Memory

Memory is information a system retains or can retrieve for use beyond the immediate step or context.

Plan for this page

Understand one concept in plain language and connect it to nearby ideas.

You will leave with: It can include user preferences, prior task summaries, learned profiles, records, embeddings, or external database entries. Duration, purpose, source, editability, deletion, access, and accuracy determine whether memory is useful and appropriate.
Time: 3–8 min
Before you begin: No prerequisite. Keep one real example in mind.
Do this now: Read the explanation, then compare the example with the common misunderstanding.

Prepared next stepDistinguish memory, state, and context

MemoryMemory is information a system retains or can retrieve for use beyond the immediate step or context.

Context window
State
Privacy

Plain explanation

It can include user preferences, prior task summaries, learned profiles, records, embeddings, or external database entries. Duration, purpose, source, editability, deletion, access, and accuracy determine whether memory is useful and appropriate.

Example

A study assistant stores a learner’s chosen goals and completed units locally, then uses them to suggest a next lesson.

Why it matters

Memory can improve continuity while creating privacy, stale-data, manipulation, and access risks. Systems should retain only justified information and make important memory inspectable and correctable.

Common misunderstanding

Misconception: model memory is the same as a person remembering a relationship. Correction: it is configured data retention and retrieval with technical boundaries and policy choices.

Related concepts

Follow relationships, not only the alphabet

Context windowA context window is the limited amount of tokenized information a model can consider together during one generation or inference.StateState is the information that describes a system or task at a particular point and is carried into later steps.PrivacyPrivacy concerns appropriate control, expectations, and risk around how information about people is collected, inferred, used, shared, retained, and deleted.

Distinguish memory, state, and context

Sources and scope

What supports this object

NIST Privacy FrameworkU.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology

Supports analysis of data processing, purpose, governance and privacy risk; it is not specific to one agent-memory architecture.

Open source

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