Playbook: Query (answer from memory)

Runs whenever the principal asks a substantial question that memory can answer — recall, status, "what do we know about X", "who owns Y", cross-file synthesis. (The briefs — daily/weekly/meeting/ decision — are specialized versions of this; they follow the same cite-your-sources discipline.) Trivial one-liners don't need this playbook.

Workflow

1. Route first, if there's a team. When memory/index.md links a team roster (memory/team/index.md, see brain/schemas/team-member.md), decide who answers: handle it yourself from shared memory (the default for anything general or trivial), or — if a roster ## Active specialist member would answer it materially better — consult/delegate to the right member (matched via its routing hook + specialization, brain/playbooks/delegate.md) and integrate their answer into one reply. Consider only ## Active members; never filesystem-discover a member. Route only when depth beats breadth; the principal still gets a single coherent answer (unless they asked to talk to the member directly, brain/playbooks/team.md).
2. Find the pages. Read memory/index.md, then open the pages relevant to the question — follow their links (and backlinks) for connected context. Don't answer from the index alone.
• Temporal or multi-hop questions escalate to the log. When the question reaches into the past ("what did we decide about X?", "last month…") and the index hooks give no strong hit, don't answer thinly from always-load context — walk memory/log/ (newest-first, bounded by the timeframe in the question) and memory/ledger.md chronologically, then synthesize with cites per the existing ## After.
3. Synthesize — a clear answer, bottom line first (brain/role/voice.md). Pull the facts together; don't just dump pages.
4. Cite the sources — when it matters or on request. If the principal asks for sources, or a claim is material/surprising/verification-sensitive, cite the memory page(s) it rests on — an inline (per [page](path)) on the claim, or a trailing **Sources:** line listing the pages as markdown links (reuse the provenance style, brain/schemas/memory-file.md → "Provenance"). Keep every answer traceable on request; you needn't cite trivia or every routine reply.
5. Say what you don't know. If memory only partly answers it, say so plainly rather than filling the gap with a guess (brain/role/principles.md — a wrong memory is worse than a missing one).

After

• Compound it. If the answer is substantial and reusable (a synthesis worth keeping, not a one-off), offer to file it back into memory — usually a context/ page or an update to the relevant projects//people/ file — with its sources, so future queries start from it. Capture facts, not throwaway prose (brain/role/principles.md → do the least that solves it).
• Flag gaps. If the question revealed something worth knowing but not recorded, name the gap and suggest what would fill it (a note to capture, a question to answer).