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Agents don't need memory, they need documentation

364 points · 260 comments · kmeh

  1. bushido · · focus · HN ↗
    Something I started doing recently was writing out principles instead of memories.

    Essentially patterns the agents need to always think in. I also implemented a versioning system to the principles that need to be quoted in any comments which are there in the code. That way, when my principles evolve, so does the code.

    I did package it up in a way that I can share it with friends [0]. System still evolving, but the last two-ish months that I've used it has served me really, really well, And it's been even better with the latest models.

    I've had surprisingly good adherence from agents on this technique.

    [0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;principledriven.dev&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;principledriven.dev&#x2F;

    1. skybrian · · focus · HN ↗
      It sounds interesting, but this looks too much like a marketing website (huge text everywhere) and not enough like a documentation website, so it was hard for me to see how it might work.
      1. bushido · · focus · HN ↗
        Fair feedback. I admittedly didn&#x27;t spend enough time making it simpler.

        The github repo might be more helpful: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Principle-Driven&#x2F;pdd" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Principle-Driven&#x2F;pdd

        1. skybrian · · focus · HN ↗
          That&#x27;s better.

          I was wondering about this bit:

          &gt; &quot;Code comments cite a versioned token where code depends on the rule.&quot;

          What does a token look like? I went looking for an example, but I don&#x27;t know what I&#x27;m looking for.

          1. bushido · · focus · HN ↗
            From a different codebase, one of the behaviors in the code has the following comment:

              &#x2F;&#x2F; The binding deliberately SKIPS the contradiction check: a form
              &#x2F;&#x2F; bound to an object the same document deletes is a legal stale
              &#x2F;&#x2F; state (PDD-3@v1)
            
            Where PDD-3 deals with a specific type of race conditions that my agents were over-optimizing&#x2F;spinning out on; Now if I ever change the rule the version would change to PDD-3@v2; which triggers a re-evaluation for all decisions that were made under the previous version.
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