# GAM: Hierarchical Graph-based Agentic Memory for LLM Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.12285 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.12285/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 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 22 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Apr 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agent memory systems](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agent-memory-systems/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [From Local to Global: A Graph RAG Approach to Query-Focused Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16130/) (2024)
- [MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08560/) (2023)
- [A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12110/) (2025)
- [Evaluating Very Long-Term Conversational Memory of LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17753/) (2024)
- [Zep: A Temporal Knowledge Graph Architecture for Agent Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13956/) (2025)
- [Memory in the Age of AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.13564/) (2025)
- [A Human-Inspired Reading Agent with Gist Memory of Very Long Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.09727/) (2024)
- [CoEvoSkills: Self-Evolving Agent Skills via Co-Evolutionary Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01687/) (2026)
- [Context Length Alone Hurts LLM Performance Despite Perfect Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05381/) (2025)
- [AriGraph: Learning Knowledge Graph World Models with Episodic Memory for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04363/) (2024)
- [ReMEmbR: Building and Reasoning Over Long-Horizon Spatio-Temporal Memory for Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13682/) (2024)
- [HaluMem: Evaluating Hallucinations in Memory Systems of Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.03506/) (2025)
- [A Survey of Agent Memory in the Second Half: Towards Self-Evolving and Long-Horizon Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06052/) (2026)
- [Towards Agentic RAG with Deep Reasoning: A Survey of RAG-Reasoning Systems in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.09477/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models Meet Knowledge Graphs for Question Answering: Synthesis and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.20099/) (2025)
- [LLM-Based Human-Agent Collaboration and Interaction Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00753/) (2025)
- [ExpSeek: Self-Triggered Experience Seeking for Web Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.08605/) (2026)
- [DialSim: A Dialogue Simulator for Evaluating Long-Term Multi-Party Dialogue Understanding of Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13144/) (2024)
- [Beyond Dialogue Time: Temporal Semantic Memory for Personalized LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07468/) (2026)
- [When Users Change Their Mind: Evaluating Interruptible Agents in Long-Horizon Web Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.00892/) (2026)
- [DrunkAgent: Stealthy Memory Corruption in LLM-Powered Recommender Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23804/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [AtelierEval: Agentic Evaluation of Humans & LLMs as Text-to-Image Prompters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22645/) (2026)
- [RSIAgent: Autonomous Exploration for Recursive Self-improvement in New Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.15364/) (2026)
- [Self-Evolving Agents as Dynamic Graph Transformation: A Survey and New Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.18104/) (2026)
- [Less Context, More Accuracy: A Bi-Temporal Memory Engine for LLM Agents Where a Lean Retrieved Context Beats the Full History](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.09900/) (2026)
- [DimMem: Dimensional Structuring for Efficient Long-Term Agent Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15759/) (2026)
- [MemChain: Learning Interpretable Memory Traces for Memory-Augmented LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.24097/) (2026)
- [VoiceMem: Streaming Dual-Brain Memory for Real-Time Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26005/) (2026)
- [Four-Axis Decision Alignment for Long-Horizon Enterprise AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.19457/) (2026)
- [Stateless Decision Memory for Enterprise AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.20158/) (2026)
- [FundaPod: A Multi-Persona Agent Pod Architecture with Knowledge Graph Memory for AI-Assisted Fundamental Investment Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27864/) (2026)
- [Distributionally Robust Set Representation Learning Under Inference-Time Element Corruption](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30089/) (2026)
- [Experience Memory Graph: One-Shot Error Correction for Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.13884/) (2026)
- [Hierarchical Graph Memory for LLM Agents with Path-level Localization and Rewrite](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.05095/) (2026)
- [Entity-Memory Graph Retrieval Improves Evidence Coverage in Long-Conversation Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27925/) (2026)
- [Graph-Based Personalized Memory for LLM Agents: Representation, Evolution, Retrieval, and Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.08599/) (2026)
- [MeClear: Cooperative Game-Theoretic Attribution and Risk-Aware Memory Clearance for Long-Horizon LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.09115/) (2026)
- [Contract Memory Compiler: Resolve, Then Traverse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.32658/) (2026)
- [MemCodex: Self-Programming Hierarchical Memory for Language Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.39765/) (2026)
- [Event-Centric Memory with Query-Aware Graph Augmentation for Long-Term Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.11920/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

To sustain coherent long-term interactions, Large Language Model (LLM) agents must navigate the tension between acquiring new information and retaining prior knowledge. Current unified stream-based memory systems facilitate context updates but remain vulnerable to interference from transient noise. Conversely, discrete structured memory architectures provide robust knowledge retention but often struggle to adapt to evolving narratives. To address this, we propose GAM, a hierarchical Graph-based Agentic Memory framework that explicitly decouples memory encoding from consolidation to effectively resolve the conflict between rapid context perception and stable knowledge retention. By isolating ongoing dialogue in an event progression graph and integrating it into a topic associative network only upon semantic shifts, our approach minimizes interference while preserving long-term consistency. Additionally, we introduce a graph-guided, multi-factor retrieval strategy to enhance context precision. Experiments on LoCoMo and LongDialQA indicate that our method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in both reasoning accuracy and efficiency.