Advanced Memory System

Multi-tiered memory with short-term, long-term, entity, and user-specific storage — enhanced by quality scoring and automatic extraction.

Key Features

Separate short-term and long-term memory systems

4-metric quality assessment for stored memories

User, agent, and run-specific memory scoping

Automatic entity extraction and storage

Optional Neo4j/Memgraph for relationships

Quality-based filtering and relevance ranking

Quick Start

Simple — enable with True

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant with memory.",
    memory=True
)

agent.start("Remember that I prefer Python for data science")

With config

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant with memory.",
    memory={
        "backend": "rag",
        "user_id": "user123",
        "use_embedding": True
    }
)

Direct Memory Access

from praisonaiagents import Memory

# Initialise memory
memory = Memory(
    config={
        "provider": "rag",
        "use_embedding": True,
        "short_db": ".praison/short_term.db",
        "long_db": ".praison/long_term.db"
    }
)

# Store memories with quality
memory.store_long_term(
    text="The user prefers technical explanations",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    metadata={"type": "preference"},
    quality=0.9
)

# Search memories
results = memory.search_long_term(
    query="user preferences",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    min_quality=0.7
)

from praisonaiagents import Memory

memory = Memory(config={"provider": "rag"})

memory.store_long_term(
    text="Quantum computing uses qubits for computation",
    completeness=0.95,
    relevance=0.90,
    clarity=0.88,
    accuracy=0.92,
    memory={"user_id": "user123"}
)

Memory Tiers

Short-term Memory (STM)

Short-term memory is cleared between sessions and used for immediate context.

# Store temporary context
memory.store_short_term(
    text="User is asking about Python programming",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    metadata={"context": "current_conversation"}
)

# Search recent context
context = memory.search_short_term(
    query="Python",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    limit=5
)

Long-term Memory (LTM)

Long-term memory persists across sessions and stores important information.

# Store persistent knowledge
memory.store_long_term(
    text="User works as a data scientist at TechCorp",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    quality=0.95,
    metadata={"type": "user_info", "category": "professional"}
)

# Retrieve with quality filter
memories = memory.search_long_term(
    query="user profession",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    min_quality=0.8
)

Entity Memory

Entity memory stores information about specific people, places, or things.

# Store entity information
memory.store_entity(
    name="TechCorp",
    text="TechCorp is a leading AI company founded in 2020",
    entity_type="organization",
    metadata={"industry": "technology", "size": "large"}
)

# Search entity information
entity_info = memory.search_entity(
    name="TechCorp",
    query="company details"
)

User Memory

User memory stores personalised information and preferences.

# Store user preferences
memory.store_user_memory(
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    text="Prefers concise explanations with code examples",
    extra={"preference_type": "communication_style"}
)

# Retrieve user context
user_context = memory.search_user_memory(
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    query="preferences",
    limit=3
)

Configuration Options

RAG Configuration (Default)

memory_config = {
    "provider": "rag",
    "use_embedding": True,
    "short_db": ".praison/short_term.db",
    "long_db": ".praison/long_term.db",
    "entity_db": ".praison/entity.db",
    "rag_db_path": ".praison/chroma_db",
    "embedding_model": "text-embedding-3-small"
}

Mem0 Configuration

Requires the optional memory extras:
pip install "praisonaiagents[memory]"
If the package is missing, configuring "provider": "mem0" raises:
ImportError: mem0ai is not installed. Run: pip install 'praisonaiagents[memory]'

memory_config = {
    "provider": "mem0",
    "config": {
        "api_key": "your-mem0-api-key",
        "org_id": "your-org-id",
        "project_id": "your-project-id"
    }
}

Graph Memory Configuration

Requires the optional memory extras:
pip install "praisonaiagents[memory]"

memory_config = {
    "provider": "mem0",
    "config": {
        "graph_store": {
            "provider": "neo4j",
            "config": {
                "url": "bolt://localhost:7687",
                "username": "neo4j",
                "password": "password"
            }
        },
        "vector_store": {
            "provider": "qdrant",
            "config": {
                "host": "localhost",
                "port": 6333
            }
        },
        "version": "v1.1"
    }
}

