A perishable figure in an always loaded file
A measured, expired fact cited as current is worse than no figure at all, because it keeps the appearance of authority while switching off the reflex to verify: the test fits in one question, would a change tomorrow be flagged to anyone, and if the answer is no, the figure has no business sitting in a file loaded on every conversation.
A file loaded on every conversation, such as a permanent instructions file or the memory index, republishes its full content at the start of any new session. A figure that has sat there for months reads exactly like a figure from today, because nothing in how it is displayed still marks it apart from a false statement.
The expiry test
A single question settles it: would a change happening tomorrow be flagged to anyone? A commercial cap, a screen label, a price, a legal rule, all of these can change without warning the file that cites them that same day. If nobody would receive an alert the day this figure moves, it has no place in a file that is always loaded: it belongs in a dated register, opened only when the question genuinely arises.
What the register carries, that the loaded file does not
A dated register keeps four fields for each figure: its value, its source, the date it was last verified, and the exact command or gesture that lets you remeasure it. The always loaded file, for its part, cites the general principle or points to the register with a link, never the figure itself. Separating the general, stable rule from the perishable figure that fills it in this way avoids rewriting the loaded file every time a supplier adjusts a price or an interface changes a label.
# registre_faits_mesures.md
- [le fait mesuré, une phrase courte]
Source : [adresse publique consultable]
Date de vérification : [jour de la mesure]
Remesure : [commande ou geste exact à reproduire]The automatic loading cap of the memory index gives a concrete example of this: two distinct thresholds, whichever of the two is reached first triggers the cutoff, given with their source and date in the figure attached to this lesson rather than repeated here. This figure belongs in a register rather than in the body of an always loaded file, because a future version of the product can move it without warning anyone who cites it from memory. The same discipline applies to the memory folder that keeps one file per fact: a dated fact lives there, a figure that changes every month does not.
A cap with two thresholds, verified on a precise date
A manager writes in his permanent instructions file that his organisation's current plan allows twelve users, then closes the file. Six months later, a new work session still loads this same file at startup, with the same sentence displayed unchanged.
Write in one sentence what this situation establishes, and in one sentence what it does not establish.
What this establishes: The file kept the same sentence for six months and reloaded it unchanged at the start of the new session.
What this does not establish: It does not establish that the twelve user cap is still the one in force six months later, since nothing in the situation confirms a recent check against a dated source.
The three most common miscalibrations
- Too broad This file proves that every figure in the organisation is now out of date and must be rewritten in full.
- Too narrow This result proves nothing at all, since only one file was observed out of the organisation's entire set of documents.
- Beside the point This result shows that work sessions do reload their files at every startup, without losing any of the content.
- An expired figure cited as current costs more than a missing figure, because it keeps carrying authority while it lies.
- The expiry test fits in a single question: would a change happening tomorrow be flagged to anyone.
- A dated register carries the value, its source, its date and the exact gesture to remeasure it, never the file loaded on every conversation.
- A permanent instructions file and the memory index are both reloaded at the start of every conversation, which makes any figure they contain directly perishable.
- A limit such as the automatic loading cap of the memory index belongs in the register, even coming from an official source, because a future version can move it.
Open your permanent instructions file, spot the first figure that is neither a step count nor a field count, apply the expiry test, and move it to a dated register as soon as the answer is no.
These points depend on an interface or a rule that may have changed since this was written. Check them on your own screen before relying on them.
- Check the cap or price currently shown in your own account's billing settings, rather than trusting a figure written in an old configuration file.
Every datable claim in this lesson links here to the public text behind it. A source that does not open proves nothing.
- Anthropic, Claude Code memory consultée le 2026-09-02