Procedural Memory

Version: 1.0.0 | Last updated: 2026-07-16

Purpose

Govern reusable prompts, skills, policies, and workflows as executable production artifacts.

Why

Procedures influence actions and privileges. Unreviewed self-modification turns model output or poisoned memory into executable policy.

How

Store procedures in version control with owner, trigger, inputs/outputs, required capabilities, constraints, failure handling, tests, approval, expiry, and artifact signature. Execute only approved immutable versions. Propose changes through review and isolated evaluation; never let an agent overwrite its active procedure. Record the procedure digest in each run.

Tradeoffs

Review slows adaptation but enables reproducibility, rollback, and separation of duties.

Anti-patterns

• Automatically promoting “successful” traces into production skills.
• Embedding credentials or tenant data in procedures.
• Allowing runtime prompt edits to bypass release controls.

Enterprise Considerations

Treat procedural memory as software supply chain material: signed releases, protected branches, dependency review, least privilege, and emergency revocation.

Checklist

• Procedure owner, version, signature, and required capabilities are recorded.
• Tests cover success, failure, injection, and rollback.
• Runtime self-modification is prohibited.
• Every execution records the immutable digest.

References

• SLSA specification
• NIST SP 800-218, Secure Software Development Framework

Changelog

• 1.0.0 — 2026-07-16: Initial production standard.