Recall Memories

Retrieve memories using multi-strategy recall.

How Recall Works

Learn about the four retrieval strategies (semantic, keyword, graph, temporal) and RRF fusion in the Recall Architecture guide.

Prerequisites

Make sure you've completed the Quick Start to install the client and start the server.

Basic Recall

Python

from hindsight_client import Hindsight

client = Hindsight(base_url="http://localhost:8888")

response = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="What does Alice do?")
for r in response.results:
    print(f"{r.text} (score: {r.weight:.2f})")

Node.js

import { HindsightClient } from '@vectorize-io/hindsight-client';

const client = new HindsightClient({ baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8888' });

const response = await client.recall('my-bank', 'What does Alice do?');
for (const r of response.results) {
    console.log(`${r.text} (score: ${r.weight})`);
}

CLI

hindsight recall my-bank "What does Alice do?"

Recall Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
query	string	required	Natural language query
types	list	all	Filter: world, experience, opinion
budget	string	"mid"	Budget level: "low", "mid", "high"
max_tokens	int	4096	Token budget for results
trace	bool	false	Enable trace output for debugging
include_entities	bool	false	Include entity observations
max_entity_tokens	int	500	Token budget for entity observations

Python

response = client.recall(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    query="What does Alice do?",
    types=["world", "experience"],
    budget="high",
    max_tokens=8000,
    trace=True,
    include_entities=True,
    max_entity_tokens=500
)

# Access results
for r in response.results:
    print(f"{r.text} (score: {r.weight:.2f})")

# Access entity observations (if include_entities=True)
if response.entities:
    for entity in response.entities:
        print(f"Entity: {entity.name}")

Node.js

const response = await client.recall('my-bank', 'What does Alice do?', {
    types: ['world', 'experience'],
    budget: 'high',
    maxTokens: 8000,
    trace: true
});

// Access results
for (const r of response.results) {
    console.log(`${r.text} (score: ${r.weight})`);
}

Filter by Fact Type

Recall specific memory types:

Python

# Only world facts (objective information)
world_facts = client.recall(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    query="Where does Alice work?",
    types=["world"]
)

# Only experience (conversations and events)
experience = client.recall(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    query="What have I recommended?",
    types=["experience"]
)

# Only opinions (formed beliefs)
opinions = client.recall(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    query="What do I think about Python?",
    types=["opinion"]
)

# World facts and experience (exclude opinions)
facts = client.recall(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    query="What happened?",
    types=["world", "experience"]
)

CLI

hindsight recall my-bank "Python" --fact-type opinion
hindsight recall my-bank "Alice" --fact-type world,experience

About Opinions

Opinions are beliefs formed during reflect operations. Unlike world facts and experience, opinions are subjective interpretations and may not represent objective truth. Depending on your use case:

• Exclude opinions (types=["world", "experience"]) when you need factual, verifiable information
• Include opinions when you want the agent's perspective or formed beliefs
• Use opinions alone (types=["opinion"]) only when specifically asking about the agent's views

Token Budget Management

Hindsight is built for AI agents, not humans. Traditional retrieval systems return "top-k" results, but agents don't think in terms of result counts—they think in tokens. An agent's context window is measured in tokens, and that's exactly how Hindsight measures results.

The max_tokens parameter lets you control how much of your agent's context budget to spend on memories:

# Fill up to 4K tokens of context with relevant memories
results = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="What do I know about Alice?", max_tokens=4096)

# Smaller budget for quick lookups
results = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="Alice's email", max_tokens=500)

This design means you never have to guess whether 10 results or 50 results will fit your context. Just specify the token budget and Hindsight returns as many relevant memories as will fit.

Include Related Context

Beyond the core memory results, you can optionally retrieve additional context—each with its own token budget:

Option	Parameter	Description
Chunks	include_chunks, max_chunk_tokens	Raw text chunks that generated the memories
Entity Observations	include_entities, max_entity_tokens	Related observations about entities mentioned in results

response = client.recall(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    query="What does Alice do?",
    max_tokens=4096,              # Budget for memories
    include_entities=True,
    max_entity_tokens=1000        # Budget for entity observations
)

# Access the additional context
entities = response.entities or []

This gives your agent richer context while maintaining precise control over total token consumption.

Budget Levels

The budget parameter controls graph traversal depth:

• "low": Fast, shallow retrieval — good for simple lookups
• "mid": Balanced — default for most queries
• "high": Deep exploration — finds indirect connections

Python

# Quick lookup
results = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="Alice's email", budget="low")

# Deep exploration
results = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="How are Alice and Bob connected?", budget="high")

Node.js

// Quick lookup
const results = await client.recall('my-bank', "Alice's email", { budget: 'low' });

// Deep exploration
const deep = await client.recall('my-bank', 'How are Alice and Bob connected?', { budget: 'high' });