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A minimal comparison of two agent-memory patterns: one agent that remembers the active session and one agent that only reads from the persistent knowledge graph. Before you start:
  • Complete Quickstart or have Cognee installed and configured
  • Ensure you have LLM Providers configured
  • Be familiar with the remember() workflow

Shared Setup

Both agents use the same LLMGateway helper. The updated example starts clean with forget(everything=True), stores one baseline fact with remember(), and then compares session memory against graph memory. LLMGateway.acreate_structured_output() automatically picks up whatever memory the decorator retrieved and prepends it to the text input. In this flow, save_session_traces=True lets the support agent persist session traces into the knowledge graph after enough turns.
import asyncio
import os
import warnings

os.environ["LOG_LEVEL"] = "ERROR"
os.environ["COGNEE_LOG_FILE"] = "false"
warnings.filterwarnings("ignore")

import cognee  # noqa: E402
from cognee.infrastructure.llm.LLMGateway import LLMGateway  # noqa: E402

SESSION_ID = "ticket_001"
BUG = "Login fails with error XQ-99."
FIX = "Set XQ_TOKEN=1 in the .env file."
NO_INFO = "NO INFO AVAILABLE"


async def setup() -> None:
    await cognee.forget(everything=True)
    await cognee.remember(
        ["Our app is a web service. Users log in to access their account."], self_improvement=False
    )


async def ask_llm(question: str, system_prompt: str) -> str:
    return await LLMGateway.acreate_structured_output(
        text_input=question,
        system_prompt=system_prompt,
        response_model=str,
    )

Compare the Agents

@cognee.agent_memory(
    with_memory=False,
    with_session_memory=True,
    save_session_traces=True,
    session_id=SESSION_ID,
    session_memory_last_n=2,
    persist_session_trace_after=3,
)
async def support_agent(question: str, system_prompt: str) -> str:
    return await ask_llm(question, system_prompt)
This agent relies on session memory instead of graph retrieval. It can remember the recent conversation, and after enough turns its saved traces are persisted into the knowledge graph.

Full Example

import asyncio
import os
import warnings

os.environ["LOG_LEVEL"] = "ERROR"
os.environ["COGNEE_LOG_FILE"] = "false"
warnings.filterwarnings("ignore")

import cognee  # noqa: E402
from cognee.infrastructure.llm.LLMGateway import LLMGateway  # noqa: E402

SESSION_ID = "ticket_001"
BUG = "Login fails with error XQ-99."
FIX = "Set XQ_TOKEN=1 in the .env file."
NO_INFO = "NO INFO AVAILABLE"


async def setup() -> None:
    await cognee.forget(everything=True)
    await cognee.remember(
        ["Our app is a web service. Users log in to access their account."], self_improvement=False
    )


async def ask_llm(question: str, system_prompt: str) -> str:
    return await LLMGateway.acreate_structured_output(
        text_input=question,
        system_prompt=system_prompt,
        response_model=str,
    )


@cognee.agent_memory(
    with_memory=False,
    with_session_memory=True,
    save_session_traces=True,
    session_id=SESSION_ID,
    session_memory_last_n=2,
    persist_session_trace_after=3,
)
async def support_agent(question: str, system_prompt: str) -> str:
    return await ask_llm(question, system_prompt)


@cognee.agent_memory(
    with_memory=True,
    with_session_memory=False,
    save_session_traces=False,
    memory_query_from_method="question",
)
async def faq_bot(question: str, system_prompt: str) -> str:
    return await ask_llm(question, system_prompt)


async def main() -> None:
    print("=== Agent Memory Quickstart ===\n")
    print("support_agent: session memory  — knows what happened in this conversation.")
    print("faq_bot:       knowledge graph — knows only what has been formally filed.\n")

    print("Setting up knowledge graph...")
    await setup()
    print("Ready.\n")

    recall_prompt = f"Answer based on the available context. If it is not available in the context, say exactly: {NO_INFO}"

    support_agent_q1 = f"A user just reported this: {BUG}"
    print(f"support_agent_q: {support_agent_q1}")
    support_agent_a1 = await support_agent(
        support_agent_q1, f"Confirm you received it. Say exactly: {BUG}"
    )
    print(f"support_agent_a: {support_agent_a1}\n")

    faq_bot_q = "How do I fix error XQ-99?"

    support_agent_q2 = "What bug was just reported?"
    print(f"support_agent_q: {support_agent_q2}")
    support_agent_a2 = await support_agent(
        support_agent_q2,
        f"Use your session memory. If you know, say: {BUG} If not, say: {NO_INFO}",
    )
    print(f"support_agent_a: {support_agent_a2}")

    print(f"faq_bot_q:       {faq_bot_q}")
    faq_bot_a_before = await faq_bot(faq_bot_q, recall_prompt)
    print(f"faq_bot_a:       {faq_bot_a_before}")

    print("\n^ support_agent recalled the bug from session. faq_bot had no context yet.\n")

    support_agent_q3 = f"Log this fix for the login crash: {FIX}"
    print(f"support_agent_q: {support_agent_q3}")
    support_agent_a3 = await support_agent(support_agent_q3, f"Confirm the fix. Say exactly: {FIX}")
    print(f"support_agent_a: {support_agent_a3}")
    print("(Session traces are now persisted to the knowledge graph.)\n")

    print(f"faq_bot_q:       {faq_bot_q}")
    faq_bot_a_after = await faq_bot(faq_bot_q, recall_prompt)
    print(f"faq_bot_a:       {faq_bot_a_after}")

    print("\n^ faq_bot now answered correctly — session traces reached the knowledge graph.")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())
The decorator does not create memory by itself. The example works because baseline graph memory is stored first with remember(), and the session-aware support agent persists traces only after those conversation turns happen.

Agent Memory Decorator

Concept overview and parameter reference

Low-Level LLM

LLMGateway for direct model calls

Remember

Store memory before using the decorator

Sessions

Learn how trace-backed session context behaves