TTL & expiry

Memories can expire automatically. Useful for session-scoped facts (“user is currently looking at order #1234”), temporary working notes, or any data you don’t want indefinitely retained.

Set a TTL on write

import { addDays } from 'date-fns'
 
await mem.write({
  content:   'Active discount code: SUMMER25',
  agentId:   'support-bot',
  scope:     'team',
  expiresAt: addDays(new Date(), 7).toISOString(),
})

expiresAt is an ISO 8601 timestamp. Omit it for “never expires.”

What “expired” means

Two things happen when a memory’s expires_at passes:

1. Immediately: the memory disappears from search results. All three retrieval functions (semantic, keyword, graph) filter on expires_at > now(). No background job is needed for this — it’s enforced at query time.
2. Within ~5 minutes (if pg_cron is configured): a background sweep soft-deletes the row (deleted_at = now()) and fires the memory.expired webhook so subscribers can react.

If pg_cron isn’t running, the row stays in the table but remains hidden from search forever. Storage grows, but no behavior breaks.

The memory.expired webhook

{
  "event": "memory.expired",
  "payload": {
    "memoryId": "uuid",
    "agentId":  "support-bot"
  }
}

One event fires per expired memory.

Operator setup: enable the sweep

If you’re self-hosting (or running your own Supabase project for AgentMem) and want the sweep, run this once in the SQL editor:

alter database postgres set app.api_base_url = 'https://<your-project>.supabase.co/functions/v1';
alter database postgres set app.expire_token = '<random secret matching the EXPIRE_TOKEN env on the expire function>';
 
create extension if not exists pg_cron;
create extension if not exists pg_net;
 
select cron.schedule(
  'agentmem-expire-memories',
  '*/5 * * * *',
  $cron$
  select net.http_post(
    url     := current_setting('app.api_base_url') || '/expire',
    headers := jsonb_build_object(
      'Authorization', 'Bearer ' || current_setting('app.expire_token'),
      'Content-Type',  'application/json'
    ),
    body    := '{}'::jsonb
  );
  $cron$
);

Set EXPIRE_TOKEN as a function secret with the same random value:

supabase secrets set EXPIRE_TOKEN=<that-random-string> --project-ref <your-ref>

The token is a shared secret between pg_cron and the expire Edge Function. Pick anything strong: openssl rand -hex 32.