Summary
Ephemeral, short-lived knowledge bases that agent swarms can use as a lightweight shared memory system during parallel work (waves). Agents write discoveries, decisions, and warnings to a shared KB; other agents (and the orchestrator) can search it for context.
Motivation
When multiple agents run in parallel (e.g., 3 agents in a wave), they cannot communicate. Each starts from the same git snapshot but diverges immediately. If Agent A discovers a gotcha (circular import, unexpected file state, design constraint), Agents B and C will never know. The orchestrator only discovers conflicts at merge time.
An ephemeral KB solves this by giving agents a shared, searchable scratchpad that persists for the duration of the wave and is archived or deleted afterward.
Key Capabilities
Create on demand: `pyrite kb create --ephemeral --name wave-3-memory --ttl 24h`
Agents write findings: `pyrite create -k wave-3-memory -t note --title 'api.py has circular import risk' -b '...'`
Agents read context: `pyrite search 'api import' -k wave-3-memory`
Auto-cleanup: Ephemeral KBs are deleted or archived after TTL expires or wave completes
Structured entries: Full frontmatter support (tags, types, importance) so findings are categorized
Semantic search: Agents can find conceptually related findings, not just keyword matchesDesign Considerations
Storage: temp directory with markdown files + SQLite index (same as regular KBs)
Lifecycle: created before wave launch, deleted/archived after merge
Access: all agents in the wave get the KB name in their prompt
Indexing: lightweight — auto-index on create, no background sync needed
Archive option: move to kb/archives/wave-N/ for post-mortem analysis
Could integrate with the parallel-agents.md merge protocolUse Cases Beyond This Project
AI dev teams: Any multi-agent workflow where agents work in parallel and need lightweight coordination
Research sprints: Multiple agents researching different aspects of a topic, sharing findings
Code review swarms: Agents reviewing different files, flagging cross-cutting concerns
CI/CD pipelines: Agents running different test suites, sharing failure contextImplementation Sketch
1. Add `--ephemeral` and `--ttl` flags to `pyrite kb add`
2. Ephemeral KBs stored in a temp/ephemeral directory (configurable)
3. Auto-index entries on create (no separate sync step needed)
4. Add `pyrite kb archive ` to snapshot ephemeral KB to permanent storage
5. Add `pyrite kb gc` to clean up expired ephemeral KBs
6. Update wave planning docs to include ephemeral KB in agent prompts
Dependencies
None (builds on existing multi-KB and CLI infrastructure)Acceptance Criteria
[ ] Can create an ephemeral KB with a TTL
[ ] Agents can CRUD entries via CLI
[ ] Search (keyword + semantic) works on ephemeral KBs
[ ] Expired KBs are automatically cleaned up
[ ] Archive command preserves KB contents permanently
[ ] Wave completion checklist includes ephemeral KB teardown