Memory
"Memory" in an AgentFlow covers two separate things, and it helps to keep them apart:
- Ephemeral Memory — whether the AI remembers the conversation from turn to turn.
- Persist Variables — whether your saved flow state values carry over from turn to turn.
Both are toggles on the Start node. One is about the dialogue; the other is about the facts you've saved.
Ephemeral Memory — conversation history
This controls chat history — what the AI has "heard" so far.
- Off (default behavior for ongoing chats) — the flow keeps the conversation history. The AI sees earlier messages and can answer follow-ups like "and what about the second one?" naturally.
- On — every run starts fresh, with no past history. Each message is treated as a brand-new conversation.
Turn Ephemeral Memory on when each request should be independent — one-off classifications, stateless webhook processing, or any flow where past messages would only confuse things. Leave it off for normal back-and-forth conversations where context matters.
Persist Variables — saved facts
This controls your flow state — the named values (name, email, running totals) your flow saves.
- On (default) — state carries over between turns in the same conversation. Save a value now, read it back next message.
- Off — state is cleared after each turn. Nothing you save survives to the next message.
Keep Persist Variables on for lead collection, multi-step forms, and anything that gathers information across several messages.
Choosing what you want
| You want the bot to… | Ephemeral Memory | Persist Variables |
|---|---|---|
| Hold a natural, ongoing conversation and remember saved details | Off | On |
| Remember facts, but treat each message as a fresh conversation | On | On |
| Answer each message in isolation, remembering nothing | On | Off |
| Follow the dialogue but not keep any saved state | Off | Off |
The most common setup — a helpful bot that both follows the conversation and remembers what it collected — is Ephemeral Memory off, Persist Variables on.
Conversation history (Ephemeral Memory) is the raw back-and-forth. Flow state (Persist Variables) is the specific values you chose to save. A bot can remember the dialogue but forget to save the email, or save the email but forget the dialogue — they're controlled separately on purpose.