My standing orders are the default MEMORY.md must be a stub directing Claude to another MEMORY.md file in the local folder, project, etc.

All memories remain with their respective projects over syncs, moves, devices, etc. The stub must state all this clearly, and nothing else.

This has worked very well.

If you give the model/memory a name, that name can be persistent and independent over "backend" model swaps.

Both give you optionality because they support N models.