Memory
Memory separates stable facts, durable context, conversation summaries, and time-limited information so Assistela uses the right context at the right time.
Why Assistela has several kinds of memory
One large pile of notes would quickly become stale. Assistela therefore separates what remains true about you, what belongs to long-running projects, what only preserves continuity with older chat, and what matters for a limited time. You do not have to repeat basic context in every message, while a short-lived fact does not become a permanent assumption.
About the user
Stable facts: your name, family, address, durable preferences, and preferred way of working. The limit is 5,000 characters.
Long-term notes
Ongoing projects, recurring conventions, habits, and context that should stay useful. The limit is 10,000 characters.
Conversation summaries
Recent, older, and archive summaries preserve continuity in long chats without sending the complete history to the LLM.
Temporary Information
A trip, stay, temporary address, appointment, visit, health limitation, or another fact with a beginning and end.
Temporary Memory is a distinctive Assistela feature
One of Assistela’s distinctive features is a separate Temporary Memory. An item can begin appearing in answers before an event, remain active during it, and stop influencing new answers afterwards. For example, “I will be in Lisbon from August 12 to 19” is useful before and during the trip, but should not look like your current location six months later.
- Valid from / Valid until define the actual event window.
- Show in answers from controls when Assistela begins considering it. An upcoming item is added no more than 30 days before it starts.
- Keep until controls when the item is no longer active. If omitted, Assistela derives a short period after the event.
- Archive is the normal way to remove an item from active use while retaining it. Delete removes it permanently.
Only active and currently relevant temporary items are added to an answer. Expired items are ignored and similar entries are merged so the same fact does not consume space repeatedly.
Add information manually
Open Memory
Choose Memory in the main window sidebar. In the top selector, open Temporary Information.
Click New
Select a type such as trip, stay, appointment, health, family, work, preference, or commitment.
Write a short title and summary
The title helps you recognize the item. Put only facts that may change an answer in the summary. Location, address, and tags are optional.
Set the dates
Enter the start and end, and optionally the first date for use in answers and the retention date.
Save and verify
Click Add or Save changes. Then ask about the related plan in Chat and confirm that Assistela uses the correct fact.
Where each kind of information belongs
- “My name is Petra and I prefer concise answers.” → About the user.
- “I am working long term on Project Atlas, and we format tasks this way.” → Long-term notes.
- “Next week I am staying at this hotel.” → Temporary Information.
- “I have a dentist appointment Thursday at 2 PM.” → Calendar.
- “Call the dentist on Wednesday.” → Apple Reminders.
Do not store an actionable task only as a memory. Memory supplies context; Calendar and Reminders track concrete time and work.
Summaries, priority, and your control
During a long conversation, Assistela automatically compresses older history into several layers: recent notes, older notes, and an archive summary. The current message and fresh data take priority over an old summary. The archive summary is background, not an infallible source of truth.
You can read and directly edit stable memory on the Memory screen. Shorten text helps remove repetition. The data is stored locally in Assistela’s main SQLite database and is not hidden only in an opaque vector store.
API keys, passwords, and payment-card numbers do not belong in ordinary memory. Use Keychain and the Passwords and Cards screen, which keeps the real values away from the LLM.