> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gcaplabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Memory

> How the agent remembers facts about you, your projects, and your preferences across conversations.

# Memory

Memory is what your agent knows about you, your work, and your preferences across conversations. It is stored locally on your machine. Memory is separate from session history — sessions are the full transcripts; memory is the distilled facts the agent carries forward.

***

## What goes in memory

* ✅ **Decisions you confirm** during a chat — "always use double quotes for strings."
* 📁 **Project context** you share — "we're using Postgres 16 on AWS RDS, the ORM is Prisma."
* 🔄 **Recurring corrections** — "don't summarize, give me the raw data."
* ⚙️ **Personal preferences** — "I prefer concise responses, no preamble."
* 📌 **Anything you explicitly add** via the **Remember this** button in chat.

## What does not go in memory

* 📜 **The full text of every conversation.** Sessions are stored separately in session history. Memory is for distilled facts, not transcripts.
* 🔑 **Provider keys, secrets, or credentials.** Those live in the Connections area, encrypted.
* 📎 **Files you attach.** Files are stored in your workspace folder. Memory references them but doesn't copy their contents.

***

## Inspecting memory

Open **Settings → My Headmaster → Memory**. The page lists everything currently retained, grouped by topic:

| Group           | What it contains                                             |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Profile**     | Facts about you — name, role, communication style.           |
| **Projects**    | Facts about your codebases, tools, and workflows.            |
| **Preferences** | Your stated preferences for response style, code style, etc. |
| **Environment** | Facts about your machine, OS, and setup.                     |
| **Decisions**   | One-off decisions the agent should remember.                 |

Click any item to see the source conversation and when it was saved. Click **Forget** to remove it.

***

## Adding to memory

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="From chat">
    Click **Remember this** on any assistant message. The agent proposes a single durable fact. You can edit the fact before it's saved. Click **Save** to commit it to memory.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Manual entry">
    <Steps>
      <Step title="Open Memory settings">
        Go to **Settings → My Headmaster → Memory → Add fact**.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Type a fact">
        Write the fact in plain language — "My primary database is PostgreSQL 16 on AWS RDS."
      </Step>

      <Step title="Save">
        Click **Save**. The fact is immediately available to the agent in all conversations.
      </Step>
    </Steps>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

***

## Forgetting

* **Forget** — removes a single fact. The agent no longer uses it.
* **Forget all** — wipes the entire memory store (learned facts and project context). This does not touch your conversation transcripts, files, or provider keys. Use this when you want a clean start without losing your chat history.

***

## Retention policy

By default, memory facts are retained indefinitely. To set a retention policy:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open retention settings">
    Go to **Settings → My Headmaster → Memory → Retention**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set a retention period">
    Enter a number of days (e.g., 90). Facts older than the retention period are automatically archived.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Archived facts are not used by the agent but are kept in the data folder. You can restore them if needed.
</Note>

***

## Memory and the Council

When the Council is active, all specialists share the same memory store. A fact saved by one specialist is visible to all others — the Council is supposed to be a team that knows what the team knows.

***

## Where memory lives

Memory is stored locally in `<data folder>/memory/`. In a remote setup, memory lives on the machine running the runtime. See [The Local Runtime](/the-local-runtime) for data folder locations by platform.

***

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Session Search" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/session-search">
    Full-text search across all past conversations — the complement to memory.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Profiles" icon="user" href="/profiles">
    Each profile has its own isolated memory store.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>