> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.anonalabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Correct a memory without losing the record

> Supersede what turned out to be wrong, with the reason attached and the old version still readable.

[← All use cases](/use-cases/overview)

<div className="uc-examples"><a href="https://github.com/anonalabs/Anona-Memory-SDK/blob/main/examples/memory_basics.py">memory\_basics.py</a><a href="https://github.com/anonalabs/Anona-Memory-SDK/blob/main/examples/time_travel.py">time\_travel.py</a></div>

## The scenario

The system learned that Priya owns the billing service. Priya moved teams in
August. Every answer since has been confidently wrong, and the customer-facing
agent has been routing escalations to someone who left.

Deleting the memory fixes today's answer and destroys the record. Six months
from now nobody can explain why the agent said what it said in July — and for a
regulated workload, "we deleted it" is the wrong answer to an auditor.

## Step 1 — Supersede it, with the reason

```python theme={null}
client.update_memory(
    space_id="platform",
    memory_id=memory_id,
    state="invalidated",
    reason="Priya moved to the data team on 2026-08-01; Marcus now owns billing.",
)
```

`state="invalidated"` takes it out of retrieval without removing it. The
`reason` is stored alongside, so the correction is self-documenting rather than
a mysterious gap.

## Step 2 — Record what is true now

```python theme={null}
client.record(
    space_id="platform",
    content="Marcus owns the billing service and is on call for it.",
    timestamp="2026-08-01T00:00:00Z",
)
```

Give it the date the change *happened*, not today. That is what makes
"who owned billing in July?" answerable later.

## Step 3 — Read the history

```python theme={null}
history = client.get_memory_history(space_id="platform", memory_id=memory_id)
for entry in history["history"]:
    print(entry["changed_at"], "|", entry["reason"], "|", entry["previous_content"][:80])
```

This is the audit trail. Not "the value changed" but *what it was, when it
changed, and why somebody changed it*.

## Step 4 — Fix a detail without invalidating

For a wrong date or a typo, correct the field rather than superseding the whole
memory:

```python theme={null}
client.update_memory(
    space_id="platform",
    memory_id=memory_id,
    occurred_start="2026-08-01T00:00:00Z",
    reason="Recorded with the wrong start date.",
)
```

## Evals

1. Record a fact, retrieve it, confirm it comes back.
2. Invalidate it with a reason. Retrieve again — it must not come back.
3. Read the history and confirm the old content and the reason are both intact.
4. Ask a question that the *superseded* fact would have answered. Check the
   answer now reflects the replacement rather than sitting between the two.

## Guardrails

<Warning>
  **Invalidating is not deleting, and for a data-subject request you need
  deleting.** An invalidated memory is still stored and still readable through
  its history. If someone has asked you to erase their data, follow
  [the deletion runbook](/use-cases/delete-a-users-memories) instead.
</Warning>

* **Always pass a `reason`.** A correction with no reason is indistinguishable
  six months later from a mistake, and it is the field an auditor reads first.
* **Correcting is owner-only.** A read-only member of a shared space cannot
  invalidate, by design.
* **Do not fix a wrong fact by recording a right one and leaving both.**
  Retrieval will happily return the pair, and the model will average them.

## Built from

Both are complete, runnable scripts:
[`memory_basics.py`](https://github.com/anonalabs/Anona-Memory-SDK/blob/main/examples/memory_basics.py),
[`time_travel.py`](https://github.com/anonalabs/Anona-Memory-SDK/blob/main/examples/time_travel.py).
The full field list is on [Memories](/api-reference/memories).