How memory works
Glean Assistant uses two types of memory to personalize your experience:- Saved memories: Explicit, user-controlled information you tell the Assistant to remember (for example, “Remember that I prefer concise answers” or “I’m a Sales Engineer in EMEA”).
- Extracted memories: Implicit insights mined from your chat sessions and work activity, within retention guardrails. These include your response preferences, role and responsibilities, active projects, and recent topics.
Memory does not grant the Assistant access to documents you cannot access. Memory only stores user-level facts and preferences.
Memory categories
The Assistant organizes memories into the following categories:| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Role and responsibilities | A summary of your role, job function, and key areas of focus |
| Response preferences | Your preferred tone (concise vs. detailed), formatting (bullets, tables), formality level, and style |
| Active projects | Current projects and initiatives you’re working on |
| Recent topics | Topics and focus areas from your recent work activity |
| Other | Additional context and facts that don’t fit other categories |
Benefits of memory
Memory helps you work more efficiently by:- Reducing repetition: You don’t need to re-explain your role, preferences, or project context in each conversation.
- Providing continuity: The Assistant remembers context from previous discussions, so you can continue where you left off.
- Personalizing responses: Responses match your preferred communication style and level of detail.
- Improving relevance: Recommendations and suggestions are tailored to your work focus areas and past requests.
Manage your memories
You can view and delete your saved memories from Settings, and you can view, add, and edit memories directly in chat.View memories in Settings
- Click your profile icon and select Settings.
- Select Personalization.
- Review your memories organized by category.
Add memories using chat
Tell the Assistant what to remember using natural language:- “Remember that I prefer comprehensive responses in tabular format”
- “Remember that I work on the enterprise sales team”
- “Remember that I always want code examples in Python”
View memories using chat
Ask the Assistant what it remembers about you:- “What do you remember about me?”
- “Show me my saved memories”
Delete memories
You can delete individual memories or all memories: Delete a specific memory:- In Settings > Personalization, click the delete icon next to the memory you want to remove.
- In chat, tell the Assistant: “Forget that I prefer responses in bulleted format”
- In Settings > Personalization, click Delete all to remove all memories in a category.
Runtime controls in chat
You can control memory usage during a conversation using natural language:- “Don’t use memory in this chat”
- “Use memory for this response”
- “What memories are you using right now?”
Privacy and security
Memory is designed with privacy and security as core principles:- User-level data: Memories are stored at the individual user level. There is no cross-user memory sharing.
- No document access: Memory stores facts and preferences, not document content. Memory does not grant access to documents you don’t have permission to view.
- Retention policies: Extracted memories are persisted for 30 days and regenerated weekly. Saved memories persist until you delete them.
- Sensitive data: The system does not extract sensitive personal attributes. Extraction is scoped to work context and preferences.
- Admin controls: Your organization’s admin can configure memory settings, including enabling or disabling memory features at the organization level.
Known limitations
- Possible duplication: You may see duplicate entries in memory views. These are deduplicated during the weekly update cycle.
- Deleted memories may reappear: Extracted memories may be regenerated from activity data after deletion.
- Fast Mode: Memories cannot be created or referenced when using Fast Mode.
- Memory edits in UI: User memory edits through chat commands are supported; edits directly in the Settings UI are view-only except for deletion.
- Weekly updates: Extracted memories are regenerated weekly. Changes may not appear immediately.
Frequently asked questions
How is memory different from chat history?
How is memory different from chat history?
Chat history stores your previous conversations so you can reference them later. Memory extracts and stores durable facts, preferences, and context that persist across all conversations, not just within a single chat thread.
Will the Assistant use memory in agent conversations?
Will the Assistant use memory in agent conversations?
Yes, agents can access your memories to provide personalized responses, subject to the agent’s configuration and your memory settings.
Can my admin see my memories?
Can my admin see my memories?
Your admin can configure memory settings for the organization but cannot view individual user memories. Memories are private to each user.