MemTools: A Unified Research Framework for Interoperable Agent Memory

2026-07-23

AI Summary

Current research on agent memory systems is hindered by fragmented architectures, tightly coupled components, evaluation protocols bound to specific datasets, and insufficient support for heterogeneous memory types. This work proposes an interoperable memory research framework that decouples stages of the memory lifecycle through declarative data contracts, separates benchmark datasets from execution protocols, and introduces a unified computational interface to harmonize symbolic, neural, and multimodal memory representations. The framework enables, for the first time, cross-platform plug-and-play memory components, orthogonal separation of evaluation protocols and datasets, and unified runtime coordination of heterogeneous memory types. Experiments demonstrate that the approach facilitates cross-system integration, flexible reconfiguration of evaluation pipelines, and systematic isolation and analysis of memory design variables.

Abstract

While memory systems are essential for agent architectures, pervasive architectural fragmentation restricts systematic research. Existing implementations typically couple different stages of the memory lifecycle, entangle evaluation logic with specific datasets, and provide limited support for the management of heterogeneous memory types. We introduce MemTools, an interoperability research framework that decouples memory system components from their underlying deployment environments. MemTools standardizes the memory lifecycle through declarative data contracts, enabling the interchangeable assembly of components across different systems. It orthogonally separates benchmark datasets from execution protocols to facilitate controlled assessments. Furthermore, MemTools provides a unified computational interface for coordinating symbolic, neural, and multimodal memory representations within a shared runtime. Empirical evaluations on cross-system component integration, evaluation protocol reconfiguration, and heterogeneous memory coordination demonstrate that MemTools enables systematic isolation and analysis of memory design variables. These findings suggest that MemTools provides a practical and extensible infrastructure for advancing principled research on agent memory.

Problem

• agent memory
• architectural fragmentation
• memory lifecycle
• heterogeneous memory
• systematic research

Innovation

• interoperability
• memory lifecycle
• declarative data contracts
• heterogeneous memory
• agent memory