RecentActivity
Track recent activity across your Maenifold knowledge system with time-based filtering and session monitoring. RecentActivity provides a comprehensive view of recent memory files, thinking sessions, and workflow progress, enabling effective progress monitoring and work discovery patterns.
- Progress Monitoring: Track recent work across Sequential Thinking sessions and Workflows
- Session Discovery: Find active or recent thinking sessions to resume work
- Memory Activity Tracking: See recent memory file creation and modification patterns
- Work Context Recovery: Rediscover what you were working on after a break
- Activity Filtering: Focus on specific types of work (thinking vs memory operations)
- Time-Based Queries: Find work from specific time periods (last 24 hours, past week)
- Session Status Monitoring: Check completion status of workflows and thinking sessions
- Knowledge Base Growth: Monitor how your memory system is expanding over time
Key Features
- Dual Activity Tracking: Monitors both memory file operations and thinking session activity
- Time-Based Filtering: Configurable timespan filtering with positive duration validation
- Activity Type Filtering: Separate “thinking”, “memory”, or view “all” activity types
- Session Status Tracking: Shows “active”, “completed”, or “cancelled” status for thinking sessions
- Smart Content Extraction: Automatically extracts meaningful snippets from content
- Progress Indicators: Displays thought counts for Sequential sessions, step counts for Workflows
- Hierarchical Organization: Groups activity by session ID with detailed progress information
- Snippet Configuration: Configurable snippet length (default 1000 chars, via MAENIFOLD_SNIPPET_LENGTH)
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | Example |
|---|
| limit | int | No | Maximum results to return (default 10, negative values become 0) | 20 |
| filter | string | No | Activity type filter: “thinking”, “memory”, or “all” (default “all”) | “thinking” |
| timespan | TimeSpan | No | Time period to filter by - MUST be positive duration | ”24.00:00:00” |
Usage Examples
Basic Recent Activity Query
{
"limit": 10
}
Shows the 10 most recent activities across all types (thinking sessions, memory files).
Focus on Recent Thinking Sessions
{
"limit": 15,
"filter": "thinking"
}
Shows recent Sequential Thinking sessions and Workflows, excluding memory file operations.
Time-Based Activity Search
{
"limit": 25,
"timespan": "48.00:00:00"
}
Shows activities from the last 48 hours, useful for weekly progress reviews.
Memory-Only Activity Filter
{
"filter": "memory",
"limit": 20
}
Shows only memory file creation and modifications, excluding thinking sessions.
Combined Filtering
{
"limit": 10,
"filter": "thinking",
"timespan": "7.00:00:00"
}
Shows thinking sessions from the last 7 days for focused session discovery.
Sequential Thinking Sessions
**session-abc123** (sequential)
Modified: 2024-08-31 14:30
Thoughts: 7
Status: active
First: "Analyzing the core architecture patterns..."
Last: "Need to explore the dependency relationships..."
Workflow Sessions
**workflow-xyz789** (workflow)
Modified: 2024-08-31 15:45
Steps: 4
Status: completed
First: "Starting design thinking process for..."
Current: "Final validation shows successful implementation..."
Memory Files
**knowledge-document** (memory)
Modified: 2024-08-31 16:20
Title: Machine Learning Implementation Notes
Sections: 3
First: "Implementing GraphRAG requires understanding..."
Last: "Key insights from testing phase include..."
Common Patterns
Progress Monitoring Workflow
Use RecentActivity to track active sessions, then use ReadMemory to dive deeper into specific sessions for continuation or review.
Session Recovery Pattern
After a break, run RecentActivity with “thinking” filter to find your most recent active sessions and resume where you left off.
Knowledge Base Growth Tracking
Run periodic RecentActivity queries with memory filter to see how your knowledge base is expanding over time.
Time-Based Work Reviews
Use timespan filtering for daily/weekly reviews: {"timespan": "24.00:00:00"} for daily progress, {"timespan": "168.00:00:00"} for weekly summaries.
Active Session Discovery
Filter by “thinking” to find sessions with “active” status that need completion or have pending thoughts.
