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Neo4j Memory Provider

The Neo4j Memory Provider gives Agent Framework agents persistent memory backed by a knowledge graph. Unlike RAG providers that retrieve from static knowledge bases, the memory provider stores and recalls agent interactions, automatically extracting entities and building a knowledge graph over time.

The provider manages three types of memory:

  • Short-term memory: Conversation history and recent context
  • Long-term memory: Entities, preferences, and facts extracted from interactions
  • Reasoning memory: Past reasoning traces and tool usage patterns

Why use Neo4j for agent memory?

  • Knowledge graph persistence: Memories are stored as connected entities, not flat records, so the agent can reason about relationships between things it remembers.
  • Automatic entity extraction: Conversations are parsed into structured entities and relationships without manual schema design.
  • Cross-session recall: Preferences, facts, and reasoning traces persist across sessions and surface automatically via context providers.

Note

Neo4j offers two separate integrations for Agent Framework. This provider (neo4j-agent-memory) is for persistent memory — storing and recalling agent interactions, extracting entities, and building a knowledge graph over time. For GraphRAG from an existing knowledge graph using vector, fulltext, or hybrid search, see the Neo4j GraphRAG Context Provider.

This provider is not yet available for C#. See the Python tab for usage examples.

Prerequisites

  • A Neo4j instance (self-hosted or Neo4j AuraDB)
  • An Azure AI Foundry project with a deployed chat model
  • An OpenAI API key or Azure OpenAI deployment (for embeddings and entity extraction)
  • Environment variables set: NEO4J_URI, NEO4J_PASSWORD, FOUNDRY_PROJECT_ENDPOINT, FOUNDRY_MODEL, OPENAI_API_KEY
  • Azure CLI credentials configured (az login)
  • Python 3.10 or later

Installation

pip install neo4j-agent-memory[microsoft-agent]

Usage

import os
from pydantic import SecretStr
from agent_framework import Agent
from agent_framework.foundry import FoundryChatClient
from azure.identity.aio import AzureCliCredential
from neo4j_agent_memory import MemoryClient, MemorySettings
from neo4j_agent_memory.integrations.microsoft_agent import (
    Neo4jMicrosoftMemory,
    create_memory_tools,
)

# Pass Neo4j and embedding configuration directly via constructor arguments.
# MemorySettings also supports loading from environment variables or .env files
# using the NAM_ prefix (e.g. NAM_NEO4J__URI, NAM_EMBEDDING__MODEL).
settings = MemorySettings(
    neo4j={
        "uri": os.environ["NEO4J_URI"],
        "username": os.environ.get("NEO4J_USERNAME", "neo4j"),
        "password": SecretStr(os.environ["NEO4J_PASSWORD"]),
    },
    embedding={
        "provider": "openai",
        "model": "text-embedding-3-small",
    },
)

memory_client = MemoryClient(settings)

async with memory_client:
    memory = Neo4jMicrosoftMemory.from_memory_client(
        memory_client=memory_client,
        session_id="user-123",
    )
    tools = create_memory_tools(memory)

    async with AzureCliCredential() as credential, Agent(
            client=FoundryChatClient(
            credential=credential,
            project_endpoint=os.environ["FOUNDRY_PROJECT_ENDPOINT"],
            model=os.environ["FOUNDRY_MODEL"],
        ),
        instructions="You are a helpful assistant with persistent memory.",
        tools=tools,
        context_providers=[memory.context_provider],
    ) as agent:
        session = agent.create_session()
        response = await agent.run("Remember that I prefer window seats on flights.", session=session)

Key features

  • Bidirectional: Automatically retrieves relevant context before invocation and saves new memories after responses
  • Entity extraction: Builds a knowledge graph from conversations using a multi-stage extraction pipeline
  • Preference learning: Infers and stores user preferences across sessions
  • Memory tools: Agents can explicitly search memory, remember preferences, and find entity connections

Resources

Next steps

Neo4j GraphRAG Context Provider

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