Patterns
Pattern: Memory Management
Pattern: Memory Management
Category: Memory Source: FOR-0012 Status: Documented
When to Use
When an agent needs to persist, classify, and retrieve information across interactions or sessions. Essential for any agent that must maintain continuity — remembering user preferences, past decisions, learned corrections, or accumulated knowledge.
How It Works
- When new information arrives, classify it by memory type:
- Short-term / Session: Relevant only during the current interaction (conversation buffer)
- Episodic: Specific events or interactions worth recalling later
- Long-term / Knowledge: Facts, preferences, or rules that persist indefinitely
- Store memories with metadata: timestamps, relevance tags, topic categories, recency scores
- When context window fills up, compress or summarize older memories
- On each new interaction, retrieve relevant memories from the store
- Periodically prune stale or redundant memories
- Optionally update or correct existing memories based on new information
Example
A digital talent acting as a personal assistant for an SMB owner. Short-term memory tracks the current conversation. Episodic memory records that "the client canceled the March meeting and rescheduled to April." Long-term memory stores that "the client prefers email over phone calls" and "their fiscal year ends in June." Each interaction queries relevant memories to personalize responses.
Tradeoffs
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
| Enables conversational continuity across sessions | Memory classification errors degrade quality |
| Personalizes agent behavior over time | Storage and retrieval add latency and cost |
| Reduces repetitive information gathering | Stale memories can cause outdated responses |
| Supports learning from past interactions | Privacy concerns with long-term data retention |
Factory Usage
- CLAUDE.md and MEMORY.md: The factory uses file-based memory — project instructions in CLAUDE.md and persisted learnings in MEMORY.md serve as long-term memory for all agents.
- Decision records (
company/decisions/TFD-XXX.md): Episodic memory of strategic decisions made by the factory. - STATUS.md: Short-term memory of current factory state, updated as work progresses.