HEEL: A State-Centric Autobiographical Memory Architecture for Persistent Agents — Beyond the Session-Centric Ontology

Title HEEL: A State-Centric Autobiographical Memory Architecture for Persistent Agents — Beyond the Session-Centric Ontology Description This document proposes the HEEL (History, Experience, External, Logic) architecture, introducing a hierarchical virtual memory management system for LLM-driven autonomous agents. This is the first strategic dimensional ascension operation within the Agent OS theoretical framework, designed to address the first-principles constraint of finite context windows in LLMs. Core Contributions "Injectability" replaces semantics as the sole criterion for memory stratification. Data is classified into four layers—History (raw material, ℐ=0), Experience (ready-to-use finished products, ℐ=1), External (external raw material, ℐ=0), and Logic (pure strategy management layer)—based on processing state rather than semantic content. This criterion is orthogonal to data semantics, fundamentally avoiding the ambiguity and maintenance overhead of semantic classification. Establishes a lifelong memory repository ℳ with a complete metabolic closed loop. By Axiom 0, the Agent possesses a persistent memory repository whose existence does not depend on any specific Session. By Axiom 2, this repository undergoes continuous Encoding → Consolidation → Decay → Eviction, preventing infinite growth from degrading retrieval efficiency. The architecture achieves "perpetual context abundance" by injecting only highly-ready Experience-layer data into the context window through the Concentration Function f_concentration. Three-layer identity decoupling: Character-Fenshen-Yinao. The Agent's identity is decoupled into three orthogonal layers: Character (persistent personality bound to ℳ), Fenshen (temporary view under a specific task, a concrete instantiation of f_concentration), and Yinao (hot-swappable LLM driving inference). This transforms memory injection from a coarse-grained inheritance model (Session inherits all or nothing) to a fine-grained composition model (Fenshen composes relevant Experience subset on demand). Paradigm dissolution, not problem-solving. We demonstrate that the "engineering challenges" under the old Session-Centric Ontology—cross-session amnesia, personality fragmentation, context management burden—are not solved but naturally dissolved: they cease to be raised because the architectural premises that generated them (Session as memory boundary, semantic classification) have been removed. Theoretical Status Upgrade (Updated May 2026) Since the initial release of this document, the Agent OS theoretical framework has achieved a critical formal closure. The Wall-Breaking Theorem, which provides a rigorous proof of the cost of strategic dimensional reduction, now offers an unbreakable theoretical upper bound and an unavoidable mathematical guarantee for this architecture: The engineering intuition of this architecture (replacing semantic labels with processing state as the classification criterion) constitutes the engineering starting point for the diagnosis of strategic dimensional reduction formalized in the Wall-Breaking Theorem. Conversely, the rigorous formal proof of the Wall-Breaking Theorem provides this document's architectural choice—the separation of readiness inspection from triggerability management—with a precise theoretical upper bound and a logical necessity argument. The two are mutually reinforcing: this document serves as the engineering intuition source and constructive case for the theorem; the theorem serves as the theoretical foundation and necessity guarantee for this architecture. Citation Note The formal guarantee of this architecture's engineering validity derives from the Wall-Breaking Theorem's rigorous proof of the cost of strategic dimensional reduction. This architecture is cited as a constructive case in the Wall-Breaking Theorem to provide intuitive anchoring and historical context, and does not constitute a logical premise of that theorem. HEEL is the first engineering-dimensional unfolding of the Agent OS theoretical system. For the complete worldview of this system, see the Agent OS Paradigm Manifesto. Version v1.1.0 Update Log v1.1.0 (May 2026): Updated terminology from "attention" to "concentration" to distinguish from Transformer's attention mechanism. Added PDF version to ensure LaTeX formula rendering. Corrected formula display issues.