claude-memory/graph/problems/cognitive-memory-clientpy-at-3260-lines-needs-modular-refact-8d3654.md

id	type	title	tags	importance	confidence	created	updated
8d365483-701f-49fe-a55e-4d524ae2eff3	problem	cognitive-memory client.py at 3260 lines needs modular refactor	cognitive-memory refactoring architecture tech-debt	0.7	0.8	2026-02-19T20:57:01.898902+00:00	2026-02-19T20:57:01.898902+00:00

client.py has grown to 3260 lines with 47 methods in a single CognitiveMemoryClient class. Breakdown by concern:

• Constants + module helpers: ~548 lines → common.py
• Core CRUD (store/get/delete/search/recall): ~435 lines → stays in client.py
• Edges (relate/edge_get/edge_search/edge_update/edge_delete): ~352 lines → edges.py
• Embeddings (embed/semantic_recall/provider fallback): ~209 lines → embeddings.py
• Decay/Core/Reflect (decay scoring, CORE.md gen, reflection): ~1097 lines → analysis.py (biggest chunk)
• CLI parser + dispatch: ~463 lines → cli.py or main.py
• Index/state/git plumbing: ~115 lines → internal helpers

Refactor considerations:

• MCP server imports from client import CognitiveMemoryClient — needs updating
• CLI wrapper claude-memory uses exec uv run python client.py — needs package structure
• Systemd services depend on the wrapper — must test after
• Could use mixin classes or composition to split the monolithic class
• Similar to the Major Domo CLI modular refactor (that went well)

Priority: near-future. Nothing is broken but finding anything requires line-number hunting.