agentdb-hierarchical-store

Hierarchical Store

Three-tier memory matching how humans actually use memory. Each tier has different retention, retrieval cost, and query semantics.

Tiers

Tier	Retention	Use for
working	minutes (auto-expires)	The current task's scratch — files open, hypotheses, in-flight decisions
short	hours-days	Recent session context — what was decided this morning
long	indefinite (until pruned)	Cross-session facts, patterns, lessons

API

agentdb_hierarchical_store(
  key:      <namespace key>           // e.g. 'task:auth-refactor:hypothesis'
  tier:     'working' | 'short' | 'long'
  value:    <stringified content>
  ttl?:     <seconds>                 // overrides tier default
  metadata?: { topic, project, ... }
)

agentdb_hierarchical_recall(
  query:    <semantic or exact key>
  tier?:    <filter>                  // omit to search all tiers
  k?:       5
)

agentdb_hierarchical_delete(
  key:      <namespace key>
  tier?:    <filter>
)

The delete tool was added in agentdb 3.0.0-alpha.13. Before that, there was no first-class way to remove an entry — re-indexing workflows like ruflo's /adr-index couldn't purge stale ADRs. Now they can.

Recall flow

1. Query working first — it's smallest, freshest, highest signal for "what am I doing right now."
2. Fall back to short if working returns nothing.
3. Search long last for established knowledge.
4. Or search all three with tier=undefined and let the bandit weight by tier × similarity.

Don't

• Don't put long-term facts in working — they expire and you lose them.
• Don't put session scratch in long — it pollutes searches forever.
• Don't forget to set TTL when overriding tier defaults; the engine won't infer it.