---
title: Collaborative Task Agent
---

<Snippet file="paper-release.mdx" />

# Building a Collaborative Task Management System with Mem0

## Overview

Mem0's advanced attribution capabilities now allow you to create multi-user , multi-agent collaborative or chat systems by attaching an **`actor_id`** to each memory. By setting the users's name in `message["name"]`, you can build powerful team collaboration tools where contributions are properly attributed to their authors.

When using `infer=False`, messages are stored exactly as provided while still preserving actor metadata—making this approach ideal for:

- Multi-user chat applications
- Team brainstorming sessions
- Any collaborative "shared canvas" scenario

> **ℹ️ Note**  
> Actor attribution works today with `infer=False` mode.  
> Full attribution support for the fact-extraction pipeline (`infer=True`) will be available in an upcoming release.

## Key Concepts

### Session Context

Session context is defined by one of three identifiers:
- **`user_id`**: Ideal for personal memory or user-specific data
- **`agent_id`**: Used for agent-specific memory storage
- **`run_id`**: Best for shared task contexts or collaborative spaces

Developers choose which identifier best represents their use case. In this example, we use `run_id` to create a shared project space where all team members can collaborate.

### Actor Attribution

Actor attribution is derived internally from:
- **`message["name"]`**: Becomes the `actor_id` in the memory's metadata
- **`message["role"]`**: Stored as the `role` in the memory's metadata

Note that `actor_id` is not a top-level parameter for the `add()` method, but is instead extracted from the message itself.

### Memory Filtering

When retrieving memories, you can filter by actor using the `filters` parameter:
```python
# Get all memories from a specific actor
memories = mem.search("query", run_id="landing-v1", filters={"actor_id": "alice"})

# Get all memories from all team members
all_memories = mem.get_all(run_id="landing-v1")
```

## Upcoming Features

Mem0 will soon support full actor attribution with `infer=True`, enabling automatic extraction of actor names during the fact extraction process. This enhancement will allow the system to:

1. Maintain attribution information when converting raw messages to semantic facts
2. Associate extracted knowledge with its original source
3. Track the provenance of information across complex interactions

Mem0's actor attribution system can power a wide range of advanced conversation and agent scenarios:

### Conversation Scenarios

| Scenario | Description | Implementation |
|----------|-------------|----------------|
| **Simple Chat** | One-to-one conversation between user and assistant
| **Multi-User Chat** | Multiple users conversing with a single assistant
| **Multi-Agent Chat** | Multiple AI assistants with distinct personas or capabilities
| **Group Chat** | Complex interactions between multiple humans and assistants
### Agent-Based Applications

The collaborative task agent uses a simple but powerful architecture:

* A **shared project space** identified by a single `run_id`
* Each participant (user or AI) writes with their own **unique name** which becomes the `actor_id` in Mem0
* All memories can be searched, filtered, or visualized by actor


