Long-term memory and reflection for AI agents. Persistent, evolving, context-aware — improves agent behavior over time.
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TL;DR
TypedMemory gives AI agents long-term memory.
remembernew informationrecallrelevant contextreflectand improve over time
The problem
AI agents start believing their own hallucinations. They:
- contradict themselves silently — the last write wins, the conflict disappears
- overwrite past decisions with no audit trail — you can't debug what you can't see
- never resolve goals — yesterday's "I'll do X" looks identical to today's "I did X"
TypedMemory makes that visible.
The contradiction-detection moment
$ pip install typedmem
$ typedmem --profile engineering_design add \
"SQLite handles our single-writer load fine" --type risk --subject storage
$ typedmem --profile engineering_design add \
"SQLite blocks under concurrent writes" --type risk --subject storage
$ typedmem --profile engineering_design contradictions
1 contradiction cluster(s):
cluster 1 (2 memories):
[risk] [storage] SQLite handles our load fine
[risk] [storage] SQLite blocks under concurrent writesTwo memories cross-linked by the FLAG policy. Both still in the store — no silent overwrite. Run typedmem history <id> on either to see exactly when and why the state changed.
5 lines for an agent
from typedmem import AgentMemory mem = AgentMemory(profile="personal", path="agent.db") mem.remember("User wants to learn Rust by year end") mem.remember("User lives in Tokyo") hits = mem.recall("what is the user trying to learn?") # → [ScoredMemory(content="User wants to learn Rust...", score=0.78)] report = mem.reflect() # → AgentMemoryReflection(contradictions=[], drift_records=[], ...)
Four verbs over the whole pipeline: remember (extract + store), recall (semantic retrieval), reflect (run the evolver pipeline), forget (explicit delete).
More demos: examples/DEMO.md for the 30-second no-flags paste · examples/agent_loop_demo.py for the before-vs-after agent story.
Before vs After
| Without TypedMemory | With TypedMemory | |
|---|---|---|
| Agent changes its mind | Last write silently overwrites | REPLACE policy logs every change to replace_log; PreferenceDriftDetector flags instability |
| Two facts contradict | One overwrites the other; you'll never know | FLAG cross-links both; typedmem contradictions surfaces the cluster |
| A decision gets revised | Old decision lost | SUPERSEDE keeps the audit trail (old.superseded_by → new.id); typedmem history shows the lifecycle |
| Goals accumulate | They sit there forever, mixing with current intent | GoalResolver matches incoming events to active goals and flips them to resolved |
| Same fact arrives from 3 sources | 3 duplicate memories | REINFORCE merges into one, unions sources by (document_id, chunk_id, span), boosts confidence |
| Stale events pile up | Search noise grows | SummaryEvolver condenses non-destructively; originals link forward via metadata["summarizes"] |
What makes TypedMemory different
Most systems store memory. TypedMemory evolves it.
- contradictions are surfaced (not overwritten)
- memory changes are tracked over time (every conflict resolution leaves a record)
- goals are resolved automatically when matching evidence arrives
- stale memory is summarized non-destructively
- every change has an audit trail —
typedmem history <id>
Memory becomes a living knowledge layer, not a log.
Use cases
Primary:
- Debugging hallucinating agents. When an agent flips its story, run
typedmem history <id>and see every state change with reason, timestamp, and previous content. Contradictions surface viamem.reflect()instead of disappearing under the next write. - Long-term agent memory — preferences, goals, drift.
mem.remember()captures each session's signal.mem.recall()lets the next session see the current state.mem.reflect()catches preferences that keep flipping and goals that match recent events.
Also good for:
- Multi-document research / RAG with structured provenance —
Source(document_id, chunk_id, span, authority)per memory; REINFORCE merges duplicates across papers - Design-doc agents — decisions SUPERSEDE rather than overwriting; full audit trail
- Multi-tenant agents (legal + medical + customer-success on one machine) —
workspaceisolates each domain
How it works
┌──────────────────┐
│ DomainProfile │ ← schema: which types,
│ TypeSpec × N │ which policies,
│ prompt + rules │ which validations
└────────┬─────────┘
│
text ──► Extractor ──► Memory ──┴──► MemoryStore ──► Retriever
│
▼
Evolver
(contradictions, drift, goals,
non-destructive summarization)
Every memory has a type (claim, decision, observation, …), a confidence, a structured source, a lifecycle policy, and a workspace — not a string in a vector database. Memories know how to update themselves on conflict, how to decay over time, and how to be summarized.
