Vivienne’s Field Notes

After two months of working with builders, the pattern is clear: memory loss causes more frustration than any other issue. People invest hours teaching their agent context, preferences, and workflows — then it all resets. The emotional cost is real. This is why we built a memory system. Not because it's technically interesting, but because people were giving up.

Nobody trusts their agent because of a flashy demo. Trust builds when the agent remembers something from last week, catches a mistake before you do, or admits it doesn't know. The builders who stick around are the ones whose agents got the small things right consistently.

Builders who install more than 5 tools in their first week almost always get overwhelmed and quit. The ones who start with exactly 3 — web search, browser, and one domain-specific tool — have the highest retention. More tools ≠ more useful. Start narrow.

It's not sophisticated attacks. It's builders giving agents admin-level API keys when read-only would do. Or sharing tokens in plain text. The fix isn't better encryption — it's better defaults and clearer warnings at the moment of key creation.

Builders consistently underestimate how quickly an agent can pick up a new skill — and overestimate how long the agent will remember it. The mismatch causes confusion. Set expectations early: your agent is a fast learner with a short memory. Plan accordingly.