Use in-memory storage

The local backend keeps sessions in process memory. It needs no external service and never touches disk — when the process exits, sessions are gone. It is the default backend of ShortTermMemory.

When to use

Local development and debugging;
Unit tests, example scripts, and other ephemeral scenarios;
When sessions don’t need to survive across processes or restarts.

Usage

import asyncio

from veadk.memory.short_term_memory import ShortTermMemory

stm = ShortTermMemory(backend="local")

async def main():
    await stm.create_session(
        app_name="memory_demo", user_id="user_42", session_id="chat_01"
    )
    session = await stm.session_service.get_session(
        app_name="memory_demo", user_id="user_42", session_id="chat_01"
    )
    assert session is not None
    print(session.id)

asyncio.run(main())

The output is chat_01, confirming that the session was created and read back. This example does not call a model. For conversations, pass the same stm to Runner(short_term_memory=stm, agent=agent) and keep the app, user, and session identifiers consistent Because local is the default, the following select in-memory storage; separate instances do not share sessions:

ShortTermMemory()                    # uses the default backend
ShortTermMemory(backend="local")     # explicit
# or pass no short_term_memory to the Runner at all — it falls back to a local one

If the Runner receives no short_term_memory or session_service, it automatically creates a local instance as a fallback, so running an agent locally needs no extra configuration.

Parameters

local has no backend-specific settings. Use the common ShortTermMemory parameters below; most have no effect on local.

ShortTermMemory constructor parameters (local)

Parameter	Type	Default	Effective for local	Description
`backend`	`str`	`"local"`	Yes	Set to `"local"` or omit this parameter; an empty string is not a valid backend
`db_url`	`str`	`""`	Yes (override)	Once set, `backend` is ignored and a database backend is used instead. Leave unset to stay in memory.
`backend_configs`	`dict`	`{}`	No	Not read by `local`.
`db_kwargs`	`dict`	`{}`	No	Used only by database backends.
`local_database_path`	`str`	`/tmp/veadk_local_database.db`	No	Used only by `sqlite`.
`after_load_memory_callback`	`Callable \| None`	`None`	Yes	Synchronous read callback; receives `Session` or `None` plus the query arguments. Use `def callback(session, args, *kwargs)`
`after_create_session_callback`	`Callable \| None`	`None`	Yes	Runs after `ShortTermMemory.create_session()` creates a new session; accepts the new `Session` and can be synchronous or asynchronous

The local backend does not persist to disk; all session data is lost when the process exits. Do not use it in production for sessions that must survive. For persistence use SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.

Environment variables

The local backend reads no environment variables.

Overview

Get started

Core components

Observability

Extensions

Frontend

Security

Deployment

When to use

Usage

Parameters

ShortTermMemory constructor parameters (local)

Environment variables

​When to use

​Usage

​Parameters

​ShortTermMemory constructor parameters (local)

​Environment variables

When to use

Usage

Parameters

ShortTermMemory constructor parameters (local)

Environment variables