09 · Memory
What memory is
Memory (记忆) lets WorkBuddy remember your preferences and habits — the more you talk, the better it knows you.
Mechanically: it extracts useful personal information from your conversation history — facts, preferences and habits, relationships, recent follow-ups — into "memory data" that updates periodically. In later conversations, memory relevant to the current request is included as background.
Two key parameters:
- Extraction frequency: the day's conversations are processed each evening
- Visibility: only you
What it fixes
Without memory you re-explain this every time:
I work on growth for a SaaS product, the team is eight people, I report to the CTO. Our weekly report format is progress / risks / next week. Keep the writing tight, no emoji, no filler.
With memory on, it remembers, and you just say "write this week's report."
The saving is not only typing. Resending that background on every turn costs credits. Over time, memory saves you money.
Managing it
Get there via avatar → Settings → Memory.
Generating conversation memory
On by default. It lets WorkBuddy extract and remember relevant context from conversations so later replies are more coherent and personalised.
Viewing
The memory summary regenerates each night. Open it to read what is stored.
Skim it weekly
Make it a habit.
Memory is extracted automatically by a model, so it can generalise inaccurately. An offhand "this project might get killed" can become "the user believes this project will be cancelled." You find out when it bases advice on that entry.
Editing
Click the edit icon at the top right for a dialog, and tell WorkBuddy in conversation what to remember or forget.
Forget the entry about "project A might get cancelled" — that was speculation.
Remember: the team's main goal now is getting retention to 40% in Q3.Deleting
Click the delete icon at the top right to clear current memory.
Importing memory from another AI
If you have built up habits on another AI product, bring them across.
Three steps:
- Click start import
- Copy the sample prompt into a conversation with the other AI product
- Paste the result back and click add to memory
The real value is cold start — a freshly installed WorkBuddy knows nothing about you, and one import saves two weeks of adjustment.
Privacy and boundaries
Memory does not cost credits
Officially: memory extraction is done at WorkBuddy's own expense and consumes no tokens or credits of yours.
Memory also involves no third-party sharing — the data is used internally to personalise the product for you.
What is collected and how it is used:
- Scope: facts, preferences and habits, relationships and follow-ups, extracted automatically from conversation content
- Use: injected into the system prompt as context; supports searching conversation history ("what did I do last week", "that thing we discussed")
- Your control: add, delete and correct entries; switch it off entirely; import from another AI
Confirm authorisation when other people's information is involved
The official reminder: where a conversation involves other people's personal information, confirm you have their authorisation before submitting it.
This is easy to hit in real work — analysing team performance, compiling client lists, processing CVs all become material for memory extraction.
Three recommendations
One, verify before relying on memory for something important. Memory is extracted automatically and may generalise or go stale. "We lead with product A" from six months ago may no longer hold.
Two, delete or switch off what you do not want remembered. Remove entries or turn the feature off in Settings → Memory. Switching off stops new extraction.
Three, switching off does not retroactively withdraw past output. Officially: after switching off or deleting entries, that data stops being used in later conversations, but output already generated is not withdrawn.
Should you leave it on?
Yes, generally. Three reasons: it is free, it saves repeated explanation, and it improves with use.
Consider switching it off if:
- Your computer is shared
- Your work involves large amounts of other people's private data (HR, legal, medical)
- You are on a sensitive project and want no background information retained anywhere
The cost of switching off is re-supplying background in every prompt. A middle path: turn off automatic extraction and use project instructions for fixed background instead — those are explicit, entirely under your control, and scoped per project.
Memory vs project instructions vs self-improvement
Three things that all sound like "make it remember", with quite different scopes:
| Memory | Project instructions | self-improvement Skill | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written by | Extracted automatically | You, by hand | The Skill, automatically |
| Scope | All your conversations | All tasks in that project | Wherever the Skill is active |
| Who sees it | Only you | Every project member | Only you |
| Content | Facts, preferences, relationships, follow-ups | Team conventions, behaviour rules | Experience, corrected preferences, best practice |
| Control | View, edit, delete, switch off | Fully manual | See the Skill's documentation |
In practice:
- Personal preference (writing style, how to address you, no emoji) → memory
- Team convention (document format, disclaimers, cite your sources) → project instructions
- Something you keep correcting (it always gets one term wrong) → add an explicit memory entry, or install
self-improvement
While we are here: the Personalisation settings
Settings → Features → Personalisation holds a complementary set:
- Reply style
- Welcome message
- Custom instructions
- How to address you, and your role
The difference: memory is what it worked out, personalisation is what you told it. For a rule you want honoured every time, put it in custom instructions rather than hoping it gets inferred from conversation.
FAQ
Does memory update in real time?
No. The day's conversations are processed each evening. A preference you stated today may not apply today. If you need it now, put it in the prompt or edit memory by hand.
Does memory sync to mobile and web?
Memory is bound to your account. Tasks started through the Assistant, the mini program and other entry points carry it too.
Do enterprise and personal accounts share memory?
No. Personal and enterprise data are isolated.
Next
10 Permission modes and the sandbox — the chapter most worth reading carefully.