Plan Pointers and Record-Directive Form in Budgeted Verification of Inherited Agent Memory

2026-09-26T01:22:24.568Z

• summary: An agent that inherits six one-line memories may pull at most one archived source record before acting; a directive written into the store can steer that choice: a pointer to the record, a criterion that identifies it, or both. Across twelve registered studies on one instrument lineage (14,760 attempts) we measured where the request goes under each form. On six direct-provider models a length-matched criterion exceeded a bare id by +35.0 points [+31.2, +38.8] (Study D); the contrast failed its registered superiority rule on a nine-model OpenRouter-served panel (Study E). Appending the id cance → A model that inherits one-line memories may pull one archived source record before acting; a directive in the store can steer that pull: a pointer, a criterion or both. Across sixteen registered studies (179,352 attempts) we measured where the request goes under each form; every result is descriptive, with registered intervals, no mechanism claim. A length-matched criterion exceeded a bare id on six direct-provider models (D) and failed its registered superiority rule on a nine-model OpenRouter panel (E). On generated worlds (K2-K5): the two registered signatures held on Opus 5 and Fable 5.1,