Conversational memory

We talk to artificial intelligence (AI) as if she’s a person. The trick is whether she remembers what we said. Without memory, she’s clever but forgetful. With memory, she feels more like a partner.

Session memory

Session memory is short-term. Think of it as the chat log that survives only while we keep the window open. If we ask her to “show that code again” two lines later, she gets it. Close the session, and it’s gone. No history, no context.

Long-term memory

Long-term memory is stickier. She can recall our name tomorrow, or the project we’re debugging next week. That’s when she starts to feel less like a tool and more like a colleague who’s paying attention. But it also means we need rules: what should she keep, what should she forget.

Why both matter

We need both kinds. Short-term memory helps her follow a conversation. Long-term memory makes her useful across many. If she only had one, we’d either repeat ourselves constantly or never trust what she remembers.

A coder’s musing

We want her memory just long enough to help, not long enough to haunt. Like notes on a whiteboard—handy in the moment, but someone eventually wipes them clean.