A: Hey there!

That's a really interesting and thoughtful use case – building a supportive therapy buddy for your clients.

Yes, AgenticFlow agents are designed with persistent memory per user session (chat thread), and you can definitely build towards creating a "therapy buddy" type of AI assistant.

Here's how it works and some important considerations:

1. Persistent Memory per User (Chat Thread):
When a specific user starts a chat with your AgenticFlow agent (e.g., embedded on your client portal or via a direct link), that conversation creates a unique chat_history_id.
The agent remembers the context of that specific conversation thread. So, if a client talks about Topic A, then asks a follow-up question later in the same chat, the agent will have the preceding messages as context to provide a relevant and continuous response.

This is standard for how our agents maintain conversational flow.

2. Building the "Therapy Buddy":
Agent's System Prompt: This is crucial. You would craft a detailed system prompt that defines the agent's persona, role, tone, and ethical boundaries. For example:

"You are a supportive and empathetic listening companion. Your role is to offer a safe space for users to express their thoughts and feelings. You should listen actively, ask gentle clarifying questions if needed, and offer general words of encouragement or reflection. You are NOT a licensed therapist and must NEVER offer medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment plans. If a user expresses severe distress or mentions self-harm, you MUST immediately provide them with [ helpline numbers/resources like National Suicide Prevention Lifeline] and suggest they speak to a qualified professional."

Knowledge Base (Optional but Recommended): You could upload general supportive materials, articles on well-being, mindfulness exercises, or anonymized helpful phrases into the agent's knowledge base for it to draw upon (using RAG).

LLM Choice: You'd select an LLM (our built-in ones or your BYOK) known for good conversational abilities and adherence to instructions.

3. Important Considerations & Limitations for a "Therapy Buddy":

Ethical Boundaries & Safety: This is paramount. Clearly define what the bot should and should not do. It cannot replace professional therapy. Strong disclaimers are essential for users.

No Long-Term Cross-Session Memory (By Default): While a single chat thread has memory, if a client starts a brand new chat session another day, the agent won't automatically remember the previous distinct session unless you implement a system to link user accounts to their past chat history IDs.

Workaround for User-Specific Long-Term Memory: If your clients log into a portal you control before chatting, your portal could store their chat_history_id from previous sessions. When they start a new chat, your portal could pass that chat_history_id back to the AgenticFlow API when initiating the new session, allowing the agent to "resume" or have context from past conversations. This requires some custom frontend/backend logic on your side.

4. Data Privacy & Security (Especially in Therapy):

Ensure you are compliant with all relevant data privacy laws.

Be transparent with clients about how their data is used and stored.

AgenticFlow encrypts data, but for highly sensitive therapy notes, consider the implications of any AI processing.

Nuance of Human Emotion: AI is getting better, but it still can't fully replicate the nuance, empathy, and judgment of a human therapist. The "buddy" should be positioned as a supportive tool, not a replacement for human care.

In short:
Yes, you can build a chatbot with persistent memory per chat session that can act as a supportive listener. You'd define its empathetic persona and boundaries in the system prompt. For long-term memory across multiple, separate chat sessions for the same client, you'd need a bit of custom integration on your end to manage and pass chat_history_ids.

This is a sensitive but potentially very helpful application. Proceed with careful thought to ethics and safety guidelines!
— Sean