" });
const cronJob = await client.crons.create(
"consolidation_agent",
{
schedule: "0 */6 * * *",
input: { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Consolidate recent memories." }] },
},
);
```
All cron schedules are interpreted in **UTC**. See [cron jobs](/langsmith/cron-jobs) for details on managing and deleting cron jobs.
The cron interval must match the lookback window inside the consolidation agent. The example above runs every 6 hours (`0 */6 * * *`) and the agent's `search_recent_conversations` tool looks back `timedelta(hours=6)` — keep these in sync. If the cron runs more often than the lookback, you'll reprocess the same conversations; if it runs less often, you'll drop memories that fall outside the window.
For more on deploying agents with background processes, see [going to production](/oss/javascript/deepagents/going-to-production).
### Read-only vs writable memory
By default, the agent can both read and write memory files. For shared state like organization policies or compliance rules, you may want to make memory **read-only** so the agent can reference it but not modify it. This prevents prompt injection via shared memory and ensures that only your application code controls what's in the file.
| Permission | Use case | How it works |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Read-write** (default) | User preferences, agent self-improvement, learned [skills](/oss/javascript/deepagents/skills) | Agent updates files via `edit_file` tool |
| **Read-only** | Organization policies, compliance rules, shared knowledge bases, developer-defined [skills](/oss/javascript/deepagents/skills) | Populate via application code or the [Store API](/langsmith/custom-store). Use [permissions](/oss/javascript/deepagents/permissions) to deny writes to specific paths, or [policy hooks](/oss/javascript/deepagents/backends#add-policy-hooks) for custom validation logic. |
**Security considerations:** If one user can write to memory that another user reads, a malicious user could inject instructions into shared state. To mitigate this:
* **Default to user scope** `(user_id)` unless you have a specific reason to share
* Use **read-only memory** for shared policies (populate via application code, not the agent)
* Add **human-in-the-loop** validation before the agent writes to shared memory. Use an [interrupt](/oss/javascript/langgraph/interrupts) to require human approval for writes to sensitive paths.
To enforce read-only memory, use [permissions](/oss/javascript/deepagents/permissions) to declaratively deny writes to specific paths. For custom validation logic (rate limiting, audit logging, content inspection), use [backend policy hooks](/oss/javascript/deepagents/backends#add-policy-hooks).
### Concurrent writes
Multiple threads can write to memory in parallel, but concurrent writes to the **same file** can cause last-write-wins conflicts. For user-scoped memory this is rare since users typically have one active conversation at a time. For agent-scoped or organization-scoped memory, consider using [background consolidation](#background-consolidation) to serialize writes, or structure memory as separate files per topic to reduce contention.
In practice, if a write fails due to a conflict, the LLM is usually smart enough to retry or recover gracefully, so a single lost write is not catastrophic.
### Multiple agents in the same deployment
To give each agent its own memory in a shared deployment, add `assistant_id` to the namespace:
```typescript theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-latte","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
new StoreBackend({
namespace: (rt) => [
rt.serverInfo.assistantId, // [!code highlight]
rt.serverInfo.user.identity,
],
})
```
Use `assistant_id` alone if you only need per-agent isolation without per-user scoping.
Use [LangSmith tracing](/langsmith/trace-with-langgraph) to audit what your agent writes to memory. Every file write appears as a tool call in the trace.
***
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