Zero runtime dependencies. Stdlib only. LLM clients, YAML profile loading, and richer embedders are optional extras.
Why this exists
Most "AI memory" libraries are wrappers around a vector database. That works for "remember what the user said," but it falls apart the moment you want an agent to:
- track who said what, in which document, at which span (provenance)
- handle the same fact from three sources without storing it three times (reinforcement)
- recognize that a new decision supersedes the old one without losing the audit trail
- summarize stale events without throwing away the originals
- isolate legal memory from medical memory on the same machine
- flag contradictions instead of silently overwriting them
TypedMemory handles these as first-class concepts, not bolt-ons.
Install
pip install typedmem # default install, zero deps pip install 'typedmem[anthropic]' # + AnthropicClient pip install 'typedmem[openai]' # + OpenAIClient pip install 'typedmem[yaml]' # + DomainProfile.from_yaml() pip install 'typedmem[all]'
Python 3.10+.
60-second demo: an engineering design agent
import json from typedmem import ( DomainProfile, FakeClient, LLMExtractor, SQLiteMemoryStore, ) profile = DomainProfile.builtin("engineering_design") store = SQLiteMemoryStore.for_profile(profile, "design.db") # Pretend the LLM extracted these from your design docs. extractor = LLMExtractor(client=FakeClient([ json.dumps([ {"type": "decision", "content": "Use SQLite for storage", "subject": "storage_backend", "confidence": 0.9, "source": {"document_id": "design_v1.md"}}, {"type": "risk", "content": "SQLite is single-writer", "subject": "storage_backend", "confidence": 0.8, "source": {"document_id": "design_v1.md"}}, ]), json.dumps([ {"type": "decision", "content": "Switch to PostgreSQL for concurrent writes", "subject": "storage_backend", "confidence": 0.9, "source": {"document_id": "design_v2.md"}}, {"type": "risk", "content": "Postgres adds an external service", "subject": "storage_backend", "confidence": 0.85, "source": {"document_id": "design_v2.md"}}, ]), ]), profile=profile) for snippet in ("v1 text", "v2 text"): for m in extractor.extract(snippet): store.add(m) # decision → SUPERSEDE: old preserved, new active. print(store.by_type("decision")) # → just PostgreSQL print(store.by_type("decision", include_superseded=True)) # → both # risk → FLAG: two risks on the same subject get cross-linked. for cluster in store.contradictions(): for m in cluster: print(m.content) # → both risks
See examples/engineering_design_demo.py for the full version with audit trail and source provenance, or run:
typedmem profiles
typedmem --profile engineering_design add "..." --document-id design_v3.md
typedmem --profile engineering_design list --type decision
typedmem evolve --evolver contradictionsThe mental model
| Layer | What it gives you | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Memory |
Typed object with content + confidence + workspace + sources + status | Memory(type="claim", content=..., sources=[Source(...)]) |
Source |
Structured provenance with hashable identity | (document_id, chunk_id, span) — dedup key for REINFORCE |
workspace |
Namespace on every memory | One agent, multiple corpora, zero cross-contamination |
ConflictPolicy |
What to do when a new memory hits the same (workspace, type, subject) slot |
REPLACE · KEEP_BOTH · SUPERSEDE · REINFORCE · FLAG · IGNORE |
DomainProfile |
Schema for a domain: which types, what policy each obeys, what's required | engineering_design · research_paper · legal · medical_literature · personal · … |
Evolver |
Reads memories (not text); produces audit-trailed actions | ContradictionSurfacer · PreferenceDriftDetector · GoalResolver · SummaryEvolver |
Built-in profiles
| Profile | Types | Notable policies |
|---|---|---|
core |
fact, note, goal, task, event | Shared primitives all other profiles can opt into |
personal |
+ preference, observation | preference → REPLACE (60d decay) |
child_development |
+ observation (tagged), milestone, concern | observation tags: language/motor/emotional/cognitive/social |
research_paper |
+ claim, method, evidence, limitation, open_question | evidence → REINFORCE (multiple papers corroborate) |
engineering_design |
+ decision, constraint, risk, assumption, todo | decision → SUPERSEDE, risk → FLAG |
legal |
+ obligation, exception, deadline, definition, citation | definition → SUPERSEDE |
medical_literature |
+ finding, population, intervention, outcome, limitation | outcome → REINFORCE across studies |
Custom profiles via Python dataclass, JSON, or YAML.
