Established

Memory manager

A browsable store of remembered facts and preferences, each editable and deletable.

MMilky memory6 memories

Northfield Dental has 25 seats

Customers Call notes · 2 Mar
Dana Ortiz prefers email over phone

Customers Ticket #4630 · 12 Aug
Kite & Co is billed in GBP

Customers Invoice thread · 3 Sep
You like replies under 120 words

Preferences Learned from your edits · 20 Sep
Refunds go to Sam Okafor for approval

Preferences You said so · 9 Sep
Priya Shah is on call for billing bugs

Team #eng channel · 28 Sep · expires 5 Oct

Last used

MMilky yesterday · renewal prep

Northfield Dental (25 seats) renews in October. At $38 a seat a month that's $11,400 a year.

From memory: “Northfield Dental has 25 seats”

Leo Martin That's out of date. They went to 40 seats in August.

Try it: Fix the out-of-date seat count in place, or delete a single memory. Watch what Milky will say next time.

In the wild

How 2 products ship this pattern. Click a screenshot to enlarge it.

ChatGPT mobile Memory summary screen with a highlighted phrase and a Make a correction popover. — ChatGPT memory summary
Memory is shown as a readable profile, not a database. Selecting any phrase gives a Make a correction action in place.
Source: OpenAI Help Center ↗

Perplexity Memories list (47) with Search: dated entries tagged Shopping, Travel, Preferences, Projects and Interests, e.g. Planned a trip to San Francisco, with a delete icon on the hovered row. — Perplexity
Memories are shown as a searchable, dated list, each tagged with a category. Any single memory can be deleted on its own.
Source: Perplexity blog ↗

When to use

Assistants used daily, where accumulated memory becomes both the value and the risk.

Seen in

ChatGPT memory settings, Claude project knowledge, Gemini saved info, Notion AI workspace context.

For engineers

Memory writes are user-visible events; make retrieval attributable so you can debug bad recall.

Build prompt

A neutral, component-only prompt for a coding agent. Edit the stack block or anything else to fit your project, then copy it.

# Build the "Memory manager" pattern: `MemoryManager`

## Stack (edit this block to match your project)
- React 18+ with TypeScript: one function component, typed props, no `any`.
- Tailwind CSS, using your design system's tokens if you have them.
- Presentational only: data comes in through props, decisions go out through callbacks. No fetching or global state inside.
- If your codebase already has conventions (naming, shared components, tokens), follow them over this spec.

## What the pattern is for
A browsable store of remembered facts and preferences, each editable and deletable.

Use it when: Assistants used daily, where accumulated memory becomes both the value and the risk.

## What to build
A browsable list of what an assistant remembers, searchable and filterable by category, with each memory's source and where it was last used. A person can correct a single memory in place or delete it on its own. It renders in settings or a side panel.

### Props
- `memories`: Array<{ id: string; text: string; category: string; source: { label: string; at: Date }; lastUsed?: { label: string; at: Date; responseId?: string }; expiresAt?: Date }>.
- `categories`: string[], with `category` and `onCategoryChange(c: string)` for controlled filtering ("All" included).
- `query`: string and `onQueryChange(q: string)`, controlled search.
- `editingId?`: string and `savingId?`: string, which row is being edited or saved.
- `recentlyDeleted?`: { id: string; text: string }, drives the undo row.
- `status`: "loading" | "ready" | "error".
- `onEdit(id: string, text: string)`, `onDelete(id: string)`, `onUndoDelete(id: string)` and `onOpenUsage?(responseId: string)`: callbacks. The component never writes memory itself.
- `onClearAll?()`: optional and secondary, behind a confirmation; it is never the only way to remove something.

### States it must render
- Ready: a count header, category chips with counts, and rows showing text, category, source and date, with Edit and Delete on each.
- Editing: the row becomes an input with Save and Cancel; Save is disabled while the text is empty.
- Deleted: the row is replaced by "Deleted. Undo" for a few seconds before it leaves.
- Last used: a row can show the answer that used it ("Used yesterday in renewal prep"), so a bad answer can be traced to the memory behind it.
- No matches: "No memories match" with a clear-filters action. Empty: explains what kinds of things will appear here.
- Loading and error: skeleton rows; an error message with Retry.

### Interactions
- Typing filters live; chips filter by category and combine with the search.
- Edit swaps the row for an input and focuses it; Enter saves via `onEdit`, Escape cancels.
- Delete calls `onDelete` immediately and shows Undo; Undo calls `onUndoDelete`.
- The last-used link calls `onOpenUsage` with the response id.

### Edge cases
- Editing a memory that was used recently: after saving, note "Earlier answers used the old value" next to the usage link.
- Two memories that contradict each other (e.g. two seat counts): both stay visible and adjacent when searched, so the person picks which to keep.
- A memory with an expiry shows it ("expires 5 Oct") so temporary facts aren't mistaken for permanent ones.
- Hundreds of memories: group by category and paginate or virtualise; counts stay accurate.

## Must avoid
Memory as an opaque black box with only a nuclear "clear all" option.

## Engineering constraint
Memory writes are user-visible events; make retrieval attributable so you can debug bad recall.

## Accessibility
- After a delete, focus moves to the Undo control, then to the next row when it disappears.
- Announce result counts politely as filters change ("4 memories").

## House rules
- Real `<button>`/`<input>` elements, full keyboard use, visible focus; announce status changes with `aria-live="polite"`; respect `prefers-reduced-motion`.
- All user-facing text comes from props (or a `labels` prop) so it can be translated.
- One consistent accent marks anything the AI made or is doing; amber means "needs a person", red means risky, green means done. Never rely on colour alone.
- Fits a 360 px wide container without horizontal scrolling.

## Acceptance checks
- [ ] Every state above can be rendered by passing props, with no internal fake data.
- [ ] Every interaction and edge case above behaves as described.
- [ ] Nothing in "Must avoid" can happen with this component.

## Deliver
1. The component file with its exported prop types.
2. A short usage example that renders each state.

Download this prompt as Markdown, or every prompt as JSON for an agent.

Critique checklist for memory & context

0 of 4 checked

These questions apply to every pattern in this family. Ticks are saved in this browser.

Can the user see everything currently in context?
Is memory scoped to a project rather than global by default?
Can the user delete a memory and see the effect?
Does the system say when it is relying on memory?