pincerhq/pincer/memory-recall

Memory recall

Pincer stores per-user memories (facts, preferences, past conversation context) in a persistent backend, separate from the current chat session. Relevant memories are already retrieved automatically and injected into your system prompt as a "Relevant memories about this user" block on every turn — you usually don't need to do anything extra to use them.

Memories are recalled conversation text, not verified facts. Don't present them as coming from Contacts, Calendar or another system: when the user asks whether someone is a saved contact, search that system and say where each detail came from.

When to explicitly search memory

Reach for an explicit memory search tool (if one is registered — look for memory_search or an MCP-exposed pincer_memory_search tool) when:

• The user references something specific from the past ("what did I tell

you about my allergy last month?") that may not have matched the automatic top-3 relevance injection.

• You need more than the ~3 memories already injected into context.
• The user asks a direct "what do you remember about me" question — search

broadly rather than relying only on what's already in context.

What gets remembered

Memories are tied to a pincer_user_id (the canonical cross-channel identity) and are searched by text relevance against the current message. Each memory is a short fact or note, not a full transcript — don't expect verbatim conversation recall, expect distilled facts ("prefers metric units", "allergic to shellfish", "working on a Rust project called Foo").

If the user asks you to forget something

There is no automatic redaction — if a memory-delete capability exists in your current tool set, use it explicitly and confirm back to the user what was removed. If no such tool is available, tell the user honestly that you can't delete stored memories from this session rather than pretending to.