- SequentialThinking: Creates thinking sessions that appear in RecentActivity with thought counts and status tracking
- Workflow: Creates workflow sessions that RecentActivity monitors for step progress and completion status
- ReadMemory: Use session IDs from RecentActivity to read full session content for continuation
- SearchMemories: Find related knowledge when RecentActivity reveals interesting session topics
- WriteMemory: Memory creation operations that RecentActivity tracks for knowledge base growth monitoring
- Sync: Must be run first to index files - RecentActivity requires the database created by Sync
Status Values Explained
- active: Session is in progress and can be continued with more thoughts/responses
- completed: Session finished successfully through normal completion
- cancelled: Session was explicitly cancelled by user before completion
- abandoned: Session was left inactive (not currently used by RecentActivity)
Troubleshooting
Error: “No database found. Run the Sync command first”
Cause: RecentActivity requires the file_content database table created by the Sync command
Solution: Run the Sync tool first to index your memory files and create the necessary database structure
Error: “timespan parameter must be positive”
Cause: Provided timespan is negative (e.g., “-24.00:00:00”)
Solution: Use positive timespan values like “24.00:00:00” for 24 hours or “7.00:00:00” for 7 days
Result: “No recent activity found”
Cause: No files match your filter criteria or timespan constraints
Solution: Expand timespan, change filter from “thinking”/“memory” to “all”, or increase limit parameter
Empty or Limited Results
Cause: Very restrictive filtering or short timespan
Solution: Use broader parameters: increase limit, expand timespan, or use “all” filter
Session Content Appears Truncated
Cause: Content snippets are limited by MAENIFOLD_SNIPPET_LENGTH configuration (default 1000 chars)
Solution: This is expected behavior for readability - use ReadMemory to get full session content
Status Shows as “active” for Old Sessions
Cause: Sessions not explicitly completed or cancelled maintain “active” status
Solution: Complete old sessions using SequentialThinking or Workflow tools with appropriate status parameters
Activity Filtering Logic
”thinking” Filter
- Includes: Sequential Thinking sessions (
memory://thinking/sequential/)
- Includes: Workflow sessions (
memory://thinking/workflow/)
- Excludes: Regular memory files
”memory” Filter
- Includes: All memory files outside thinking directory
- Excludes: Sequential Thinking and Workflow sessions
- Shows: Knowledge files, documentation, research notes
”all” Filter (Default)
- Includes: Everything - thinking sessions and memory files
- Provides: Complete activity overview across your Maenifold system
TimeSpan format follows .NET standard: [days.]hours:minutes:seconds[.fractional_seconds]
Common Examples:
"01:30:00" - 1 hour 30 minutes
"24.00:00:00" - 24 hours (1 day)
"7.00:00:00" - 7 days (1 week)
"30.00:00:00" - 30 days (approximately 1 month)
- Database Dependency: Requires Sync to create database indices for fast queries
- Snippet Length: Configurable via MAENIFOLD_SNIPPET_LENGTH environment variable
- Query Optimization: Uses indexed last_modified timestamps for efficient time-based filtering
- Memory Usage: Content snippets are truncated to prevent excessive memory usage with large result sets
Integration with Maenifold Ecosystem
RecentActivity serves as a discovery and monitoring hub for your Maenifold system:
- Knowledge Graph Integration: Files tracked by RecentActivity contain [[concepts]] that build your knowledge graph
- Session Continuity: Provides session IDs needed to continue Sequential Thinking and Workflow sessions
- Memory System Overview: Shows how WriteMemory, EditMemory, and other memory operations are growing your knowledge base
- Quality Assurance: Helps identify abandoned sessions that need completion or cleanup
- Work Pattern Analysis: Reveals your thinking and knowledge creation patterns over time
Use RecentActivity as your starting point for understanding what’s happening in your Maenifold system, then use other tools to dive deeper into specific sessions, memory files, or knowledge areas.
Ma Protocol Compliance
RecentActivity follows Maenifold’s Ma Protocol principles:
- Single Responsibility: Focused purely on activity discovery and monitoring
- No Magic: Direct SQLite queries with transparent filtering logic
- Simple Parameters: Clear, validated inputs with helpful error messages
- Real Data: Shows actual file activity, modification times, and session states
- Minimal Complexity: Static methods, straightforward SQL queries, no caching complexity
This tool provides essential visibility into your Maenifold activity patterns while maintaining the simplicity and directness that characterizes the Ma Protocol approach.