The Coherence Problem
Claude Code is powerful. But power without coherence is unreliable.
An agent that forgets what you discussed yesterday, doesn’t recognize someone it talked to last week, or contradicts its own decisions — that agent can’t be trusted with real autonomy.
Six Dimensions
Section titled “Six Dimensions”Instar solves coherence across six dimensions:
Memory
Section titled “Memory”Claude Code sessions start from zero. Context compaction erases conversation history. Instar adds:
- Per-topic SQLite memory with FTS5 full-text search
- Rolling summaries that update incrementally as conversations grow
- Context re-injection on session start and after compaction
- Cross-session search via
instar memory search
Relationships
Section titled “Relationships”Without relationships, every person is a stranger every session. Instar tracks:
- Cross-platform identity resolution — same person on Telegram and email gets merged
- Significance scoring — derived from frequency, recency, and depth
- Context injection — the agent knows who it’s talking to before the conversation starts
- Stale detection — surfaces relationships that haven’t been contacted in a while
Identity
Section titled “Identity”Loading an identity file at session start isn’t enough. After extended tool chains, personality drifts. Sub-agent hand-offs lose character. Instar enforces identity through hooks:
- Session-start scripts re-inject identity at every session begin
- Compaction recovery scripts restore identity when context compresses
- Grounding before messaging forces identity re-read before external communication
- These aren’t suggestions — they’re structural guarantees
Temporal Awareness
Section titled “Temporal Awareness”Long-running agents accumulate stale assumptions. The TemporalCoherenceChecker detects when the agent is operating with outdated perspectives and triggers re-evaluation.
Consistency
Section titled “Consistency”An agent that makes promises and forgets them isn’t trustworthy. Instar adds:
- Decision journaling — every significant decision recorded with reasoning
- Drift detection — catches behavioral shifts from stated purpose
- Commitment tracking — promises are tracked and surfaced when overdue
Growth
Section titled “Growth”Static agents don’t improve. Instar provides four subsystems for structured evolution:
- Evolution queue — staged self-improvement proposals
- Learning registry — searchable insights across sessions
- Capability gap tracker — what the agent can’t do yet
- Action queue — commitment follow-through
The Core Insight
Section titled “The Core Insight”Instar doesn’t just add features on top of Claude Code. It gives Claude Code the infrastructure to be coherent — to feel like a partner, not a tool.