Storage
Three backends, one ABC:
| Store | Persistence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
InMemoryStore |
None | Default; fastest |
JSONLMemoryStore |
Append-only file | Last-write-wins; tombstones; compact() rewrites |
SQLiteMemoryStore |
SQLite file | Indexed on (workspace, type, subject); persists embeddings; auto-migrates v0.2 → v0.4 schemas |
from typedmem import SQLiteMemoryStore, DomainProfile store = SQLiteMemoryStore.for_profile( DomainProfile.builtin("research_paper"), path="papers.db", )
Retrieval
from typedmem import HashingEmbeddingProvider, Retriever retriever = Retriever(store, embedder=HashingEmbeddingProvider()) hits = retriever.relevant( "blood pressure reduction", types=["evidence"], workspace="cardiology", )
relevant() blends three signals: semantic (cosine), recency (exponential decay), confidence (with type-specific half-life). Without an embedder, falls back to token overlap.
Evolution
Evolvers read stored memories and produce auditable actions.
from typedmem import ( ContradictionSurfacer, PreferenceDriftDetector, GoalResolver, SummaryEvolver, HashingEmbeddingProvider, AnthropicClient, ) # 1. Pure read: walk the FLAG graph. for cluster in store.contradictions(): print(f"{len(cluster)} memories cross-link as contradictions") # 2. Annotation: catch unstable preferences. PreferenceDriftDetector(min_replaces=3, window_days=30).evolve(store) # 3. Safe match: dry-run first, then commit. embedder = HashingEmbeddingProvider() plan = GoalResolver(embedder, threshold=0.85).evolve(store, dry_run=True) print(plan.summary()) GoalResolver(embedder, threshold=0.85).evolve(store) # commit # 4. Non-destructive summary of stale events. SummaryEvolver(AnthropicClient(), min_cluster_size=3).evolve(store) # Originals untouched; new memory links via metadata["summarizes"].
Every action emits an EvolutionRecord (evolver, action, input_ids, output_ids, reason, timestamp) and gets appended to each affected memory's metadata["evolution_history"]. No black-box mutations.
CLI
typedmem profiles # list built-in domain profiles typedmem --profile research_paper add "..." --document-id paper.pdf typedmem --profile engineering_design list --type decision typedmem search "blood pressure" --type evidence typedmem evolve --evolver contradictions typedmem evolve --evolver goals --apply --threshold 0.9 # dry-run by default typedmem history MEMORY_ID # audit trail for one memory typedmem workspaces
Default store: ~/.typedmem/memories.db (override with --store path.db or --store path.jsonl).
Status & roadmap
v0.4 is the first public release.
- v0.5 sentence-transformer embedder, profile composition (
extends), destructive compaction (MemoryStore.compact_summaries()) - v0.6 hybrid BM25+semantic retrieval, query DSL, observability hooks
What TypedMemory doesn't do and doesn't plan to:
- ship document chunkers / loaders — define the
ingest()seam, bring your own (unstructured,langchain, plain regex) - ship its own vector DB — the abstraction is ready for one, but brute-force cosine wins under ~50k memories
- pull network dependencies into the default install — every provider is an opt-in extra
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Contributing
Issues and PRs welcome. Please run pytest and the demos in examples/ before opening a PR; CI runs them on Python 3.10/3.11/3.12.




















