mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Memory Sandbox: Transparent and Interactive Memory Management for Conversational Agents

arXiv 2308.01542 ↗First posted 3 Aug 2023cs.HCcited by 36

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent memory systems

Abstract (arXiv)

The recent advent of large language models (LLM) has resulted in high-performing conversational agents such as chatGPT. These agents must remember key information from an ongoing conversation to provide responses that are contextually relevant to the user. However, these agents have limited memory and can be distracted by irrelevant parts of the conversation. While many strategies exist to manage conversational memory, users currently lack affordances for viewing and controlling what the agent remembers, resulting in a poor mental model and conversational breakdowns. In this paper, we present Memory Sandbox, an interactive system and design probe that allows users to manage the conversational memory of LLM-powered agents. By treating memories as data objects that can be viewed, manipulated, recorded, summarized, and shared across conversations, Memory Sandbox provides interaction affordances for users to manage how the agent should `see' the conversation.

Key facts. Cited by 36 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent memory systems, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 13 of its 25 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Aug 2023.

Builds on

13 of 25 references.

References · 13

  1. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  2. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,568
  3. 2023Lost in the Middle: How Language Models Use Long Contextscited by 3,455
  4. 2023Large Language Models Can Be Easily Distracted by Irrelevant Contextcited by 841
  5. 2020Effect of Confidence and Explanation on Accuracy and Trust Calibration in AI-Assisted Decision Makingcited by 281
  6. 2021AI Chains: Transparent and Controllable Human-AI Interaction by Chaining Large Language Model Promptscited by 268
  7. 2021Beyond Goldfish Memory: Long-Term Open-Domain Conversationcited by 267
  8. 2022Long Time No See! Open-Domain Conversation with Long-Term Persona Memorycited by 108
  9. 2022Keep Me Updated! Memory Management in Long-term Conversationscited by 63
  10. 2022Less is More: Learning to Refine Dialogue History for Personalized Dialogue Generationcited by 47
  11. 2021One Chatbot Per Person: Creating Personalized Chatbots based on Implicit User Profilescited by 39
  12. 2021Evaluating the Interpretability of Generative Models by Interactive Reconstructioncited by 17
1 more
  1. 2023Prompt Middleware: Mapping Prompts for Large Language Models to UI Affordancescited by 7

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 6; 2024: 9; 2025: 11; 2026: 10.

36 papers.

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  1. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,242
  2. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,439
  3. 2024A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agentscited by 634
  4. 2023FinMem: A Performance-Enhanced LLM Trading Agent with Layered Memory and Character Designcited by 164
  5. 2025A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Modelscited by 126
  6. 2023MetaAgents: Large Language Model Based Agents for Decision-Making on Teamingcited by 85
  7. 2024Optimus-1: Hybrid Multimodal Memory Empowered Agents Excel in Long-Horizon Taskscited by 84
  8. 2025Lifelong Learning of Large Language Model based Agents: A Roadmapcited by 83
  9. 2025Evaluating LLM-based Agents for Multi-Turn Conversations: A Surveycited by 57
  10. 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directionscited by 50
  11. 2023LLMR: Real-time Prompting of Interactive Worlds using Large Language Modelscited by 39
  12. 2024TravelAgent: An AI Assistant for Personalized Travel Planningcited by 39
24 more
  1. 2024CI-Bench: Benchmarking Contextual Integrity of AI Assistants on Synthetic Datacited by 37
  2. 2024Navigating LLM Ethics: Advancements, Challenges, and Future Directionscited by 28
  3. 2025RCR-Router: Efficient Role-Aware Context Routing for Multi-Agent LLM Systems with Structured Memorycited by 27
  4. 2026Graph-based Agent Memory: Taxonomy, Techniques, and Applicationscited by 25
  5. 2023LARP: Language-Agent Role Play for Open-World Gamescited by 24
  6. 2024Position: Towards Bidirectional Human-AI Alignmentcited by 18
  7. 2024Depression Diagnosis Dialogue Simulation: Self-improving Psychiatrist with Tertiary Memorycited by 14
  8. 2024Affordable Generative Agentscited by 9
  9. 2025HiMA-Ecom: Enabling Joint Training of Hierarchical Multi-Agent E-commerce Assistantscited by 9
  10. 2025RedDebate: Safer Responses Through Multi-Agent Red Teaming Debatescited by 7
  11. 2026DiLLS: Interactive Diagnosis of LLM-based Multi-agent Systems via Layered Summary of Agent Behaviorscited by 7
  12. 2025Position: Stop Acting Like Language Model Agents Are Normal Agentscited by 5
  13. 2025AI-induced sexual harassment: Investigating Contextual Characteristics and User Reactions of Sexual Harassment by a Companion Chatbotcited by 5
  14. 2025Carbon and Silicon, Coexist or Compete? A Survey on Human-AI Interactions in Agent-based Modeling and Simulationcited by 3
  15. 2024Token Trails: Navigating Contextual Depths in Conversational AI with ChatLLMcited by 2
  16. 2025Empowering Real-World: A Survey on the Technology, Practice, and Evaluation of LLM-driven Industry Agentscited by 2
  17. 2026LUMINA: Long-horizon Understanding for Multi-turn Interactive Agentscited by 2
  18. 2026AdMem: Advanced Memory for Task-solving Agentscited by 1
  19. 2026A Survey on Foundations and Frontiers of Multimodal Agentic Frameworks: Techniques and Applicationscited by 1
  20. 2026Human-Inspired Context-Selective Multimodal Memory for Social Robotscited by 0
  21. 2026AdaLens: Interactive Storyline for Monitoring and Steering Long-Running Agentic Data Analysiscited by 0
  22. 2026From Momentary Emotion Inference to Sustained Emotion Support: Evaluating a Companion Agent in a Longitudinal Studycited by 0
  23. 2026Where the Evidence Lives: Auditing AI Companions' Self-Descriptionscited by 0
  24. 2026Causal Memory Policy: Making Memory Utility Identifiable by Intervening on Retrievalcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Memory in the LLM Era: Modular Architectures and Strategies in a Unified Framework
  2. 2026H2HMem: A Multimodal Memory Benchmark for Agents in Human-Human Interactions
  3. 2026AgentMemBench: A Systematic Benchmark for Evaluating Long-Term Memory Management Strategies in Conversational AI Agents
  4. 2026Mem-Gallery: Benchmarking Multimodal Long-Term Conversational Memory for MLLM Agents
  5. 2025Memoria: A Scalable Agentic Memory Framework for Personalized Conversational AI
  6. 2026MemOps: Benchmarking Lifecycle Memory Operations in Long-Horizon Conversations
  7. 2025MMAG: Mixed Memory-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models Applications
  8. 2026From Passive Retrieval to Active Memory Navigation: Learning to Use Memory as a Structured Action Space