Why Your AI Keeps Forgetting Everything (And How to Fix It)

"Why does my AI keep forgetting what I told it?" This is the #1 frustration with LLM applications. The culprit: context windows. Here's what's actually happening and how to fix it.

The Problem: Context Windows Are Finite

Every LLM has a context window—the maximum amount of text it can "see" at once. GPT-4 has 128K tokens. Claude has 200K. Sounds like a lot, right?

It's not. Here's why:

What Happens When You Hit the Limit?

The typical solution is truncation: drop old messages to make room for new ones. The result? Your AI forgets:

• What you discussed an hour ago
• Decisions you made together
• Your preferences and context
• Errors it already helped you fix

Every session starts from scratch. You repeat yourself constantly.

Why RAG Isn't Enough

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) helps by fetching relevant documents. But it has limits:

RAG retrieves documents. Memory retrieves experiences. They solve different problems.

The Solution: Persistent Memory

Persistent memory is a separate system that stores what your AI learns—outside the context window. When needed, relevant memories are retrieved and injected into the prompt.

Memory vs RAG vs Fine-tuning

Most applications need all three. RAG for documents, fine-tuning for core behaviors, memory for personalization and learning.

Adding Memory in Practice

from shodh_memory import Memory

memory = Memory()

# Store what you learn
memory.remember("User prefers TypeScript over JavaScript", memory_type="Decision")
memory.remember("Project deadline is January 15th", memory_type="Context")
memory.remember("Auth bug was caused by expired JWT", memory_type="Error")

# Later, retrieve relevant context
context = memory.recall("What's the deadline?", limit=3)
# Returns: "Project deadline is January 15th"

# Inject into your LLM prompt
prompt = f"""Context from memory:
{context}

User question: When do we need to ship?"""

# Your LLM now has persistent context

The Result

With persistent memory, your AI:

• Remembers preferences — No more "I prefer dark mode" every session
• Tracks decisions — "We decided to use PostgreSQL because..."
• Learns from errors — "Last time this failed because..."
• Builds context over time — Gets smarter the more you use it

pip install shodh-memory