	Referenced entities
relationships	OPTIONAL	Array	Typed relationships
temporal	OPTIONAL	Object	Temporal validity data
provenance	OPTIONAL	Object	Source and trust data
embedding	OPTIONAL	Object	Embedding reference
citations	OPTIONAL	Array	Citation references (Level 3)
summary	OPTIONAL	String	Compressed content summary (Level 3)
compressed_at	OPTIONAL	DateTime	When compression was applied (Level 3)
extensions	OPTIONAL	Object	Provider-specific data

Memory Types

MIF uses three base memory types, reflecting how human memory systems organize information:

Type	Description	Namespace Hint
semantic	Facts, concepts, relationships, and knowledge	semantic/*
episodic	Events, experiences, sessions, and timelines	episodic/*
procedural	Step-by-step processes, runbooks, and patterns	procedural/*

Base Type Descriptions:

• Semantic: Declarative knowledge about the world—facts, concepts, decisions, preferences, and relationships between entities. Examples: architectural decisions, technology choices, user preferences, domain knowledge.

• Episodic: Time-bound experiences and events—incidents, conversations, sessions, and blockers. These memories have strong temporal context and represent “what happened.”

• Procedural: How-to knowledge—runbooks, migration guides, code patterns, and step-by-step processes. These memories describe “how to do” something.

Ontology-Extended Types

Ontologies MAY define extended types using namespace prefixes:

# In ontology definition
entity_types:
  - name: decision
    base: semantic
    description: "Architectural or design decision"
  - name: runbook
    base: procedural
    description: "Step-by-step operational guide"
  - name: incident
    base: episodic
    description: "Production incident record"

When using ontology-extended types, the type field uses the base type, while specific categorization is expressed through the namespace:

---
type: semantic
namespace: _semantic/decisions
ontology:
  id: mif-base
---

This allows ontologies to define rich taxonomies while maintaining interoperability through the base type foundation.

Ontology Reference

A Memory Unit MAY declare which ontology it conforms to using the ontology field:

Property	Required	Type	Description
id	REQUIRED	String	Ontology identifier (matches ontology.id in ontology definition)
version	OPTIONAL	String	Semantic version (e.g., “1.0.0”)
uri	OPTIONAL	URI	URL to the ontology definition file

Example:

ontology:
  id: regenerative-agriculture
  version: "1.0.0"
  uri: https://github.com/zircote/MIF/ontologies/examples/regenerative-agriculture.ontology.yaml

The ontology.id MUST match the ontology.id field in the referenced ontology definition file. This enables:

• Validation that namespace paths conform to the ontology’s defined namespaces
• Discovery pattern matching for entity type suggestions
• Schema validation for entity-specific fields