Backend Fallback

PraisonAI automatically falls back to SQLite when a configured backend (Redis, Valkey, Postgres) is unavailable, so your agent keeps working without crashing.

from praisonaiagents import Agent, MemoryConfig

# Configure Redis — if redis-py isn't installed,
# PraisonAI falls back to SQLite automatically.
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You remember user preferences.",
    memory=MemoryConfig(backend="redis", user_id="user_123")
)

agent.start("Remember I prefer dark mode")

Configured backend	Fallback when unavailable	Search/store path
`redis`	SQLite (adapter)	`memory_adapter.search_` / `store_`
`valkey`	SQLite (adapter)	`memory_adapter.search_` / `store_`
`postgres`	SQLite (adapter)	`memory_adapter.search_` / `store_`
`sqlite`	n/a (native)	`memory_adapter.*` (direct)
`file`	n/a (native)	FileMemory (direct)
`mem0`	raises `ImportError`	direct Mem0 client
`mongodb`	raises error	direct Mongo client

Before the fix in PraisonAI PR #2190, configuring backend="redis" without redis-py installed produced sqlite3.OperationalError: no such table: short_mem on the first memory call. The SQLite adapter now owns the correct schema (short_term_memory / long_term_memory), so fallback is transparent.

Symptom: sqlite3.OperationalError: no such table: short_mem

Cause: You are running a version of PraisonAI before PR #2190. A non-default backend (e.g. redis) was configured but its dependency was not installed, causing a silent fallback to SQLite — which then queried the legacy short_mem table that no longer exists.Fix: Upgrade PraisonAI to the release that includes PR #2190, or install the dependency for your configured backend (e.g. pip install redis for Redis).

Quality Scoring System

Quality Metrics

Completeness

Measures how complete and comprehensive the information is

Relevance

Measures how relevant the information is to the context

Clarity

Measures how clear and understandable the information is

Accuracy

Measures the factual accuracy of the information

Quality Calculation

# Default weights
weights = {
    "completeness": 0.25,
    "relevance": 0.35,
    "clarity": 0.20,
    "accuracy": 0.20
}

# Overall quality = weighted average
quality = (
    completeness * weights["completeness"] +
    relevance * weights["relevance"] +
    clarity * weights["clarity"] +
    accuracy * weights["accuracy"]
)

Advanced Features

Cache-Optimised Context

Memory results are deterministically ordered for prompt caching effectiveness. Use build_context_for_task() with explicit output control for manual prompt assembly.

from praisonaiagents import Memory

memory = Memory(config={"provider": "rag"})

context = memory.build_context_for_task(
    task_descr="Research the latest AI developments",
    user_id="user_123",
    max_items=3,
    include_in_output=True  # Force include for prompt assembly
)

# Construct cache-friendly prompt structure
system_prompt = f"System instructions and tools\n\n{context}\n\nUser message: {{user_input}}"

See Prompt Caching for the full guide.

Context Building

Build comprehensive context for tasks:

# Automatically merge relevant memories
context = memory.build_context_for_task(
    task_descr="Write a Python tutorial",
    memory={"user_id": "user123"},
    additional="Focus on data science applications",
    max_items=5
)

# Context includes:
# - Relevant long-term memories
# - User preferences
# - Recent short-term context

Task Output Finalisation

Store task results with quality assessment:

from praisonaiagents import TaskOutput

# Create task output
output = TaskOutput(
    raw="Tutorial content...",
    agent_name="Writer",
    task_description="Write Python tutorial"
)

# Finalise with quality scoring
memory.finalize_task_output(
    task_output=output,
    memory={"user_id": "user123"}
)

Memory Citations

Automatically cite memory sources:

# Memories include source information
result = memory.search_long_term("Python", memory={"user_id": "user123"})
# Returns: {
#     'text': 'Python is...',
#     'metadata': {'source': 'conversation_2024_01_15', ...}
# }

Memory Reranking

Enhance search results with intelligent reranking based on relevance scores:

from praisonaiagents import Agent, AgentTeam

# Create agent
agent = Agent(
    name="Researcher",
    role="Research assistant"
)

# Initialize with memory enabled
agents = AgentTeam(
    agents=[agent],
    tasks=[],
    memory=True
)

# Search with reranking for better relevance
if agents.shared_memory:
    results = agents.shared_memory.search_long_term(
        "quantum computing applications",
        limit=10,
        rerank=True,  # Enable reranking
        relevance_cutoff=0.7  # Minimum relevance score
    )

