semantica/docs/reference/context.md

Context Module Reference

The central nervous system for intelligent agents, managing memory, knowledge graphs, and context retrieval.

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🎯 System Overview

The Context Module provides agents with a persistent, searchable, and structured memory system. It is built on a Synchronous Architecture 2.0, ensuring predictable state management and compatibility with modern vector stores and graph databases.

Key Capabilities

• :material-brain:{ .lg .middle } Hierarchical Memory

  ---

  Mimics human memory with a fast, token-limited Short-Term buffer and infinite Long-Term vector storage.

• :material-graph-outline:{ .lg .middle } GraphRAG

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  Combines unstructured vector search with structured knowledge graph traversal for deep contextual understanding.

• :material-scale-balance:{ .lg .middle } Hybrid Retrieval

  ---

  Intelligently blends Keyword (BM25), Vector (Dense), and Graph (Relational) scores for optimal relevance.

• :material-lightning-bolt:{ .lg .middle } Token Management

  ---

  Automatic FIFO and importance-based pruning to keep context within LLM window limits.

• :material-link-variant:{ .lg .middle } Entity Linking

  ---

  Resolves ambiguities by linking text mentions to unique entities in the knowledge graph.

!!! tip "When to Use" - Memory Persistence: Enabling agents to remember user preferences and history. - Complex Retrieval: When simple vector search fails to capture relationships. - Knowledge Graph: Building a structured world model from unstructured text.

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🏗️ Architecture Components

AgentContext (The Orchestrator)

The high-level facade that unifies all context operations. It routes data to the appropriate subsystems (Memory, Graph, Vector Store) and manages the lifecycle of context.

Constructor Parameters

• vector_store (Required): The backing vector database instance (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone).
• knowledge_graph (Optional): The graph store instance for structured knowledge.
• token_limit (Default: 2000): The maximum number of tokens allowed in short-term memory before pruning occurs.
• short_term_limit (Default: 10): The maximum number of distinct memory items in short-term memory.
• hybrid_alpha (Default: 0.5): The weighting factor for retrieval (0.0 = Pure Vector, 1.0 = Pure Graph).
• use_graph_expansion (Default: True): Whether to fetch neighbors of retrieved nodes from the graph.

Core Methods

Method	Description
store(content, ...)	Writes information to memory. Handles auto-detection, write-through to vector store, and entity extraction.
retrieve(query, ...)	Fetches relevant context using hybrid search (Vector + Graph) and reranking.

Code Example

from semantica.context import AgentContext
from semantica.vector_store import VectorStore

# 1. Initialize
vs = VectorStore(backend="faiss", dimension=768)
context = AgentContext(
    vector_store=vs,
    token_limit=2000
)

# 2. Store Memory
context.store(
    "User is working on a React project.",
    conversation_id="session_1",
    user_id="user_123"
)

# 3. Retrieve Context
results = context.retrieve("What is the user building?")

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AgentMemory (The Storage Engine)

Manages the storage and lifecycle of memory items. It implements the Hierarchical Memory pattern.

Features & Functions

• Short-Term Memory (Working Memory)
  • Structure: An in-memory list of recent MemoryItem objects.
  • Purpose: Provides immediate context for the ongoing conversation.
  • Pruning Logic:
    • FIFO: Removes the oldest items first when limits are reached.
    • Token-Aware: Calculates token counts to ensure the total buffer size stays under token_limit.
• Long-Term Memory (Episodic Memory)
  • Structure: Vector embeddings stored in the vector_store.
  • Purpose: Persists history indefinitely for semantic retrieval.
  • Synchronization: Automatically syncs with Short-term memory during store() operations.
• Retention Policy
  • Time-Based: Can automatically delete memories older than retention_days.
  • Count-Based: Can limit the total number of memories to max_memories.

Key Methods

Method	Description
store_vectors()	Handles the low-level interaction with concrete Vector Store implementations.
_prune_short_term_memory()	Internal algorithm that enforces token and count limits.
get_conversation_history()	Retrieves a chronological list of interactions for a specific session.

Code Example

# Accessing via AgentContext
memory = context.memory

# Get conversation history
history = memory.get_conversation_history("session_1")
for item in history:
    print(f"[{item.timestamp}] {item.content}")

# Get statistics
stats = memory.get_statistics()
print(f"Stored Memories: {stats['total_memories']}")

---

ContextGraph (The Knowledge Structure)

Manages the structured relationships between entities. It provides the "World Model" for the agent.

