Spring AI ChatMemory
https://docs.spring.io/spring-ai/reference/api/chat-memory.html
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.
Active · Verified 2026-10-22 · fresh as of 2026-10-22 · 53 cited facts, 10 with a third-party source · 2 recorded changes · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- Advisor-pattern Java-native memory vendor fix
- Tier
- T3
- Section
- Framework-embedded memory
- Created
- 2023-09 (announced at SpringOne Sept 2023; 0.8.0 released Feb 2024; 1.0 GA May 2025) vendor fix
- Latest release
- v2.0.1 (2026-08-21) repo fix
- License
- Apache-2.0 repo fix
- GitHub
- spring-projects/spring-ai — ~9.4k stars repo fix
- Pricing
- OSS free (Apache-2.0); Tanzu Spring Enterprise subscription available for commercial support third-party fix
- Funding
- Part of Spring / VMware Tanzu (now Broadcom); no independent funding — corporate Broadcom product vendor fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-22 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- open-source third-party fix
- Protocols
- mcp-client, mcp-server vendor fix
- Developer activity
- OpenRank 27.79 (12-mo avg 38.66) · 141 participants — 2026-09 third-party fix
Memory taxonomy
- storage
- kv
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- session
- update
- append-only
- unit
- document
- governance
- inspectable
- conflict
- append
When to use
Optimised for: Java-native Spring Advisor pattern
Anti-fit: not for non-Java / non-Spring stacks
Pros & cons
Pros
Brings Java enterprise stacks into modern AI memory without leaving Spring.
Cons
Java-only; smaller community than Python AI tooling.
Claims & capabilities
Spring AI 1.x stable. Auto-configured by default.
Technical surface
- API surface
- not applicable — research paper
- Backend storage
- not applicable — research paper
- Deployment
- Both (on-prem, any cloud, or VMware Tanzu managed platform)
- Embedding model
- not applicable — research paper
- Multi-tenancy
- not applicable — research paper
- MCP
- via official adapter — Spring AI MCP
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- first-class — Spring Boot Micrometer/OTel
Alternatives to Spring AI ChatMemory → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other framework-embedded memory in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- 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.
- Semantic Kernel Memory T2
Microsoft Semantic Kernel's memory plugin (Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Plugins.Memory): a plug-in approach to long-term memory in the SK agent framework (agent memory marked experimental). Semantic Kernel's README names Microsoft Agent Framework 1.0 as its enterprise-ready successor, with a migration guide.
Sources (52 cited facts, 10 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is Advisor-pattern Java-native memory vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Wraps conversation memory behind an Advisor abstraction. MessageWindowChatMemory default… vendor
- Claims / benefits Spring AI 1.x stable. Auto-configured by default. vendor
- Modalities text vendor
- Created 2023-09 (announced at SpringOne Sept 2023; 0.8.0 released Feb 2024; 1.0 GA May 2025) vendor
- Latest release v2.0.1 (2026-08-21) repo
- License Apache-2.0 repo
- GitHub spring-projects/spring-ai — ~9.4k stars repo
- Funding Part of Spring / VMware Tanzu (now Broadcom); no independent funding — corporate Broadco… vendor
- Customers / scale Nine of the top 10 Fortune 500 committed to VMware Cloud Foundation (Broadcom umbrella) third-party
- Pricing OSS free (Apache-2.0); Tanzu Spring Enterprise subscription available for commercial sup… third-party
- Compliance Inherits Broadcom/VMware compliance posture; Spring AI compliance templates for HIPAA, S… third-party
- Data handling Library runs in-process; data handling entirely under deployer control; Spring framework… vendor
- Deployment Both (on-prem, any cloud, or VMware Tanzu managed platform) vendor
- HQ US (San Jose, CA — Broadcom HQ) third-party
- Founders / pedigree Mark Pollack (Spring AI creator; Broadcom/VMware Spring team) third-party
- Memory volume / scale no scale claim 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 — Spring AI MCP vendor
- OTel first-class — Spring Boot Micrometer/OTel vendor
- Import / export JSON; multiple JDBC backends vendor
- Integration count 1 vendor
- Orchestration single-agent (per ChatClient conversation_id) vendor
- Programmatic control full CRUD via Java SDK + ChatMemoryRepository plugin vendor
- Pricing specifics OSS (Apache-2.0) free; Tanzu Spring Enterprise subscription for commercial support third-party
- Agent abstraction actor model (ChatClient + Advisor) vendor
- Memory primitives multiple (MessageWindowChatMemory + JDBC/Cassandra/Neo4j repository) vendor
- LLM lock any (BYO via ChatModel) vendor
- Runtimes Java vendor
- Session handling sticky session (per ChatClient) vendor
- Validated verticals Java enterprise, Spring developers vendor
- Time to running <10min (Maven dependency) vendor
- Anti-fit not for non-Java / non-Spring stacks vendor
- Optimised for Java-native Spring Advisor pattern vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure requires Spring AI; BYO LLM + vector store vendor
- Pros Brings Java enterprise stacks into modern AI memory without leaving Spring. vendor
- Cons Java-only; smaller community than Python AI tooling. vendor
- Project & sources chat-memory docs vendor
- cost-pricing-model subscription third-party
- cost-last-verified 2026-06-29 third-party
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket open-source third-party
- positioning-platform-vs-product platform vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- developer-activity-opendigger {"activity":277.67,"as_of":"2026-09","openrank_12mo":38.66,"openrank_current":27.79,"par… third-party
- sdk-languages java vendor
- protocol-support mcp-client,mcp-server vendor
- maturity ga vendor
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
- 2026-10-23
- Compliance “Inherits Broadcom/VMware compliance posture; Spring AI compliance templates for HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS available in fr…” → “Inherits Broadcom/VMware compliance posture; Spring AI compliance templates for HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS” source
- 2026-10-22
- License “not applicable — not OSS” → “Apache-2.0” source
- Latest release “not applicable — not OSS” → “v2.0.1 (2026-08-21)” source
Related systems
References (1)
- Neo4j integrates with — pluggable ChatMemoryRepository backends (in-memory, JDBC, Cassandra, Neo4j)
Referenced by (9)
- Arcade.dev integrates with — Arcade docs have a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Arize Phoenix integrates with — Arize Phoenix docs have a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Braintrust integrates with — Braintrust docs have a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Comet ML integrates with — Comet's Opik docs have a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Langfuse integrates with — Langfuse's integrations directory has a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- MongoDB Atlas Vector Search integrates with — MongoDB's Atlas AI Integrations page lists Spring AI ChatMemory as an integration (some entries are marked community-maintained). (verified 2026-10-29)
- Neo4j integrates with — Neo4j's GenAI ecosystem docs have a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- OpenInference integrates with — The OpenInference repo README lists an OpenInference instrumentation package for Spring AI ChatMemory. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Qdrant integrates with — Qdrant's documentation has a Spring AI ChatMemory integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)