###### Why/Context/Summary
- Exclude injected AGENTS.md instructions and standalone skill payloads
from memory stage 1 inputs so memory generation focuses on conversation
content instead of prompt scaffolding.
- Strip only the AGENTS fragment from mixed contextual user messages
during stage-1 serialization, which preserves environment context in the
same message.
- Keep subagent notifications in the memory input, and add focused unit
coverage for the fragment classifier, rollout policy, and stage-1
serialization path.
###### Test plan
- `just fmt`
- `cargo test -p codex-core --lib contextual_user_message`
- `cargo test -p codex-core --lib rollout::policy`
- `cargo test -p codex-core --lib memories::phase1`
## Summary
- update `codex-rs/core/templates/memories/stage_one_system.md` so phase
1 captures stronger user-preference signals, richer task summaries, and
cwd provenance without branch-specific fields
- update `codex-rs/core/templates/memories/consolidation.md` so phase 2
keeps separate sections for user preferences, reusable knowledge, and
failure shields while staying cwd-aware but branchless
- document the `codex` prompt-template maintenance rule in
`codex-rs/core/src/memories/README.md`: the undated templates are
canonical here and should be edited in place
## Testing
- cargo test -p codex-core memories --manifest-path codex-rs/Cargo.toml
## Why
- tighten Codex memory-read behavior around stale facts and conflicting
memory
- encode the risk-of-drift vs verification-effort decision rule directly
in the read-path prompt
- make partial stale-detail updates explicit so correcting only the
answer is not treated as sufficient
## What changed
- update `codex-rs/core/templates/memories/read_path.md`
- add guidance for when to verify cheap local facts vs when to answer
from older memory with visible provenance
- strengthen same-turn `MEMORY.md` updates when stored concrete details
are stale
## Notes
- this is based on some staleness eval work
Andi Liu