hebel. today · 15 November 202619 / 79
Agentic Engineering · Context Engineering
Developers debate whether agent memory needs a full log or a curated desk
The case for append-only logs. Tun Shwe, who leads AI at Lenses, builds agent memory as an append-only event log to preserve the full history of evidence, hypotheses, and corrections. This structure allows engineers…
From 5 newsletters · 1 min read · one thing to try
The case for append-only logs. Tun Shwe, who leads AI at Lenses, builds agent memory as an append-only event log to preserve the full history of evidence, hypotheses, and corrections (Packt Deep Engineering). This structure allows engineers at companies like Sugabots to inspect the reasoning behind an agent's conclusion when a reviewer challenges an assessment (Rak Siva from The New Stack). By keeping the original history, the team ensures that the next agent or engineer in a sequence receives the relevant evidence and corrections selected from that record.
The case for curated desks. Anthropic’s experiments with Pokémon Red showed that an agent recording only strategies, plans, and rules earned four badges, while the agent recording every encounter earned only one (Exploring AI from Exploring Artificial Intelligence). Researchers at Kanerva’s Desk argue that a fixed-size running state, which holds only key facts and open questions, outperforms a sprawling history that requires the model to sort through noise (The Brian Roemmele Report.). This approach mirrors findings from Distyl AI, where models performed better when fed a focused input of 300 tokens rather than a full conversation history of 113,000 tokens (AI Prompt Hackers).
The synthesis of approaches. The choice depends on whether the goal is auditing past decisions or maintaining current performance. While Sugabots preserves full records to allow engineers to contribute corrections to a shared investigation, the Kanerva model suggests that compacting the state is necessary to keep the agent from failing on its primary task.
Try today · 15 min
Initialize a Kanerva Desk for your current project.
Create a file named DESK.md with three sections: Key Facts, Open Questions, and Pointers.
You need
- A text file or markdown document
- A list of your current project's core assumptions
Steps
- Create a section for Key Facts and list at most five numbered, verified facts.
- Create a section for Open Questions and list what evidence would settle each one.
- Create a section for Pointers to your primary documentation or URLs.
- Paste this structure into your agent's system instructions or project context.
- Update one fact today by checking it against your primary source.