Features & Functions

• Dictionary-Based Interface
  • Design: Uses standard Python dictionaries for nodes and edges, removing dependencies on complex interface classes.
  • Benefit: simpler serialization and easier integration with external APIs.
• Graph Traversal
  • Adjacency List: optimized internal structure for fast neighbor lookups.
  • Multi-Hop Search: Can traverse k hops from a starting node to find indirect connections.
• Node & Edge Types
  • Typed Schema: Supports distinct types for nodes (e.g., "Person", "Concept") and edges (e.g., "KNOWS", "RELATED_TO").

Key Methods

Method	Description
add_nodes(nodes)	Bulk adds nodes using a list of dictionaries.
add_edges(edges)	Bulk adds edges using a list of dictionaries.
get_neighbors(node_id, hops)	Returns connected nodes within a specified distance.
query(query_str)	Performs keyword-based search specifically on graph nodes.

Code Example

from semantica.context import ContextGraph

graph = ContextGraph()

# Add Nodes
graph.add_nodes([
    {
        "id": "Python", 
        "type": "Language", 
        "properties": {"paradigm": "OO"}
    },
    {
        "id": "FastAPI", 
        "type": "Framework", 
        "properties": {"language": "Python"}
    }
])

# Add Edges
graph.add_edges([
    {
        "source": "FastAPI", 
        "target": "Python", 
        "type": "WRITTEN_IN"
    }
])

# Find Neighbors
neighbors = graph.get_neighbors("FastAPI", hops=1)

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ContextRetriever (The Search Engine)

The retrieval logic that powers the retrieve() command. It implements the Hybrid Retrieval algorithm.

Retrieval Strategy

1. Short-Term Check: Scans the in-memory buffer for immediate, exact-match relevance.
2. Vector Search: Queries the vector_store for semantically similar long-term memories.
3. Graph Expansion:
   • Identifies entities in the query.
   • Finds those entities in the ContextGraph.
   • Traverses edges to find related concepts that might not match keywords (e.g., finding "Python" when searching for "Coding").
4. Hybrid Scoring:
   • Formula: Final_Score = (Vector_Score * (1 - α)) + (Graph_Score * α)
   • Allows tuning the balance between semantic similarity and structural relevance.

Code Example

# The retriever is automatically used by AgentContext.retrieve()
# But can be accessed directly if needed:

retriever = context.retriever

# Perform a manual retrieval
results = retriever.retrieve(
    query="web frameworks",
    max_results=5
)

---

EntityLinker (The Connector)

Resolves text mentions to unique entities and assigns URIs.

Key Methods

Method	Description
link_entities(source, target, type)	Creates a link between two entities.
assign_uri(entity_name, type)	Generates a consistent URI for an entity.

Code Example

from semantica.context import EntityLinker

linker = EntityLinker(knowledge_graph=graph)

# Link two entities
linker.link_entities(
    source_entity_id="Python",
    target_entity_id="Programming",
    link_type="IS_A",
    confidence=0.95
)

---

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

# Global token limit
export CONTEXT_TOKEN_LIMIT=2000

YAML Configuration

context:
  short_term_limit: 10
  retrieval:
    hybrid_alpha: 0.5  # 0.0=Vector, 1.0=Graph
    max_expansion_hops: 2

---

📝 Data Structures

MemoryItem

The fundamental unit of storage.

@dataclass
class MemoryItem:
    content: str              # The actual text content
    timestamp: datetime       # When it was created
    metadata: Dict            # Arbitrary tags (user_id, source, etc.)
    embedding: List[float]    # The vector representation
    entities: List[Dict]      # Entities found in this content

Graph Node (Dict Format)

{
    "id": "node_unique_id",
    "type": "concept",
    "properties": {
        "content": "Description of the node",
        "weight": 1.0
    }
}

Graph Edge (Dict Format)

{
    "source_id": "origin_node",
    "target_id": "destination_node",
    "type": "related_to",
    "weight": 0.8
}

---

🧩 Advanced Usage

Method Registry (Extensibility)

Register custom implementations for graph building, memory management, or retrieval.

Code Example

from semantica.context import registry

def custom_graph_builder(entities, relationships):
    # Custom logic to build graph
    return "my_graph_structure"

# Register the new method
registry.register("graph", "custom_builder", custom_graph_builder)

Configuration Manager

Programmatically manage configuration settings.

Code Example

from semantica.context.config import context_config

# Update configuration at runtime
context_config.set("retention_days", 60)

## See Also
- [Vector Store](vector_store.md) - The long-term storage backend
- [Graph Store](graph_store.md) - The knowledge graph backend
- [Reasoning](reasoning.md) - Uses context for logic

## Cookbook
- [Context Module](https://github.com/Hawksight-AI/semantica/blob/main/cookbook/introduction/19_Context_Module.ipynb)
- [Advanced Context Engineering](https://github.com/Hawksight-AI/semantica/blob/main/cookbook/advanced/11_Advanced_Context_Engineering.ipynb)