SyntrofAIDocs
Memory

Memory

What the assistant remembers, how it uses that memory in every turn, and how you browse, search, add, move and back up memories yourself.

Memory is what lets SyntrofAI pick up where you left off. It keeps durable facts, your preferences and decisions, the documents you import, and a diary of past conversations. When an answer depends on something earlier, the assistant can find it and say where it came from.

You manage it in the Memory window. Open it from the sidebar (Memory, in the Intelligence group) or from the Memory tab on the right edge of the main screen. The window has three tabs: RAG, Journal and Intelligence. The sidebar button reopens the tab you used last.

The RAG tab in Folders view: the folder tree on the left, the search bar and the memory table on the right.

How memories get created

  • Automatically. After each reply, a background process decides what is worth keeping. Durable facts, preferences and decisions go to the knowledge library. The conversation itself is written up as Journal entries, and those refresh the notes the assistant keeps about you. Saving happens after the answer, not instantly.
  • When you ask. Say "remember this" in plain words. The assistant answers normally and the same background process stores it. To change or forget something right away, ask for it; the assistant uses its memory actions and tells you the result.
  • By hand. Use New Memory, import documents, add image, audio, video or PDF memories, or import a workspace from a ZIP file. All of these are covered below.

What each tab holds

TabWhat it holds
RAG, Folders viewDurable facts, preferences, decisions and imported knowledge, filed in folders
RAG, Databases viewThe data files you imported, kept as tables, and the tables memory builds of people, companies and products, every value traced to its source memories
JournalThe assistant's diary of past conversations, plus the always-on notes it keeps about you and your work
IntelligenceConclusions drawn from your memories, by topic, with the memories behind them

How Nova uses memory in a turn

  • A short summary, every turn. Nova always receives a small set of notes: who you are, your preferences, recent messages, current focus, open loops and constraints. You can read and edit these notes in the Journal.
  • Search when it matters. When an answer depends on something earlier, Nova searches. It looks in the Journal for what happened, and in the knowledge library for durable facts and imported documents. It opens what it finds, can cite it, and should say what it searched.
  • Your corrections win. What you say now outranks what is stored.
  • Ask about a period. Nova can narrow its Journal search to a time span, for example "what did we decide in the last seven days".

The database icon in the chat composer is the RAG switch (tooltip "RAG: On/Off").

  • On lets Nova lean on knowledge, document and memory search in that chat. The Journal's continuity stays available either way.
  • With RAG on, hover the icon to open Memory Explorer. Tick the folders Nova may search. Use Select all, Deselect all, Refresh folders or Search folders.... The choice is saved for that chat ("Search scope saved for this chat."), and the summary reads All folders, Custom folder scope or No folders.
  • On a phone the same control is called Memory scope.

Memory workspaces

Memory is organized in workspaces. The workspace picker on the RAG tab lists:

  • Default, the shared memory.
  • Agents: agents that have their own memory enabled.
  • Projects: projects set to Own Project Memory.
  • Workflows: workflows that keep their own memory.

The first time you open the window it picks the workspace of the chat you are in. After that, your last choice sticks. Changing the workspace clears the filters. The Journal tab has its own Workspace menu, and Intelligence follows the one chosen on the RAG tab.

The Folders view

What you see

  • Explorer (left, collapsible and resizable). It has a Folders / Databases switch, buttons to show or hide the explorer and to expand or collapse every folder, and a Filter paths... box. Below them is the folder tree, where each row shows a name and a count. The footer shows how many areas, paths and memories there are, and the tree depth.
  • Media tabs: Text (the default every time), Images, Audio, Video and Docs (PDF).
  • Search bar:
    • The fields: the workspace picker, Area (All Areas or one top-level folder), a result Limit (10 to 1000, default 1000), the Search memory content... box, and a threshold slider (0.00 to 1.00, default 0.60).
    • The buttons: Search, Clear, New Memory (in the media tabs: New Image, New Audio, New Video or New Document), Transfer and Show Settings.
  • Status bar:
    • The counters: Total (every memory in the workspace), Filtered (rows that match, up to the Limit), Knowledge (from imported files) and Conversation (everything else).
    • When results run past one page: Sort by (Newest first, Oldest first, Importance, Area, Length), Rows (25, 50, 75 or 100) and page arrows.
  • Table: Area & Hierarchy (the folder path), Origin & Strategy with the date, a Quick Preview of the first 200 characters with tags, and copy and delete buttons.
  • Detail pane: click a row to see Content, Location, Tags and the record's ID, source and kind, with Copy, Edit and Delete.

