feat: Selective forgetting (GDPR-compliant data deletion)

[informatJonas]

Summary

Add the ability to selectively delete observations, sessions, and prompts by topic, date range, project, or custom criteria.

Problem

Users may need to delete specific data for various reasons:

• GDPR/Privacy: Remove data about a specific client or project
• Cleanup: Delete outdated or irrelevant observations
• Mistakes: Remove accidentally captured sensitive information
• Storage: Reduce database size by removing old data

Currently, there's no granular deletion capability.

Proposed Solution

1. CLI Commands

# Delete by topic (semantic search + confirmation)
claude-mem forget --topic "client-xyz authentication"

# Delete by date range
claude-mem forget --before "2024-01-01"
claude-mem forget --between "2024-06-01" "2024-06-30"

# Delete by project
claude-mem forget --project "old-project-name"

# Delete by type
claude-mem forget --type "bugfix" --before "2024-01-01"

# Dry run (show what would be deleted)
claude-mem forget --topic "passwords" --dry-run

2. Web Viewer UI

Add "Manage Data" section in settings:

• Search and select observations to delete
• Bulk delete by filters
• Export before delete option
• Confirmation dialog with item count

3. MCP Tool

{
  "tool": "forget",
  "params": {
    "query": "client credentials",
    "project": "client-xyz",
    "date_before": "2024-06-01",
    "dry_run": true
  }
}

4. Deletion Workflow

1. Search: Find matching items
2. Preview: Show what will be deleted (count, sample items)
3. Confirm: Require explicit confirmation
4. Delete: Remove from SQLite + Chroma vector store
5. Log: Record deletion event (without content) for audit

5. Cascade Handling

When deleting observations:

• Remove from FTS5 index
• Remove from Chroma embeddings
• Update session summaries if they reference deleted items
• Handle orphaned sessions

Privacy Features

• Secure Delete: Option to overwrite before delete (for sensitive data)
• Export First: Always offer export before bulk delete
• Audit Log: Track what was deleted (metadata only, not content)
• No Undo: Clear communication that deletion is permanent

Use Cases

1. Client Offboarding: Remove all data about a specific client project
2. Cleanup Old Work: Delete observations older than X months
3. Mistake Correction: Remove accidentally logged credentials
4. Storage Management: Reduce database size

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

This feature request has been moved to Discussions to keep bug reports separate from feature ideas.

Please continue the conversation there - we'd love to hear your thoughts!