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Claude Memory

anthropic.com

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Re: Claude Memory

#171

Post by logicallee »

awesome_dude wrote: post #136
corry wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong agree. For every time that I'd get a better answer if the LLM had a bit more context on me (that I didn't think to provide, but it 'knew') there seems to be a multiple of that where the 'memory' was either actually confounding or possibly confounding the best response. I'm sure OpenAI and Antropic look at the data, and I'm sure it says that for new / unsophisticated users who don't know how to prompt, that thi…

If I find that previous prompts are polluting the responses I tell Claude to "Forget everything so far" BUT I do like that Claude builds on previous discussions, more than once the built up context has allowed Claude to improve its responses (eg. [Actual response] "Because you have previously expressed a preference for SOLID and Hexagonal programming I would suggest that you do X" which was exactly what I wanted)

it can't really "forget everything so far" just because you ask it to. everything so far would still be part of the context. you need a new chat with memory turned off if you want a fresh context.

Re: Claude Memory

#172

Post by brookst »

corry wrote: post #27
cainxinth wrote: post #23

I don't use any of these type of LLM tools which basically amount to just a prompt you leave in place. They make it harder to refine my prompts and keep track of what is causing what in the outputs. I write very precise prompts every time. Also, I try not work out a problem over the course of several prompts back and forth. The first response is always the best and I try to one shot it every time. If I don't get what…

Strong agree. For every time that I'd get a better answer if the LLM had a bit more context on me (that I didn't think to provide, but it 'knew') there seems to be a multiple of that where the 'memory' was either actually confounding or possibly confounding the best response. I'm sure OpenAI and Antropic look at the data, and I'm sure it says that for new / unsophisticated users who don't know how to prompt, that thi…

I'm pretty deep in this stuff and I find memory super useful.

For instance, I can ask "what windshield wipers should I buy" and Claude (and ChatGPT and others) will remember where I live, what winter's like, the make, model, and year of my car, and give me a part number.

Sure, there's more control in re-typing those details every single time. But there is also value in not having to.

Re: Claude Memory

#173

Post by brookst »

mbesto wrote: post #103
corry wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong agree. For every time that I'd get a better answer if the LLM had a bit more context on me (that I didn't think to provide, but it 'knew') there seems to be a multiple of that where the 'memory' was either actually confounding or possibly confounding the best response. I'm sure OpenAI and Antropic look at the data, and I'm sure it says that for new / unsophisticated users who don't know how to prompt, that thi…

> For every time that I'd get a better answer if the LLM had a bit more context on me If you already know what a good answer is why use a LLM? If the answer is "it'll just write the same thing quicker than I would have", then why not just use it as an autocomplete feature?

Because it's convenient not having to start every question from first principles.

Why should I have to mention the city I live in when asking for a restaurant recommendation? Yes, I know a good answer is one that's in my city, and a bad answer is on one another continent.

Re: Claude Memory

#174

Post by CamperBob2 »

jrockway wrote: post #76
CamperBob2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly... this is just another unwanted 'memory' feature that I now need to turn off, and then remember to check periodically to make sure it's still turned off.

It can remember everything about your life... except whether or not you already opted out.

LOL, at this point I have NO idea what's enabled and what's disabled: https://i.imgur.com/l7geDOl.png

Re: Claude Memory

#175

Post by mnhnthrow34 »

labrador wrote: post #79
teeklp wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally insane.

I love that people hate this because that means I'm using AI in an interesting way. People will see what I mean eventually. Edit: I see the confusion. OP is talking about needing precise output for agents. I'm talking about riffing on ideas that may go in strange places.

> "the truth sometimes hurts"

But it's not the truth in the first place.

Re: Claude Memory

#176

Post by vayup »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #170
cainxinth wrote: post #23

I don't use any of these type of LLM tools which basically amount to just a prompt you leave in place. They make it harder to refine my prompts and keep track of what is causing what in the outputs. I write very precise prompts every time. Also, I try not work out a problem over the course of several prompts back and forth. The first response is always the best and I try to one shot it every time. If I don't get what…

Memory is ok when it's explicitly created/retrieved as part of a tool, and even better if the tool is connected to your knowledge bases rather than just being silod. Best of all is to create a knowledge agent that can synthesize relevant instructions from memory and knowledge. Then take a team of those and use them on a partitioned dataset, with a consolidation protocol, and you have every deep research tool on the m…

I agree. I use this approach in my coding agent, and it works wonderfully to keep context across sessions: https://docs.cline.bot/prompting/cline-memory-bank

Even though the above link is from Cline, you can use this approach with any coding agent.

Re: Claude Memory

#177

Post by brulard »

brookst wrote: post #172
corry wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong agree. For every time that I'd get a better answer if the LLM had a bit more context on me (that I didn't think to provide, but it 'knew') there seems to be a multiple of that where the 'memory' was either actually confounding or possibly confounding the best response. I'm sure OpenAI and Antropic look at the data, and I'm sure it says that for new / unsophisticated users who don't know how to prompt, that thi…

I'm pretty deep in this stuff and I find memory super useful. For instance, I can ask "what windshield wipers should I buy" and Claude (and ChatGPT and others) will remember where I live, what winter's like, the make, model, and year of my car, and give me a part number. Sure, there's more control in re-typing those details every single time. But there is also value in not having to.

I would say these are two distinct use cases - one is the assistant that remembers my preferences. The other use case is the clean intelligent blackbox that knows nothing about previous sessions and I can manage the context in fine detail. Both are useful, but for very different problems.

Re: Claude Memory

#178

Post by jonplackett »

cainxinth wrote: post #23

I don't use any of these type of LLM tools which basically amount to just a prompt you leave in place. They make it harder to refine my prompts and keep track of what is causing what in the outputs. I write very precise prompts every time. Also, I try not work out a problem over the course of several prompts back and forth. The first response is always the best and I try to one shot it every time. If I don't get what…

Yeah they just gets all in a muddle.

The other day I was asking ChatGPT about types of mortgages and it began:

As a creative technologist using mostly TypeScript lets analyse the type of mortgage that would work for you.

It just doesn’t understand how to use its memory or the personalisation settings for relevant things and ignore it for irrelevant things.

Re: Claude Memory

#179

Post by [deleted] »

cainxinth wrote: post #23

I don't use any of these type of LLM tools which basically amount to just a prompt you leave in place. They make it harder to refine my prompts and keep track of what is causing what in the outputs. I write very precise prompts every time. Also, I try not work out a problem over the course of several prompts back and forth. The first response is always the best and I try to one shot it every time. If I don't get what…

[deleted]
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