Evidence-First Memory

• Status: Placeholder
• Date: 2026-04-17
• Decider: User

Context and Problem Statement

Wardian needs a memory model that avoids using provider-native session replay as long-term memory. Provider sessions are useful runtime continuity, but they are expensive, provider-specific, and difficult to inspect. Wardian's memory system should instead preserve evidence, index it for retrieval, and build prompt context selectively.

This placeholder records one immediate design constraint from the session-persistence work. A fuller memory architecture will replace this document later.

Proposed Decision

Continuity Is Not Memory

Provider-native session IDs, PTY state, provider homes, approval hooks, and provider logs are runtime continuity. They should not be the primary memory substrate.

Wardian memory should be based on:

• raw evidence artifacts
• workflow run outputs
• transcripts or excerpts with provenance
• promoted knowledge records
• scoped retrieval into prompts

Scoped Memory For Inherited Workflow Runs

Workflow mode affects memory access:

Workflow run mode	Read scope	Default write target
ephemeral	common and class scopes	workflow run artifacts
inherit_fresh	common, class, and source-agent scopes	workflow run artifacts
inherit_resume	source agent runtime and provider session	source agent continuity, plus workflow artifacts

inherit_fresh is the important case. It may read source-agent scoped memories so the run behaves like the selected agent's profile, but it must not automatically write back to that source agent's durable memory.

Default write behavior:

inherit_fresh during run:
  read source agent scoped memory
  write workflow run artifacts
  do not mutate source agent memory

after run:
  preserve workflow output/evidence
  discard or archive provider session state as non-resumable
  require explicit promotion to source-agent memory

Promotion Must Be Explicit

Future memory features should support explicit promotion paths:

• promote workflow artifact to source-agent memory
• attach evidence to an agent
• append a provenance-backed memory record
• propose memory updates for user review

Automatic source-agent memory writes from inherit_fresh should be avoided in the initial implementation. If added later, they should use a backend memory API with locking, append-only records, provenance, and conflict handling rather than allowing providers to write shared memory files directly.

Runtime Directories Are Not Durable Memory

A workflow-run runtime directory may be retained after completion for auditability, but it is an artifact container, not a resumable agent home. Fresh workflow runs should not write provider-discovered session IDs back to the source agent's resume_session.

Consequences

• Positive: Workflow runs can use an agent's scoped context without silently changing that agent.
• Positive: Memory becomes inspectable and provenance-backed instead of hidden inside provider sessions.
• Positive: Token growth is controlled because prompt context is selected, not replayed wholesale.
• Negative: Users must explicitly promote useful workflow outputs into durable agent memory.
• Negative: The future memory system needs a real API for promotion, locking, provenance, and retrieval.