smolagents Memory
https://huggingface.co/docs/smolagents/tutorials/memory
Hugging Face barebones agent framework. Memory lives as a Python list; no built-in persistence. Step callbacks let you mutate memory between steps. Persistence is left to the user — community proposals exist for "memory bank"-style additions.
Active · Verified 2026-10-22 · fresh as of 2026-10-22 · 57 cited facts, 5 with a third-party source · 1 recorded change · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- In-process Python list (no persistence) vendor fix
- Tier
- T2
- Section
- Framework-embedded memory
- Latest release
- v1.26.0 (2026-05-29) registry fix
- License
- Apache-2.0 repo fix
- GitHub
- huggingface/smolagents — ~28.8k stars repo fix
- Pricing
- OSS free (Apache-2.0); Hugging Face Enterprise Hub starts at $20/user/mo for managed services vendor fix
- Funding
- Hugging Face (parent) raised $400M total across 8 rounds from 34 investors third-party fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-22 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- open-source repo fix
- Accelerator
- betaworks-camp-2016 third-party fix
- Protocols
- mcp-client repo fix
- Developer activity
- OpenRank 7.65 (12-mo avg 9.28) · 104 participants — 2026-09 third-party fix
Memory taxonomy
- storage
- kv
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- session
- update
- append-only
- unit
- episode
- governance
- inspectable
- conflict
- append
When to use
Optimised for: simplicity / barebones agent loop
Anti-fit: not for production multi-session use - in-process Python list, no persistence
Pros & cons
Pros
HuggingFace's minimal-agent framework; tiny dependency surface; useful for embedded / edge deployments.
Cons
Memory features are intentionally minimal; not the right fit for sophisticated long-term memory needs.
Claims & capabilities
HuggingFace lightweight code-first agent framework; memory exposed as ordered list of past steps (history of plan/exec/error); step callbacks let users dynamically modify memory; long-term memory and memory-bank are open community-requested features
Technical surface
- API surface
- SDK: Python (agent.memory.steps; CodeAgent/ToolCallingAgent)
- Backend storage
- in-memory
- Deployment
- Both (OSS self-hosted; Hugging Face Inference Endpoints / Enterprise Hub managed)
- Embedding model
- multiple supported
- Multi-tenancy
- not applicable — library
- MCP
- via official adapter — smolagents.MCPClient
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- via adapter — Arize Phoenix
Alternatives to smolagents Memory → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other framework-embedded memory in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Spring AI ChatMemory T3
Wraps conversation memory behind an Advisor abstraction. MessageWindowChatMemory default 20-msg sliding window (preserves system messages); pluggable ChatMemoryRepository backends (in-memory, JDBC, Cassandra, Neo4j). Memory injected as cross-cutting concern at the ChatClient level.
- Flowise Memory T1
Discontinued: Flowise (acquired by Workday, Aug 2025) was sunset in 2026 — code freeze 2026-07-29, GitHub repo archived 2026-08-13, end of life 2026-08-31. Was a visual LangChain canvas with LangChain-native memory nodes (Buffer, Buffer Window, Conversation Summary Buffer) backed by an internal chat_message DB table; Buffer Window kept the last K interactions, Summary Buffer compressed older turns while keeping recent ones verbatim.
- LangGraph Persistence T2
Distinct from LangMem. Built-in checkpointer saves graph state per super-step (short-term, thread-scoped). Store System adds long-term hierarchical key-value memory across threads with optional vector search + TTL. Postgres / Mongo / Redis stores for production.
- AutoGen Memory T2
AutoGen's memory layer: ListMemory chronological context plus teachable agents that vectorise corrections; integrates with Mem0/Zep rather than building deep memory natively. Microsoft AutoGen is in maintenance mode (community managed, bug and security fixes only), and Microsoft points new projects to Microsoft Agent Framework.
- CrewAI Memory T2
Memory subsystem inside the CrewAI orchestration framework; integrates with Mem0 for the long-term tier.
