How memory works
What a character keeps, what it forgets, and how to make something stick.
Three separate things carry a conversation forward: the raw messages still in the window, the rolling summary of the ones that fell out of it, and the memory store of durable facts. They behave differently, and when a character "forgets" something it is worth knowing which one let go.
The three layers
| Layer | Where it lives | How much it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Live messages | The conversation itself | The most recent 10,000 tokens — or 25% of the model's context window, whichever is smaller — and at most 50 messages |
| Conversation summary | That one chat, under Chat Settings → Conversation Memory | Three levels: Recent summary, then Merged summary, then Long-term memory |
| Saved memories | The side panel's Memory tab, per character and globally | 100 entries per scope, plus 20 pinned ones, each up to 500 characters |
The live window is deliberately decoupled from the model you pick. Choosing a model with a million-token context does not keep more raw messages in play; it changes what else can fit around them.
When messages fall out of the live window they are summarised, a few chunks at a time, after a turn completes. Four recent summaries merge into one, and four merged summaries become one long-term summary — all scoped to that single chat. You can read, edit and Rebuild them under Chat Settings → Conversation Memory, which also shows how many messages are not yet in the summary.
Where saved memories live
A memory belongs to one of two scopes, chosen when you add it: Character-specific Memory or Global Memory (every character sees it). That is the whole scoping model.
Two side effects: in a group chat the character reads the union of every member's memories plus global ones, and if a character is ever deleted, memories filed under it become global rather than disappearing.
Every turn, the character receives all pinned entries plus up to 100 unpinned ones, newest first and spread evenly across the scopes in play, with anything updated in the last 7 days marked as recent.
How something gets saved
| Route | Who does it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The character saves it mid-reply | The model | Needs a tool-capable model. It can also update or delete its own earlier entries |
| Add Memory | You | Type the fact, pick the scope |
| Initialize Memories → Generate Memories | You, then AI | Answers "What should the character remember?" from a description you write, up to 1,000 characters |
| Save from conversation | You, then AI | Pick up to 20 messages, then Draft with AI or Use as-is |
| Deeper memory | Your subscription | See below |
Generate Memories does not read your chat. It works only from the description you type into the box. The feature that reads the conversation is Save from conversation: select the messages that matter — a promise and the reply to it usually belong together — review up to five drafts, and save. Everything saved that way arrives pinned.
If you regenerate a turn, the memory writes that turn made are rolled back with it. Pinned entries are left alone.
Pinning
Pinning is how you make something permanent. A pinned entry:
- is sent to the character in full, every turn, never crowded out by newer entries;
- has its own budget — 20 per scope, on top of the 100 unpinned ones;
- cannot be edited or deleted by the AI, only by you;
- survives rewinding or regenerating the conversation;
- is held back the first time you run Clear All Memories.
Unpinned entries have none of that protection: the character can rewrite or delete them, and so can the background pass. If a fact matters — what you want to be called, a boundary, a dated promise — pin it.
Deeper memory
Requires an active subscription. Each time a chunk of older messages is summarised out of the live window, Reverie re-reads that chunk for lasting details and files them as memories. It runs during the conversation, in the background, right after the compaction that triggered it — not overnight and not on a schedule. Replies never wait on it, and it does not spend your credits.
The pass is limited on purpose: at most 10 changes and 3 deletions per run, it never touches pinned entries, and it needs at least four messages in the chunk. It runs on web chats only — not Discord or Telegram — and never in bounty-challenge chats. The panel shows Deeper memory with an Active badge when it applies to you.
On a free account there is no automatic pass. The character still saves memories mid-reply, and the panel still works.
When memory is off
- Learn from Chat is a per-character switch, on by default. Turning it off stops both saving and reading — the character neither learns nor sees existing memories.
- On a model without tool support the character cannot save mid-conversation; saved memories are still used, and a subscriber's deeper-memory pass still runs.
- In a bounty-challenge chat memory is disabled entirely, so every attempt starts from the same clean slate.
- Signed out, nothing is saved.
Memory or summary?
Memory keeps facts that stay true for weeks — a preferred name, a birthday, an allergy, an explicit promise. Plot progress, today's mood and shifting relationships belong to the conversation summary. If something you said is missing from memory, check the summary before adding it by hand.
Clear All Memories deletes every unpinned entry for that scope and cannot be undone. Your pinned entries survive that first pass; Reverie then asks separately whether to delete them too — "These are the moments you marked yourself and protected from the AI."
Related
- Personas — why switching persona does not give you a second memory
- Forking conversations — what a branch copies, and what it shares
- World books — lore about the world, as opposed to facts about you
- Troubleshooting chat — when a character forgets something
- Limits — every cap in one table