Memory, Short-Term
Context retained during a single session.
Why it matters
Short-term memory is the context window — everything the agent can 'see' right now.
In practice
During a Claude Code session, short-term memory holds files read, edits made, and conversation turns.
Related terms
Memory (Agent)
Mechanisms that allow an agent to retain and recall information across sessions.
Memory, Long-Term
Persistent storage of facts, preferences, and historical interactions across sessions.
Context Window
The AI model's "working memory" — how much information it can process at once (e.g., 1 million tokens for Claude Opus 4.6).
Auto-Compaction
Automatic summarization of older context when the context window fills up, preserving recent information.