- Hermes Agent memory (Nous Research) T3
Nous Research's open-source self-improving agent keeps an agent-curated MEMORY.md/USER.md notebook injected at session start, full-text (FTS5) search over past sessions that returns raw messages without LLM summarisation, and optional Honcho user modelling. one of the most-starred agent projects of 2026.
Sources (56 cited facts, 5 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is In-process Python list (no persistence) vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Hugging Face barebones agent framework. Memory lives as a Python list; no built-in persi… vendor
- Claims / benefits HuggingFace lightweight code-first agent framework; memory exposed as ordered list of pa… vendor
- Modalities text vendor
- Created 2024-12 vendor
- Latest release v1.26.0 (2026-05-29) registry
- License Apache-2.0 repo
- GitHub huggingface/smolagents — ~28.8k stars repo
- Mindshare 582984/mo PyPI (smolagents pkg third-party
- Funding Hugging Face (parent) raised $400M total across 8 rounds from 34 investors third-party
- Pricing OSS free (Apache-2.0); Hugging Face Enterprise Hub starts at $20/user/mo for managed ser… vendor
- Compliance Hugging Face Enterprise: SOC 2 Type II; GDPR premium coverage; continuous security scann… vendor
- Data handling OSS self-hosted: data handling left to deployer vendor
- Deployment Both (OSS self-hosted; Hugging Face Inference Endpoints / Enterprise Hub managed) vendor
- HQ US (New York, NY — Hugging Face HQ) third-party
- Founders / pedigree Hugging Face; Hugging Face open-source AI team (Clement Delangue CEO; Thomas Wolf CSO) vendor
- Memory volume / scale no scale claim vendor
- API surface SDK: Python (agent.memory.steps; CodeAgent/ToolCallingAgent) vendor
- Backend storage in-memory vendor
- Embedding model multiple supported vendor
- Versioning immutable append-log vendor
- Tombstoning append-only no delete vendor
- Schema evolution free-form / no schema vendor
- Contradiction handling always append (no resolution) vendor
- Forgetting policy none (permanent) vendor
- MCP support via official adapter — smolagents.MCPClient vendor
- OTel via adapter — Arize Phoenix vendor
- Webhooks / events no vendor
- Import / export JSON memory steps vendor
- Integration count 0 repo
- Orchestration single-agent (multi-agent via managed_agents parameter) vendor
- Programmatic control read-only API + step-callback hooks (no built-in persistence) vendor
- Pricing specifics OSS (Apache-2.0) free; HF Enterprise Hub $20/user/mo vendor
- Agent abstraction ReAct (CodeAct) vendor
- Memory primitives scratchpad/working (Python list) vendor
- LLM lock any (BYO via HF Inference / OpenAI / local) vendor
- Runtimes Python repo
- Session handling stateless by default (persistence DIY) vendor
- Validated verticals research, prototyping, HuggingFace community vendor
- Time to running <10min (pip install smolagents) vendor
- Anti-fit not for production multi-session use - in-process Python list, no persistence vendor
- Optimised for simplicity / barebones agent loop vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure BYO persistence if needed; smolagents itself bundles nothing vendor
- Pros HuggingFace's minimal-agent framework; tiny dependency surface; useful for embedded / ed… vendor
- Cons Memory features are intentionally minimal; not the right fit for sophisticated long-term… vendor
- Project & sources GitHub huggingface/smolagents memory tutorial memory bank proposal #1121 vendor
- commit-trajectory [{"ym":"2024-12","cum":124},{"ym":"2025-01","cum":377},{"ym":"2025-02","cum":532},{"ym":… repo
- download-trajectory [{"ym":"2025-11","monthly":177935,"cum":177935},{"ym":"2025-12","monthly":316321,"cum":4… registry
- adoption-accelerator betaworks-camp-2016 third-party
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket open-source repo
- positioning-platform-vs-product platform vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- developer-activity-opendigger {"activity":193.48,"as_of":"2026-09","openrank_12mo":9.28,"openrank_current":7.65,"parti… third-party
- sdk-languages python repo
- protocol-support mcp-client repo
What changed
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