Files
LocalAI/docs/content/features/short-memory.md
T
Ettore Di Giacinto 78044d4def feat(ui): call the collections page Knowledge, not Memory
The word "Memory" named collections of documents, notes about the
person, and RAM in the same navigation. Collections are now Knowledge:
the sidebar item, the page title and text, the Home action, the agent
form section and the chat tool group. The tool group "Memory and
profile changes" is now "Suggested changes", since it is the generic
ask-first mechanism for notes, rules, skills, pages and the dashboard.
The Settings section "Memory and models" is now "Models in memory".

Only display strings change. Ids, routes, locale keys, group ids,
grants and stored data stay as they are. All nine locales are updated;
the docs name the Knowledge page and say which search the default
engine does.

Assisted-by: Claude:claude-sonnet-5-5
2026-11-04 17:17:38 +00:00

5.0 KiB

title, weight
title weight
Short memory 36

Short memory is an add-on that gives your chats a few notes about you. The model reads the note that matches a request before it answers, and by default it saves a new note only after you confirm it. You can change that on the add-on page. Install memory from the add-on library. Its visible name is Short memory.

It is for the facts that change what a good answer is: where you live, what you eat, the language and units you use, how you want answers. It is not a store for large documents. Use Knowledge to search many files.

How it works

Each turn, the host puts an index of your notes in the prompt, under a fixed header that asks the model to read the matching topic before it answers. The index is a list of lines such as - home: lives in Rome -> home.md. The model opens a topic with the context_read tool. The add-on ships two skills, memory and memory-check-own-files, that tell the model to consult memory for almost every request and to say what it can and cannot read.

There are three kinds of notes, each in the Memory folder of your files:

Kind File Applies to
Yours Memory/index.md every chat
One saved agent Memory/agents/<agent>/index.md the chats of that agent
One conversation Memory/channels/<binding>-<hash>/index.md one conversation that came from a messaging app

An index has at most 40 lines and 2 KiB. All indexes of a turn together have at most 6 KiB. The details of a topic sit in a file next to the index.

Saving and forgetting

When you ask the model to remember something, it calls propose_change. By default nothing is written at once. You confirm the proposal on the card in the chat or in the inbox, and it expires after 24 hours. A confirmed change is one change set in your files, so you can undo it. To forget a note you just saved, the model calls revert_change. For an older note it proposes a shorter file, and you confirm that too.

A file over its cap is refused, and the answer lists the current entries so the model merges them.

Choose how a note is saved

On the page of the add-on, under Saving a note, you choose what happens when the assistant wants to save something to your memory:

Choice What happens
Ask me first (default) The assistant proposes the note and you confirm it.
Save it and tell me In your own chats the note is saved at once. The chat shows "Saved to memory" with an Undo, and no confirmation card.
Never The assistant cannot propose a note. It says that saving is off if you ask it to remember something.

The choice is yours alone and the server keeps it, not the add-on. These rules hold whatever you choose:

  • Chats that come from a messaging app always ask first. The person who wrote the message is not always you, so a message from outside can never save to your memory without your confirmation. Scheduled and background runs cannot save notes at all. The bot writes the question in the chat ("I can save a note ... Reply yes to save it or no to drop it"), and a sender whom you trust with the permission Confirm changes from the chat answers there with yes or no, within 24 hours. undo takes a saved note back for 30 minutes. Another sender, or one without that permission, cannot answer: the note waits in Studio for you. See Confirming a change in the chat.
  • A saved agent cannot widen your choice. If you choose to be asked, it asks, even when you let it write to memory.
  • A reply saves at most 5 notes at once. A long note, or one that looks like it holds a secret such as a key or a password, waits for your confirmation instead.
  • An automatic note is one change set like any other. The Undo on the chat, the model's revert_change and the Files history restore the earlier text. Every automatic note is in the audit of changes (GET /api/chats/changes/audit).

If the server cannot read your choice, it asks first.

Saved agents and messaging apps

A saved agent reads notes only when you allow the Memory add-on for it in the agent editor. A chat that came from a messaging app reads your notes and the notes of its own conversation, and never the notes of another conversation. A saved agent can only propose a change when the owner granted it the right.

Your control

The notes are plain files. Read, edit and delete them on the Memory tab of your account or on the Files page. Stopping or removing the add-on stops the model from reading them; it does not delete them.

For add-on authors

The add-on is a package like the others: a manifest, two skills and an executable that serves no tool. It declares capabilities.contextFiles, so the host loads the index files. See Context files. It also declares one user setting, save-mode (ask, auto, never), which the page edits through sdk.userSettings; see User settings. The manifest needs api 2.