---
title: "Complementary Learning Systems"
created: 2026-05-10
updated: 2026-05-10
type: concept
tags: [memory, learning, stub]
sources: []
---

# Complementary Learning Systems

Complementary Learning Systems is a theory of memory that separates fast episodic acquisition from slower consolidation into structured long-term knowledge.

In agent-memory papers, it is often used as an analogy for combining immediate interaction traces with more stable memory representations.

## Related

- [[contextual-agentic-memory]] — Uses CLS as a critique of current agent memory.
- [[agent-memory-system]] — Broader memory-system overview.
- [[self-evolving-memory]] — Memory systems that update over time.