How search works

  • Press Search or Enter. It matches any word you typed, or a memory ID of five or more characters.
  • Only when no word matches does it switch to meaning-based search. The threshold slider then sets how close a match must be.
  • Area, Limit and the threshold take effect when you press Search.
  • Clear resets the box and the Area but keeps the folder you selected.
  • Click a folder in the tree to show only it and its subfolders ("Filtered to: ..."). Click it again to see everything ("Showing all memories").

Do it

Add a note

  1. Press New Memory.
  2. Write the Memory Content (required).
  3. Choose an Area from the folder picker (the default is personal), or pick Enter Custom Area Name... to file it somewhere new.
  4. Optionally set Importance (0 to 1, default 0.50), a Category, a Subcategory and Historical Notes.
  5. Press Create Memory.

Add an image, audio, video or PDF

  1. Open the Images, Audio, Video or Docs tab.
  2. Press New Image, New Audio, New Video or New Document.
  3. Drop or pick a PNG or JPG, MP3 or WAV, MP4 or MPEG, or PDF file. Add a Description if you like, and choose a Link Mode (Linked or Independent).
  4. Press the save button.

Import documents as knowledge

  1. Open the chat whose workspace should receive the documents.
  2. Open Memory and press Show Settings.
  3. Pick an Ingestion Mode. Balanced is recommended. The others are Full Capture, Curated Facts, Executive Summary and Knowledge Web (experimental).
  4. Press Import Knowledge and choose your files: .txt, .pdf, .csv, .html, .htm, .json, .jsonl or .md.
  5. Watch the Knowledge Upload card. New rows count under Knowledge.

Edit, move and delete

  • Edit: open a row, press Edit, change the content or location, then Save changes. Tags cannot be edited.
  • Rename a folder: use the hover icon on the folder. Its memories are re-filed under the new name.
  • Select rows: the checklist button beside Clear, New Memory and Transfer adds a tick to each row; it turns into × while it is on.
  • Delete: from a row, the detail pane, or several selected rows. You are asked first. Deleting removes the memory and the records derived from it.
  • Copy or move: switch on Select rows, tick rows and press Transfer. Choose the Destination Directory, then a Mode: Copy keeps the source, Move deletes it. Then choose a Scope: Selected memories, Current filters or Current path only. Press Preview to see the first 25, then Run Transfer. Each memory is saved again in the destination with its text, top-level folder and importance. Its date becomes the transfer time and its tags are dropped, so Transfer suits text memories best.

Back up a workspace

Press Show Settings. Under Quick Actions you will find these buttons:

  • Export Memories (JSON)
  • Export Namespace (ZIP), which downloads the whole workspace
  • Import Namespace (ZIP), which merges the file in and overwrites matching memories after a warning
  • Clear All, which deletes every text memory in the workspace after a warning
  • Refresh

Memory Settings

Show Settings also holds:

  • RAG Mode: the same switch as the RAG icon in the chat.
  • Ingestion embeddings: choose With or Without embeddings. To give older memories meaning-based search, press Preview older memories, then Generate embeddings for these memories.
  • Ingestion Operations: the import queue (jobs running, queued, paused, done or quarantined), with Pause, Resume and Stop / Cancel, and quarantine tools to reprocess or discard items.

The switches that decide whether the assistant recalls and saves memories automatically live in Settings → Agent → Memory: Memory auto-recall enabled, Auto-memorize enabled, Journal consolidation enabled and Journal synth enabled. See Settings.

Limits

  • The table loads up to the Limit you set; paging happens on screen.
  • Export Memories and Clear All cover up to 10,000 memories.
  • The list refreshes about every three minutes, and when an import finishes.
JournalThe diary of past work and the notes Nova keeps about you.DatabasesYour imported tables, and the tables memory builds, with sources.IntelligenceWhat the system believes, and the proof behind it.SettingsTurn automatic recall and saving on or off.