Reranking Features

Semantic Reranking: Re-scores results based on semantic similarity
Context-Aware Ranking: Considers current context when ranking
Quality-Weighted Ranking: Combines relevance with quality scores

# Advanced reranking with multiple criteria
results = agents.shared_memory.search_long_term(
    query="machine learning frameworks",
    limit=20,  # Retrieve more initially
    rerank=True,  # Enable reranking
    relevance_cutoff=0.6,  # Minimum relevance
    rerank_config={
        "method": "semantic",  # or "hybrid", "quality-weighted"
        "top_k": 5,  # Return top 5 after reranking
        "consider_recency": True,  # Factor in timestamp
        "boost_user_memories": True  # Prioritize user-specific memories
    }
)

Custom Reranking Logic

Implement custom reranking strategies:

from datetime import datetime
from praisonaiagents import RerankStrategy

class DomainSpecificReranker(RerankStrategy):
    def rerank(self, results, query, context=None):
        """Custom reranking based on domain knowledge"""
        scored_results = []
        
        for result in results:
            score = result['relevance']
            
            # Boost technical content
            if 'technical' in result.get('metadata', {}).get('tags', []):
                score *= 1.2
                
            # Boost recent memories
            if result.get('timestamp'):
                days_old = (datetime.now() - result['timestamp']).days
                recency_boost = 1.0 + (0.1 * max(0, 30 - days_old) / 30)
                score *= recency_boost
                
            scored_results.append((score, result))
        
        # Sort by score and return top results
        scored_results.sort(key=lambda x: x[0], reverse=True)
        return [result for score, result in scored_results]

# Use custom reranker
# Note: Assuming 'agents' is defined from previous examples
if agents.shared_memory:
    agents.shared_memory.set_rerank_strategy(DomainSpecificReranker())

Reranking Performance

Optimize reranking for large result sets:

# Efficient two-stage retrieval and reranking
# Stage 1: Fast retrieval of candidates
candidates = agents.shared_memory.search_long_term(
    query="data analysis techniques",
    limit=50,  # Get more candidates
    rerank=False  # Skip reranking in first stage
)

# Stage 2: Precise reranking of top candidates
if len(candidates) > 10:
    reranked = agents.shared_memory.rerank_results(
        results=candidates[:20],  # Rerank top 20
        query="data analysis techniques",
        method="hybrid",
        relevance_cutoff=0.8
    )
else:
    reranked = candidates

Performance Optimisation

# Batch store memories
memories = [
    ("Fact 1", 0.9),
    ("Fact 2", 0.85),
    ("Fact 3", 0.95)
]

for text, quality in memories:
    memory.store_long_term(
        text=text,
        quality=quality,
        memory={"user_id": "user123"}
    )

Complete Example

from praisonaiagents import Agent, Task, AgentTeam
from praisonaiagents import Memory

# Configure memory with quality scoring
memory_config = {
    "provider": "rag",
    "use_embedding": True,
    "embedding_model": "text-embedding-3-small"
}

# Create memory instance
memory = Memory(memory_config)

# Create assistant agent
assistant = Agent(
    name="Personal Assistant",
    instructions="""You are a personal assistant with perfect memory.
    Remember user preferences, important information, and context.
    Always use your memory to provide personalised responses.""",
    memory={"user_id": "john_doe"}  # Memory with user isolation
)

# Create task with memory integration
task = Task(
    description="Help me plan my day based on my preferences",
    agent=assistant,
    expected_output="Personalised daily schedule"
)

# Run the system
agents = AgentTeam(
    agents=[assistant],
    tasks=[task],
    memory=True  # Enable shared memory
)

# Memory automatically:
# 1. Retrieves user preferences
# 2. Searches relevant past interactions
# 3. Builds context for the task
# 4. Stores the interaction with quality score
result = agents.start()

# Store user feedback as high-quality memory
memory.store_long_term(
    text="User preferred morning schedule with exercise first",
    memory={"user_id": "john_doe"},
    completeness=0.9,
    relevance=1.0,
    clarity=0.95,
    accuracy=1.0
)

Best Practices

Set quality thresholds for search

Use min_quality=0.8 for critical information retrieval. Use lower thresholds (0.5–0.7) for exploratory searches where recall is more important.

