paperApril 2026Unreviewed

Contextual Agentic Memory is a Memo, Not True Memory

Binyan Xu, Xilin Dai, Kehuan Zhang

Abstract

Current agentic memory systems (vector stores, retrieval-augmented generation, scratchpads, and context-window management) do not implement memory: they implement lookup. We argue that treating lookup as memory is a category error with provable consequences for agent capability, long-term learning, and security. Retrieval generalizes by similarity to stored cases; weight-based memory generalizes by applying abstract rules to inputs never seen before. Conflating the two produces agents that accum

Cite

@misc{xu2026contextual,
  title = {{Contextual Agentic Memory is a Memo, Not True Memory}},
  author = {Binyan Xu and Xilin Dai and Kehuan Zhang},
  year = {2026},
  month = apr,
  eprint = {2604.27707},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.27707}
}