Multi-Agent Transactive Memory

Definition

MATM research core: Kim et al. describe producer agents that contribute agent-generated trajectories and consumer agents that retrieve relevant trajectory segments at inference time. The core empirical claim is about retrieval utility, not governance of durable organizational memory.

LLMWikis governed MATM profile: LLMWikis combines that trajectory-sharing idea with a separate Memory Curator governance design. Workers emit Memory Events into quarantine. A curator validates, redacts, classifies, deduplicates, checks conflicts, and chooses one of five durable disposition operations: append, update, deprecate, conflict, or discard.

Reader-Action Map

Deployment Boundary Map

flowchart LR
  handbook[LLMWikis handbook] -. guidance only .-> runtime[External MATM runtime]
  worker[Worker / producer execution] --> event[Memory Event emission]
  event --> queue[Quarantine or proposal queue]
  queue --> validate[Deterministic validation]
  validate --> redact[Safety and redaction]
  redact --> classify[Curator classification]
  classify --> review[Human or specialist review]
  review --> durable[Durable scoped memory]
  durable --> index[Index and transactive directory]
  index --> retrieve[Retrieval planner and ranking]
  retrieve --> consumer[Consumer execution]
  durable --> audit[Audit and evaluation]

Text equivalent: The public handbook points to an external deployment. In that deployment, workers emit Memory Events; events wait in quarantine; deterministic checks and redaction run before curation; the curator classifies scope, kind, evidence, duplicates, and conflicts; human or specialist review gates durable admission; reviewed records are indexed; consumers retrieve with filters, citations, and abstention; audit and evaluation measure the loop. LLMWikis.org does not execute any of those runtime components.

MATM Versus Adjacent Systems

Architecture Patterns

Hybrid is practical guidance, not a universal proof. A deployment should choose curator placement, synchronization, conflict policy, and retrieval latency based on its own privacy, availability, and review constraints.

Lifecycle

Workers emit Memory Events. Events enter quarantine, pass schema and policy checks, are redacted where needed, receive scope and kind classification, attach evidence, pass duplicate and conflict analysis, receive a disposition, and require review before durable records become retrievable. Retrieval must preserve scope, status, source, citations, conflict state, and abstention rules.

Migration Path From Direct-Write Memory

1. Freeze or gate direct durable writes.
2. Inventory stores and writers.
3. Classify sensitive, private, stale, and unsupported content.
4. Separate session memory from durable memory.
5. Backfill provenance where possible.
6. Add Memory Event emission.
7. Add proposal/quarantine storage.
8. Run curator decisions in shadow mode.
9. Measure routing, leakage, evidence, conflicts, latency, and downstream utility.
10. Enable approved durable writes by curator only.
11. Re-index only reviewed records.
12. Add revalidation, deprecation, retention, audit, and incident cadence.