Clark Farming CompanySoftware Foundry

Knowledge & Memory · Concept

Agent Memory Trust Contract: Remember, Cite, Forget

Source status: derived from Vox's X article, "A Framework for Agent Memory: Remember, Cite, Forget" (2026-05-22), reviewed from the live X article page. Treat it as a practitioner framework, not a formal standard. Agent memory is reliable only when it does three jobs at once: Remember what should persist. Cite the source and authority level of what was remembered. Forget or demote memories that are stale, superseded,…

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Answer

Source status: derived from Vox's X article, "A Framework for Agent Memory: Remember, Cite, Forget" (2026-05-22), reviewed from the live X article page. Treat it as a practitioner framework, not a formal standard. Agent memory is reliable only when it does three jobs at once: Remember what should persist. Cite the source and authority level of what was remembered. Forget or demote memories that are stale, superseded,…

Auto-generated neutral summary from the source page — needs human review before trusted use.

Evidence & Source Cards

Externalhttps://x.com/Voxyz_ai/status/2057862044783628508external/unverified

Source Excerpt

Source status: derived from Vox's X article, "A Framework for Agent Memory: Remember, Cite, Forget" (2026-05-22), reviewed from the live X article page. Treat it as a practitioner framework, not a formal standard.

Core Thesis

Agent memory is reliable only when it does three jobs at once:

  1. Remember what should persist.
  2. Cite the source and authority level of what was remembered.
  3. Forget or demote memories that are stale, superseded, or outside their authority.

The useful phrase is: remember by layer, cite by source, forget by expiry. A memory without a layer, provenance, and expiry rule should remain background context rather than control an agent's decision.

Memory Layers

LayerPurposeTypical LifespanFailure Mode
Hot sessionCurrent task working context: recent user message, tool outputs, intermediate conclusionsOne task/sessionContext compression drops an important instruction, then the agent acts as if it was never said
Day-stateToday's operating whiteboard: what has been done, what is next, current sequenceHours to one dayA cron agent continues executing an old morning plan after a later direct instruction changed priority
Project memoryLong-running lessons, settled decisions, repeated pitfallsDays to monthsOld preferences keep shaping behavior after newer preferences superseded them
Retrieval/indexSearch layer that surfaces candidates from vector, graph, or text searchRebuild-dependentAn old plan retrieved by similarity is mistaken for the current plan
Canonical policyManually maintained rule layer: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, policy files, product boundariesLong-lived, versionedA summary or stale memory overrides a real policy file
Direct instructionImmediate user command for the active taskCurrent task, until supersededA paraphrased summary is treated as authorization even though the original confirmation is not traceable

Authority Order

When memory sources conflict, use an explicit authority order. For Clark Farming Company agent work, a safe default is:

  1. Original direct instruction from the user for the active task.
  2. Canonical policy committed in doctrine, project policy, or governance files.
  3. Most recent project decision with traceable source.
  4. Long-term memory with attribution and timestamp.
  5. Retrieval summary that points to underlying source material.
  6. Compressed summary with no direct citation.

Higher levels overrule lower levels. A summary saying "the user seemed to authorize this" does not override a policy requiring explicit authorization.

Expiry Mechanisms

MechanismDescriptionBest For
Hard expiryFacts include valid_from / valid_until; a new fact marks the old one expired while retaining historyPolicy, pricing, regulations, credentials, model/provider capabilities
Bitemporal factsTrack when the fact was true in the world and when the system learned it changedUser/project facts that can be corrected later; audit-sensitive knowledge
Soft decayRetrieval ranking demotes old or unused memories without deleting themPreferences, habits, non-critical context

Do not design storage first and expiry later. The expiry rule is part of the memory schema.

Decision Gate Before Memory Can Influence Action

Before an agent lets a memory affect a decision, answer three questions:

  1. What level of decision can this affect? Hint only, citable evidence, or final authority?
  2. Where did it come from? Which message, file, page, or source created it?
  3. Is it still valid? What newer information would make it step aside?

If the agent cannot answer all three, the memory may be retrieved for context but should not control the outcome.

Application to Hermes / Clark Farming Company

Governance Assessment

This framework matches the company's standing rule: evidence before claims. The practical value is not the taxonomy itself; it is the trust contract it forces every memory to carry. An agent that remembers without citation will eventually hallucinate authority. An agent that cites without expiry will eventually act on stale truth. An agent that forgets without preserving source history will eventually lose accountability.

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agent-memorygovernanceprovenanceexpiryai-agents