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Agent Memory

Three different things wearing one name

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Three different things wearing one name

“The agent needs memory” is three separate requests, and they have three different implementations.

There is the context window — this conversation, right now, gone when the session ends. There are stored facts about a user or a domain, written down and retrieved later. And there is position in a task, which is the checkpoint from concept 15 and is not knowledge at all.

Only the middle one is really memory, and it is retrieval wearing a friendlier word: something decides what is worth storing, and something retrieves it when relevant, with all the chunking and ranking questions that implies. Ask which one is meant before agreeing that an agent needs it — the answer is often the cheapest of the three.

Agents
THREE DIFFERENT THINGS WEARING ONE NAME the window this conversation, right now vanishes when the session ends stored facts what it learned about you written down, retrieved later where it got to the checkpoint from concept 15 position in a task, not knowledge Only the middle one is really “memory”, and it is retrieval wearing a friendlier word. Ask which one somebody means before agreeing that an agent needs it.
Three panels separating the context window, stored facts retrieved later, and a saved position in a task.