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Building Memory Management

Build a production-ready memory management system with storage, retrieval, and lifecycle management

Introduction

Building Memory Management Systems

Now that we know the different memory types, let's build the systems that manage them. As Richmond Alake emphasized, memory management is about organizing information so agents can be "believable, capable, and reliable."

Richmond made a crucial point about context windows:

⚠️

The Context Window Trap

"Large context windows are not for you to stuff all your data in. That's for you to pull in the relevant memory and structure them in a way that is effective." - Richmond Alake

Memory management is about getting the RIGHT information at the RIGHT time.

graph TB
    subgraph "Memory Lifecycle"
        A[Store] --> B[Index]
        B --> C[Retrieve]
        C --> D[Update]
        D --> E[Forget]
    end
    
    subgraph "Core Operations"
        F[Create Memory]
        G[Search Memory]
        H[Rank Results]
        I[Clean Up]
    end
    
    A --> F
    C --> G
    C --> H
    E --> I

Let's build these step by step.

Start with simple CRUD operations:

Basic Memory Storage

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Add update and delete operations:

Update and Delete Operations

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Build basic search functionality:

Text Search

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Add metadata and time-based search:

Advanced Search

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Different situations need different retrieval approaches:

Retrieval Strategies

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Add more retrieval strategies:

More Retrieval Patterns

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Helper method for deduplication:

Memory Deduplication

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Combine all operations into a unified interface:

Unified Memory Manager

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Add retrieval and helper methods:

Manager Methods

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Simple tag and entity extraction:

Content Analysis

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Handle memory aging and cleanup:

Memory Lifecycle

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Add memory consolidation:

Memory Consolidation

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Create a complete memory system:

Complete Memory System

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Format memories for LLM consumption:

LLM Context Formatting

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Let's test our memory system:

Testing Memory System

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1. What did Richmond mean about large context windows?

  • A)They should be filled with as much data as possible
  • B)They are only for storing tool schemas
  • C)They should contain the RIGHT information at the RIGHT time
  • D)They are not useful for agents
Show Answer

Correct Answer: C

Richmond emphasized that large context windows aren't for stuffing all data - they're for pulling in relevant memories structured effectively.

2. What's the main benefit of memory consolidation?

  • A)It makes queries faster
  • B)It reduces storage costs and prevents duplicate information
  • C)It improves security
  • D)It makes memories more accurate
Show Answer

Correct Answer: B

Memory consolidation reduces storage costs and prevents duplicate information while maintaining the essential knowledge.

3. Why is memory aging important?

  • A)Old memories are always wrong
  • B)It saves storage space
  • C)It reflects the natural decay of relevance over time
  • D)It improves query performance
Show Answer

Correct Answer: C

Memory aging reflects how information naturally becomes less relevant over time, similar to how human memory works.

Create your own memory management system:

  1. Basic Storage: Implement create, read, update, delete operations
  2. Search: Add text and metadata search capabilities
  3. Retrieval: Build contextual memory retrieval
  4. Lifecycle: Add aging and cleanup mechanisms

Starter Template

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We built a complete memory management system with:

  1. Basic Operations: Create, read, update, delete memories
  2. Search Strategies: Text, metadata, and time-based search
  3. Retrieval Patterns: Contextual, recent, and importance-based retrieval
  4. Lifecycle Management: Memory aging, consolidation, and cleanup
  5. LLM Integration: Formatting memories for context windows
✅

Key Insight

The goal isn't to store everything—it's to surface the right memories at the right time. This makes agents more believable, capable, and reliable.

In the next module, we'll explore advanced memory patterns inspired by neuroscience research, including forgetting mechanisms and memory signals that Richmond mentioned in his talk.

💡

Production Ready

These simple patterns form the foundation of production memory systems. Start simple, then add complexity as needed.