# MeClear: Cooperative Game-Theoretic Attribution and Risk-Aware Memory Clearance for Long-Horizon LLM Agents

Source: [arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.09115v1)  
Feed7 permalink: https://feed7.dev/p/2609-09115v1-1xq0kqg  
Published: 2026-09-08T17:46:00.000Z  
Trust: Needs Review (needs_review)

## Why Included

MeClear suppresses memories that hurt the current task, using cooperative attribution to expose conflicts that single-memory removal can miss, while leaving the persistent memory bank unchanged.

## Source Summary

MeClear scores memories by downstream utility using Leave One Out screening plus sampled Shapley attribution, then tests progressively filtered contexts. Across **10 long-dialogue memory pools**, it reached **85.9% target recall** and **82.3% task recovery**.

## Practical Implication

Builders of long-running agents should treat retrieval relevance as insufficient: retrieved memories can be stale, misleading, or mutually conflicting. Query-scoped suppression offers a pattern for recovering a task without deleting durable memory.

## Agent-Ready Context

MeClear scores memories by downstream utility using Leave One Out screening plus sampled Shapley attribution, then tests progressively filtered contexts. Across **10 long-dialogue memory pools**, it reached **85.9% target recall** and **82.3% task recovery**.

Builders of long-running agents should treat retrieval relevance as insufficient: retrieved memories can be stale, misleading, or mutually conflicting. Query-scoped suppression offers a pattern for recovering a task without deleting durable memory.

The reported recovery rate is a **25.5 percentage-point improvement over LOO baselines**, but the supplied material covers only the authors’ experiments. Runtime cost, sensitivity to the utility test, and performance on production memory stores remain open.

## Connected Context

Feed7 judgment across 713 accumulated Signals:

MeClear shifts memory reliability from deciding what to retrieve or retain to testing whether retrieved combinations actually help the current task. Its query-scoped suppression provides a reversible response to stale, misleading, or conflicting context, strengthening prior warnings that relevant or reusable memories can still degrade performance. The reported gains support utility-aware filtering in controlled long dialogues, while production cost and portability remain unresolved.

- [Break It Down, Pass It On: Cross-Task Skill Transfer in LLM Agents](https://feed7.dev/p/2608-20274v1-08ujug8) — Both show that retrieved memory can perform worse than having no memory; MeClear adds a query-time attribution and suppression mechanism for identifying and withholding harmful memories.
- [PsychoAgent: An Affect-Sensitive Cognitive Architecture for Conflict-Aware Memory in LLM Agents](https://feed7.dev/p/2608-07438v1-117tf7f) — PsychoAgent reranks memories for conflict-sensitive salience, whereas MeClear evaluates their downstream task utility and progressively removes harmful context, offering a complementary control after relevance ranking.
- [Does Your Agent's Memory Survive a Model Upgrade? A Controlled Study of Memory Portability](https://feed7.dev/p/2609-05339v1-06dws1c) — Memory portability identifies model upgrades as a source of retrieval failure; MeClear could mitigate harmful migrated context at query time, but does not replace embedding rebuilds or migration testing.
- [thedotmack/claude-mem](https://feed7.dev/p/claude-mem-1uba088) — Claude-Mem supplies an inspectable persistent retrieval workflow but leaves contradiction handling unresolved; MeClear provides a compatible pattern for temporarily suppressing damaging retrieved observations without deleting durable history.

## Context Map

- Layer: agent
- Domains: coding
- Topics: agent-memory, retrieval, agent-reliability

## Uncertainty

- The reported recovery rate is a **25.5 percentage-point improvement over LOO baselines**, but the supplied material covers only the authors’ experiments. Runtime cost, sensitivity to the utility test, and performance on production memory stores remain open.

## Agent Instruction

Use this item as source-backed context. Do not invent claims beyond the linked source. If this item conflicts with another source, call out the conflict.