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Core
Agent Memory: Short-Term, Long-Term, and Memory Stores
Agent memory is how an agent retains and recalls information across steps and sessions. Short-term (working) memory is what lives in the context window for the current task; long-term memory is durable information (facts, user preferences, past outcomes) stored outside the window and retrieved when relevant. The skill is deciding what is worth remembering, where to store it, and when to read it back. Applied AI interviews probe it because durable memory is what turns a one-shot chatbot into an agent that improves over time.
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TAUGHT IN THESE COURSES
This concept is a reference. These lessons put it in sequence, with what comes before and after it.
Agent Engineering·Tools as an interfaceFree14mTool results are the biggest thing in your contextThe most overlooked lever in agent engineering. What comes back from a tool is usually the majority of the context and almost nobody designs it, which is why runs get expensive and lose the thread at the same time.Agent Engineering·Memory and contextSign in13mMemory is four problems wearing one wordDiscussions about agent memory go in circles because four different problems share the name. Separating them turns an unbounded design question into four bounded ones, each with a known answer.Agent Engineering·Memory and contextSign in14mWhat to drop when the context fillsEvery long run eventually has more history than budget. The order in which you discard things decides whether the agent stays coherent or quietly loses the thread, and the default of dropping the oldest messages is close to the worst option available.
RELATED CONCEPTS
PRACTICE THIS IN REAL QUESTIONS
RAG & Agent System DesignHow do you manage memory and context for a long-running conversational agent?→RAG & Agent System DesignDesign the memory architecture for an agent that runs for weeks across thousands of interactions.→RAG & Agent System DesignWhen do you build an agent instead of a single LLM call, and how do you keep a multi-step agent reliable?→RAG & Agent System DesignWhen do you use a multi-agent system, and what orchestration patterns and pitfalls matter?→System Design for AI in ProductionDesign a deep research agent that answers complex questions by searching and synthesizing many sources.→System Design for AI in ProductionDesign memory for a personal AI assistant that remembers users across sessions.→
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