Short-Term Conversation Memory › Practical Considerations

As you build memory into your agent, keep these points in mind:

Start simple: Begin with full history. Only add complexity (windowing, summarization) when you actually need it.

Monitor costs: Track how many tokens you're sending. If costs are high, implement a sliding window.

Test edge cases: What happens when the user references something from 20 messages ago? Does your memory strategy handle it?

Consider the domain: A customer service bot might need full history. A casual chatbot might work fine with a small window.

Provide memory controls: Let users start fresh conversations when needed. Sometimes they want to change topics completely.