What Should an AI Agent Remember?

Three kinds of memory

• Working memory: what happened earlier in this run. Needed for multi-step tasks; cleared when the run ends.
• Reference memory: stable facts — your services, prices, policies, tone. Kept in a document you edit, not learned from conversations.
• History: what happened in past runs with this person or record. Useful for follow-ups; needs a retention rule.

Keep reference facts in one editable place

When your prices change, you should change one document and every agent should know. If facts are scattered across prompts, old ones survive and the agent quotes them confidently.

Remember outcomes, not transcripts

For history, store a short summary per interaction — what was asked, what was decided, what is pending — rather than the full conversation. It is cheaper, easier to review and less likely to leak details into the wrong reply.

Decide what it forgets

Payment details, health information and anything a customer asked you to delete should never sit in agent memory. Write that rule into the brief and check the logs to confirm it holds.