Scope memories per user and agent

Always pass user_id for user-specific memories, agent_id for agent-scoped shared knowledge, and run_id for ephemeral session context.

Enable embeddings for semantic search

Set use_embedding=True in the memory config for semantic (not just keyword) retrieval. Use text-embedding-3-small for cost efficiency.

Use AutoMemory for automatic extraction

Enable MemoryConfig(auto_memory=True) to automatically extract preferences, facts, and entities from conversations without manual store_* calls.

AutoMemory

AutoMemory automatically extracts structured information from conversations using configurable patterns — no manual store_* calls needed.

How It Works

AutoMemory wraps FileMemory with a pattern-based extraction engine. After each agent interaction, it scans the conversation for matching patterns (preferences, facts, dates, etc.) and stores them automatically.

Quick Start

from praisonaiagents import Agent, MemoryConfig

# Enable auto-memory extraction
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
    memory=MemoryConfig(auto_memory=True, user_id="user123")
)

# Patterns are extracted automatically from conversation
agent.start("I prefer Python for data science and I'm based in London")
# AutoMemory stores: preference="Python for data science", location="London"

Custom Patterns

from praisonaiagents import AutoMemory

# Create with custom patterns
auto_mem = AutoMemory(
    user_id="user123",
    patterns={
        "preference": r"(?:I prefer|I like|I love)\s+(.+)",
        "location": r"(?:I'm based in|I live in|I'm from)\s+(.+)",
        "name": r"(?:My name is|I'm called|call me)\s+(\w+)",
        "fact": r"(?:I work at|I study at|my job is)\s+(.+)",
    }
)

# Search extracted memories
results = auto_mem.search("user preferences")

MemoryConfig Integration

Use MemoryConfig.auto_memory to enable AutoMemory as part of the consolidated memory parameter:

from praisonaiagents import Agent, MemoryConfig

agent = Agent(
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
    memory=MemoryConfig(
        backend="file",
        auto_memory=True,   # Enable pattern-based extraction
        user_id="user123",
        session_id="session456",
    )
)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`auto_memory`	`bool`	`False`	Enable automatic memory extraction
`backend`	`str`	`"file"`	Storage backend (`file`, `sqlite`, `redis`, etc.)
`user_id`	`str`	`None`	User ID for scoping memories

Knowledge

Integrate with document knowledge bases

Prompt Caching

Optimise memory context for prompt caching

​Key Features

​Quick Start

​Direct Memory Access

​Memory Tiers

​Short-term Memory (STM)

​Long-term Memory (LTM)

​Entity Memory

​User Memory

​Configuration Options

​RAG Configuration (Default)

​Mem0 Configuration

​Graph Memory Configuration

​Backend Fallback

​Quality Scoring System

​Quality Metrics

Completeness

Relevance

Clarity

Accuracy

​Quality Calculation

​Advanced Features

​Cache-Optimised Context

​Context Building

​Task Output Finalisation

​Memory Citations

​Memory Reranking

​Reranking Features

​Custom Reranking Logic

​Reranking Performance

​Performance Optimisation

​Complete Example

​Best Practices

​AutoMemory

​How It Works

​Quick Start

​Custom Patterns

​MemoryConfig Integration

​Related

Knowledge

Prompt Caching

Key Features

Quick Start

Direct Memory Access

Memory Tiers

Short-term Memory (STM)

Long-term Memory (LTM)

Entity Memory

User Memory

Configuration Options

RAG Configuration (Default)

Mem0 Configuration

Graph Memory Configuration

Backend Fallback

Quality Scoring System

Quality Metrics

Quality Calculation

Advanced Features

Cache-Optimised Context

Context Building

Task Output Finalisation

Memory Citations

Memory Reranking

Reranking Features

Custom Reranking Logic

Reranking Performance

Performance Optimisation

Complete Example

Best Practices

AutoMemory

How It Works

Quick Start

Custom Patterns

MemoryConfig Integration

Related