AI Systems Atlas

X-09Write Policies & Decay

/context/memory-write-policies

What earns a memory write — and what is allowed to fade.

Step-by-step walkthrough4 steps
  1. Not everything observed deserves a write.
  2. The gate asks: durable? reusable? confirmed? — write too much and retrieval drowns.
  3. Stored memories that go unused fade on a schedule.
  4. Forgetting is a feature: never-forgotten errors become permanent errors.
Key insight

The write gate is the quality control for every future retrieval. Write too much and search drowns; decay is how wrong memories stop being permanent.

Failure mode

Write-everything, forget-nothing: a year later, retrieval surfaces confident notes from a codebase that no longer exists.

Further reading
RelatedThe four memoriesMemory poisoning

Elsewhere in the atlas

Harnesses →Security →Evals →Coding Agents →Tools →Ops →