Published: Mar 4, 2026|1 min read
Notes on Agent Memory Retrieval
A practical comparison between context windows, vector search, and hybrid memory pipelines.
#memory#rag#evaluation
Memory strategy determines how stable an agent feels over long tasks.
Retrieval approaches
The three working options in my experiments are:
- full-context replay
- semantic retrieval
- hybrid retrieval + summaries
Evaluation setup
I evaluate memory quality using task completion accuracy and correction count.
Failure signal: context drift
The agent starts to answer from stale assumptions when retrieval quality drops.
Failure signal: tool mismatch
The selected tool no longer matches the current user objective.
Current takeaway
Hybrid retrieval is most consistent when prompts enforce structured handoffs between steps.