Memory behavior and limits

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Understand what information agent memory stores, how it's scoped, and the governance policies that apply to your data.

What information is stored

Agent memory stores relevant facts from your conversations, including:

  • Personal preferences: Likes, dislikes, and specific preferences across various categories
  • Important personal details: Names, relationships, and significant dates
  • Plans and intentions: Upcoming events, trips, goals, and shared plans
  • Activity preferences: Preferences for services, travel, hobbies, and activities
  • Professional details: Job titles, work habits, career goals, and work-related information
  • Miscellaneous information: Favorite items, brands, and other details you share

What information is not stored

To protect your privacy and security, agent memory does not store:

  • Sensitive personal information (such as passwords or financial data)
  • Complete conversation transcripts
  • Temporary or one-time information (such as invoice numbers)

Memory and temporary information

The agent distinguishes between information worth remembering long-term and temporary information used only for immediate tasks.

Temporary information (not stored in memory):

  • One-time transaction details (such as invoice numbers)
  • Specific dates for single events
  • Temporary file uploads
  • Context-specific data for current task only

Long-term information (stored in memory):

  • Recurring preferences
  • Personal details that remain consistent
  • Work context that applies across interactions
  • Communication style preferences

Memory scope and sharing

Agent memory is scoped at the user and tenant level, which means:

  • Your memory is unique to you and not shared with other users within the same tenant
  • Memory persists across all chat threads and sessions
  • Memory is accessible across different agents (when memory is enabled)
  • Memory operates identically in both draft and live environments
Note: Agent memory behavior does not change between draft and live environments. Memory stored during testing in draft remains available when the agent is deployed to live, and vice versa.

Sharing across agents

Your memory persists across different agents. When you switch to a different agent (that has memory enabled), it can access the same stored information about you. This ensures a consistent experience across all agents in your tenant.

Agent memory and redaction

Agent memory information is not subject to PII redaction or full redaction. Memory details remain visible in traces even when redaction is enabled for trace analytics. For more information about redaction settings, see Managing agent analytics settings.

Memory storage location

Agent memory is stored securely in the watsonx Orchestrate infrastructure:

  • Memory data is encrypted and isolated per user
  • Memory is not shared between users
  • Memory is stored separately from chat history
  • Memory persists independently of chat thread deletion

Memory and data privacy

Agent memory is designed with privacy and security in mind:

  • User isolation: Your memory is isolated from other users and cannot be accessed by them
  • Encryption: Memory data is encrypted in storage
  • No sensitive data: The system is designed to avoid storing sensitive information such as passwords or financial data
  • User control: You maintain full control over what is stored and can delete memory at any time

Memory and chat history retention

Agent memory and chat history follow different retention policies:

Table 1. Memory and chat history retention
Data Type Retention Policy Deletion Trigger
Chat history 30-365 days Automatic deletion after retention period
Agent memory 30-day idle interval (LRU) Automatic deletion after 30 days of inactivity
Note: Deleting chat history does not delete agent memory. These are managed independently.

For more information about chat history retention, see Managing data retention.

Account deletion and memory

When your access to watsonx Orchestrate is removed from the tenant, all data associated with your account is permanently deleted, including:

  • All agent memory items
  • All chat history
  • All settings

This deletion is immediate and cannot be reversed.

Important: If you anticipate losing access to your account, document any important information from your memory before your access is removed.

Compliance and data governance

Agent memory complies with data protection standards:

  • Memory follows the same data governance policies as other watsonx Orchestrate data
  • Memory is subject to the same security controls and access restrictions
  • Memory deletion is permanent and cannot be recovered

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