Memory lifecycle

Nothing you save is silently thrown away. That is the one thing to hold onto while reading this page.

A memory can be in everyday use, quietly kept in the background, or genuinely gone. The only way something reaches that last state is because you asked for it. Everything else is still there, still yours, still searchable.

The three states

Active is what your everyday recall sees. When you search, when your AI answers a question, when the Memories page lists what you know, it is drawing from active memories. This is the working set: the version of your knowledge you are actually using right now.

Archived is kept but out of the way. A memory becomes archived when a newer version replaced it, or when you retired or paused it because it was no longer current. It has not gone anywhere. You can still find it through history views and history search. It just no longer competes for attention in everyday recall, so the latest understanding surfaces first.

Removed is the only state that means gone. A memory reaches it when you delete or forget it, on purpose. It leaves everywhere at once. Nothing moves a memory here on its own.

A helpful way to hold this:

Stored = Active + Archived. That is everything you still have.

Why you may see different numbers

You will sometimes notice that the count on the Memories page does not match the number implied by your graph or storage size. This is expected, and it is not a sign that anything went missing. Each view is a different lens on the same knowledge.

• The Memories page and the Stats headline show your active memories: the working set you recall from every day.
• The graph and your storage size count everything stored: active plus archived history. Older replaced versions still take up space and still live in the graph, so this number is larger.
• Crystals (the synthesized summaries Mem writes when several sources agree) are counted on their own, separate from your memory count.

Same knowledge, three lenses. A lower active number is not a loss. It usually just means some older versions moved into archived history, which is exactly what keeps everyday recall focused on what is current.

What moves something between states

Most transitions happen for a clear reason:

• When you refine or replace a piece of knowledge, the earlier version becomes archived history rather than being overwritten. See Knowledge evolution for how these version chains work.
• When a memory grows stale, Mem may prepare a review so you can move low-risk facts out of everyday recall. Freshness and decay only affect ranking, never deletion. See Memory decay.
• Retiring, forgetting, and deleting are always explicit actions you take. Moving something out of everyday recall is reversible. Deletion is the one thing that is not.

Next steps

• Memory decay explains how freshness affects search ranking without ever removing anything.
• Knowledge evolution explains how superseded versions become archived history you can still trace.