Short-Term Memory (Agent)

Short-term memory in an AI agent is task-scoped storage that persists across the steps of a single execution but is discarded when the task ends.

It allows agents to track intermediate results, tool outputs, and decision history within a workflow without permanently retaining that data. Because it is scoped to a task, short-term memory is usually cleared on completion, which also limits how much context survives a retry.

Closely related concepts include Agentic Memory, Multi-Agent System, Episodic Memory (Agent), Agent Memory. Each is defined in the Prefactor glossary.