## Implementation

Below is a complete implementation of a collaborative task agent that demonstrates how to build team-oriented applications with Mem0.

```python
from openai import OpenAI
from mem0 import Memory
import os
from datetime import datetime # For parsing and formatting timestamps

# Configuration
os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "sk-your-key" # Replace with your key
client = OpenAI()

RUN_ID = "landing-v1"          # Shared project context
APP_ID = "task-agent-demo"     # Application identifier

# Initialize Mem0 with default settings (local Qdrant + SQLite)
# Ensure the path is writable if not using in-memory
mem = Memory() 

class TaskAgent:
    def __init__(self, run_id: str):
        """
        Initialize a collaborative task agent for a specific project.
        
        Args:
            run_id: Unique identifier for this project workspace
        """
        self.run_id = run_id
        self.mem = mem

    def add_message(self, role: str, speaker: str, content: str):
        """
        Store a chat message with proper attribution.
        
        Args:
            role: Message role (user, assistant, system)
            speaker: Name of the person/agent speaking (becomes actor_id)
            content: The actual message content
        """
        msg = {"role": role, "name": speaker, "content": content}
        # Ensure created_at is stored. Mem0 does this by default.
        self.mem.add(
            [msg],
            run_id=self.run_id,
            metadata={"app_id": APP_ID},
            infer=False
        )

    def brainstorm(self, prompt: str, speaker: str = "assistant", search_limit: int = 10, exclude_assistant_context: bool = False):
        """
        Generate a response based on project context and team input.
        
        Args:
            prompt: The question or task to address
            speaker: Name to attribute the assistant's response to
            search_limit: Max number of memories to retrieve for context
            exclude_assistant_context: If True, filters out assistant's own messages from context
            
        Returns:
            str: The assistant's response
        """
        # Retrieve relevant context from team's shared memory
        # Fetch a bit more if we plan to filter, to ensure we still get enough relevant user messages.
        fetch_limit = search_limit + 5 if exclude_assistant_context else search_limit
        retrieved_memories = self.mem.search(prompt, run_id=self.run_id, limit=fetch_limit)["results"]

        # Client-side sorting by 'created_at' to prioritize recent memories for context.
        # Note: Timestamps should be in a directly comparable format or parsed.
        # Mem0 stores created_at as ISO format strings, which are comparable.
        retrieved_memories.sort(key=lambda m: m.get('created_at', ''), reverse=True)
        
        ctx_for_llm = []
        if exclude_assistant_context:
            for m in retrieved_memories:
                if m.get("role") != "assistant":
                    ctx_for_llm.append(m)
                if len(ctx_for_llm) >= search_limit:
                    break
        else:
            ctx_for_llm = retrieved_memories[:search_limit]

        context_parts = []
        for m in ctx_for_llm:
            actor = m.get('actor_id') or "Unknown"
            # Attempt to parse and format the timestamp for better readability
            try:
                ts_iso = m.get('created_at', '')
                if ts_iso:
                    ts_obj = datetime.fromisoformat(ts_iso.replace('Z', '+00:00')) # Handle Zulu time
                    formatted_ts = ts_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z')
                else:
                    formatted_ts = "Timestamp N/A"
            except ValueError:
                formatted_ts = ts_iso # Fallback to raw string if parsing fails
            context_parts.append(f"- {m['memory']} (by {actor} at {formatted_ts})")
        
        context_str = "\n".join(context_parts)

        # Generate response with context-aware prompting
        sys_prompt = "You are the team's project assistant. Use the provided memory context, paying attention to timestamps for recency, to answer the user's query or perform the task."
        user_prompt_with_context = f"Query: {prompt}\n\nRelevant Context (most recent first):\n{context_str}"
        
        msgs = [
            {"role": "system", "content": sys_prompt},
            {"role": "user", "content": user_prompt_with_context}
        ]
        
        reply = client.chat.completions.create(
            model="gpt-4o-mini",
            messages=msgs
        ).choices[0].message.content.strip()

        # Store the assistant's response with attribution
        self.add_message("assistant", speaker, reply)
        return reply

    def dump(self, sort_by_time: bool = True, group_by_speaker: bool = False):
        """
        Display all messages in the shared project space with attribution.
        Can be sorted by time and/or grouped by speaker.
        """
        results = self.mem.get_all(run_id=self.run_id)["results"]
        
        if not results:
            print("No memories found for this run.")
            return

        # Sort by 'created_at' if requested
        if sort_by_time:
            results.sort(key=lambda m: m.get('created_at', ''))
            print(f"\n--- Project memory (run_id: {self.run_id}, sorted by time) ---")
        else:
            print(f"\n--- Project memory (run_id: {self.run_id}) ---")

        if group_by_speaker:
            from collections import defaultdict
            grouped_memories = defaultdict(list)
            for m in results: # Use already potentially sorted results
                grouped_memories[m.get("actor_id") or "Unknown"].append(m)
            
            for speaker, mem_list in grouped_memories.items():
                print(f"\n=== Speaker: {speaker} ===")
                # If not already sorted by time globally, sort within group
                # If already sorted globally, this re-sort is redundant unless different key.
                # For simplicity, if sort_by_time was true, list is already sorted.
                for m_item in mem_list: 
                    timestamp_str = m_item.get('created_at', 'Timestamp N/A')
                    try:
                        # Basic parsing for display, adjust as needed
                        dt_obj = datetime.fromisoformat(timestamp_str.replace('Z', '+00:00'))
                        formatted_time = dt_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
                    except ValueError:
                        formatted_time = timestamp_str # Fallback
                    print(f"[{formatted_time:19}] {m_item['memory']}")
        else: # Not grouping by speaker
            for m in results:
                who = m.get("actor_id") or "Unknown"
                timestamp_str = m.get('created_at', 'Timestamp N/A')
                try:
                    dt_obj = datetime.fromisoformat(timestamp_str.replace('Z', '+00:00'))
                    formatted_time = dt_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
                except ValueError:
                    formatted_time = timestamp_str # Fallback
                print(f"[{formatted_time:19}][{who:8}] {m['memory']}")

# Demo Usage
agent = TaskAgent(RUN_ID)

# Team collaboration session
agent.add_message("user", "alice", "Let's list tasks for the new landing page.")
agent.add_message("user", "bob", "I'll own the hero section copy. Maybe tomorrow.")
agent.add_message("user", "carol", "I'll choose three product screenshots later today.")
agent.add_message("user", "alice", "Actually, I will work on the hero section copy today.")


print("\nAssistant brainstorm reply (default settings):\n")
print(agent.brainstorm("What are the current open tasks related to the hero section?"))

print("\nAssistant brainstorm reply (excluding its own prior context):\n")
print(agent.brainstorm("Summarize what Alice is working on.", exclude_assistant_context=True))


print("\n--- Dump (sorted by time by default) ---")
agent.dump()

print("\n--- Dump (grouped by speaker, also sorted by time globally) ---")
agent.dump(group_by_speaker=True)

print("\n--- Dump (default order, not sorted by time explicitly by dump) ---")
agent.dump(sort_by_time=False)

```