Short-Term Memory

Multi-turn conversations need continuity without paying to re-send the entire history every call or permanently storing trivial chitchat.

Short-term memory is a whiteboard in a meeting room — useful for the session, erased when everyone leaves.

Scenario

A travel-planning chat remembers you said 'budget under $2000' and 'prefer direct flights' across 10 messages, then clears when you close the tab.

Solution

In Agent Memory, apply Short-Term Memory to this scenario: A travel-planning chat remembers you said 'budget under $2000' and 'prefer direct flights' across 10 messages, then clears when you close the tab. Identify the inputs, run the technique, validate the output, and note one thing you would monitor in production.

Do this before moving to the next module — reading alone is not enough.

Open the Code Walkthrough below and run it locally. Change one parameter related to Short-Term Memory (e.g. model, temperature, top_k, or tool name), observe the difference in output, and write 2–3 sentences explaining what changed.

Highlighted lines show where Short-Term Memory happens in the code.

1class ShortTermMemory:  # define a data structure or component2    def __init__(self, max_messages=20):  # define a reusable function3        self.messages = []  # key line for Short-Term Memory4        self.max_messages = max_messages  # key line for Short-Term Memory5    def add(self, role, content):  # define a reusable function6        self.messages.append({"role": role, "content": content})  # key line for Short-Term Memory7        if len(self.messages) > self.max_messages:  # key line for Short-Term Memory8            self.messages = self.messages[-self.max_messages:]  # key line for Short-Term Memory9    def get_context(self):  # define a reusable function10        return self.messages  # return the result

• Treating Short-Term Memory as a black box without evaluation
• Ignoring cost and latency in production
• Skipping error handling for short term memory

Quick recap — the most important points from this module.