A practical guide to persistent AI agent memory for software development: task tracking, decision logs, risk registers, checkpoints, change history, and resumable handoffs.
A long-running development task does not fit inside chat history. Requirements change, tests fail, trade-offs appear, and another agent or developer eventually needs to understand what happened without rereading thousands of messages.
Persistent facts are useful, but they are not a plan. A plan is not a decision record. A decision record is not a task board. Keeping those artifacts separate makes them easier to update, audit, and hand over.
Plan
Use update_plan for the approach, milestones, and success criteria.
Decision
Use decision_log for alternatives, rationale, linked artifacts, and accepted risks.
Work
Use task_board for status, dependencies, blockers, and acceptance criteria.
Risk
Use risk_register for severity, mitigation, owner, and release impact.
Continuity
Use task_checkpoint and memory_checkpoint before a long pause or client handoff.
Handoff
Use handoff_bundle to package the active goal, evidence, blockers, and next actions.
1. spinup_memory: initialize project context 2. update_plan: record approach and success criteria 3. task_board: track execution work 4. decision_log and risk_register: record trade-offs 5. git_change_summary and test_runner: verify the result 6. handoff_bundle: preserve the state for the next session
Use restore_session when an agent returns to the project, then inspect the plan, milestones, recent learnings, logs, and checkpoints. That is more reliable than asking a new session to infer project history from the current source tree.
Agents should not silently turn every thought into permanent memory. Save decisions that change implementation direction, risks that could affect a release, and evidence required for a reviewer to reproduce a conclusion. Use a checkpoint before a handoff, then keep the bundle small enough for the next agent to act on.
Explore AgenticStore's local tools and lifecycle controls.
Read the documentation →