--- title: "AI Agents | Use Cases | SurrealDB" description: "Build context-aware AI agents with SurrealDB and Agent Memory. Unified context, persistent memory, and structured knowledge in one transactional system." url: https://surrealdb.com/use-cases/ai-agents --- # Build context-aware AI agents Agents fail because of context, not models. The database and agent memory give AI agents structured context, persistent memory, and transactional consistency in one system. [Start free with SurrealDB](https://studio.surrealdb.com/current/instances/deploy) [Explore Agent Memory](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory) 1. ![Babcock](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/babcock.lo4rnVg1.svg) 2. ![ING](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/ing.X3I6S3_V.svg) 3. ![British Airways](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/british-airways.KEsZiwV-.svg) 4. ![Nvidia](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/nvidia.DaIEuMil.svg) 5. ![Apple](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple.D5pq4flY.svg) 6. ![SpaceX](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/spacex.CQJEk-IL.svg) 7. ![Samsung](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/samsung.CH-vQgnb.svg) 8. ![adidas](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/adidas.DdTC5qhk.svg) 9. ![Tencent](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/tencent.paQmLxyy.svg) 10. ![Alibaba](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/alibaba.B16idgfM.svg) 11. ![PolyAI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/poly-ai.c3w_fAg6.svg) 12. ![Later](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/later.Ds736jFO.svg) 13. ![Verizon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/verizon.BI7CajdX.svg) 14. ![Liberty Mutual](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/liberty-mutual.B7qOU1pd.svg) 15. ![Walmart](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/walmart.BjDg_Sr8.svg) 16. ![Carrier](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/carrier.D21gC6NX.svg) 17. ![Saks Fifth Avenue](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/saks-fifth-avenue.COIDpLSb.svg) 18. ![San Francisco Compute Company](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/sfcc.B7jlImq4.svg) 19. ![Shield AI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/shield-ai.pINZ0KJr.svg) 20. ![Wix](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/wix.DvHhmoBi.svg) THE PROBLEM ## The context wall Every AI team hits the same wall. The model is capable, but the agent cannot remember what happened two turns ago, cannot connect a user preference to a product entity, and cannot guarantee that concurrent writes stay consistent. Today's teams assemble five or six systems - a vector database, a document store, a graph database, a cache, a queue, and a memory middleware layer - then spend months writing glue code to keep them consistent. Every seam is a place where context leaks. ### Context leakage When data flows between separate systems, agents lose context. Relationships, history, and metadata get fragmented. ### No atomicity Without unified transactions, an agent can update memory in one system but fail to update state in another. ### Latency spikes Multi-system pipelines add round trips. Each hop introduces latency that compounds under load. ### Operational overhead Five systems means five failure modes, five monitoring setups, five sets of credentials to manage. THE SOLUTION ## The read-think-write loop Agents operate in a continuous cycle: read context, reason over it, and write results back. The unified data layer keeps the entire loop inside one transactional system. READ Graph traversal, vector search, and temporal facts - one SurrealQL statement, one round trip. SurrealQL Multi-model query Graph Vector Temporal Unified result set THINK Documents, relationships, embeddings, and history arrive together. The agent reasons over complete context. Result set Multi-model query output Documents Relations Vectors History Complete context WRITE Persist decisions, update entities, trigger events - one ACID transaction, no partial writes. BEGIN TRANSACTION ACID transaction boundary Update Create Trigger COMMITTED CONTEXT ENGINEERING ## Context engineering in one query SurrealQL lets you combine graph traversal, vector similarity, structured filters, and temporal queries in a single statement. One round trip gives the agent everything it needs. ``` 1-- Context engineering: combine graph, vector, and temporal data2LET $user = user:jaime;3LET $query_vec = fn::embed("What products does this user like?");45SELECT6 ->purchased->product AS purchase_history,7 ->reviewed->product[WHERE vector::similarity::cosine(embedding, $query_vec) > 0.8] AS relevant_products,8 ->preferences[WHERE valid_at <= time::now()] AS current_preferences9FROM ONLY $user; ``` MULTI-AGENT ## Multi-agent coordination Multiple agents share the same knowledge graph and memory. Coordination happens through shared context with ACID guarantees - no message passing, no race conditions. ### Shared memory Agents read from and write to the same Agent Memory graph. Knowledge accumulates across the team. ### ACID consistency Concurrent writes from multiple agents are serialised. No conflicts, no lost updates. ### Event-driven handoffs Live queries and events trigger downstream agents when relevant data changes. ### Unified permissions RBAC and record-level permissions apply consistently across all agents accessing the system. THE STACK ## Database and Agent Memory SurrealDB provides the multi-model database for structured context. Agent Memory provides persistent memory for AI agents. Together, they form the unified data layer - one stack, one transaction boundary, one permission model. ### Structured context SurrealDB stores documents, graphs, vectors, time-series, and relational data in one engine. [Learn more](https://surrealdb.com/surrealdb) Documents Graphs Vectors Time-series One engine ### Persistent memory Agent Memory provides knowledge graphs, entity extraction, and temporal facts for agent memory. [Learn more](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory) Knowledge graph Entities Relations Memory layer Temporal facts Entity extraction Agent Memory ### Hybrid retrieval Combine vector similarity, graph traversal, and structured filters in a single query. [Learn more](https://surrealdb.com/surrealdb) Single query SELECT ..., vector::similarity(...), ->relates-> Vector Graph Filter One result set ### Managed infrastructure Deploy the full stack in SurrealDB Cloud - fully managed, scale on demand. [Learn more](https://surrealdb.com/cloud) SurrealDB Cloud ✓ SurrealDB Active ✓ Agent Memory Active ✓ Storage layer Active WORKS WITH YOUR FRAMEWORK ## The unified data layer beneath your orchestrator LangGraph, CrewAI, and AutoGen orchestrate agent logic - the control flow. SurrealDB provides the persistent data layer beneath - the data, the memory, the knowledge graph. They are complementary. Connect through MCP, SDKs, or direct API calls. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ## AI agents How does the context layer differ from RAG? Can I use SurrealDB without Agent Memory for AI agents? What frameworks does SurrealDB integrate with? GET STARTED ## Build context-aware AI agents Structured context, persistent memory, and transactional consistency. One stack. ![Samsung](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/4c58b81e7b3c9466.C_Hv0eml.svg)![NVIDIA](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/nvidia.DaIEuMil.svg)![Apple](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/f7dc2519e0d212bc.Cn8MYAK7.svg)![Verizon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/18b99996c689000f.B5PQ-nI9.svg)![Tencent](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/401d8346058682c8.DqM87mst.svg) SOC 2 Type 2 GDPR Cyber Essentials Plus ISO 27001 [Start free with SurrealDB](https://studio.surrealdb.com/current/instances/deploy) [Join agent memory early access](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory/get-started) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"SurrealDB","url":"https://surrealdb.com","logo":"https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/logo.BG7_TG2b.svg","description":"SurrealDB is the unified data layer for AI. 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The context layer provides structured, multi-modal context - graphs, documents, vectors, temporal facts, and agent memory - in one transactional system. RAG is one retrieval pattern within the context layer."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I use SurrealDB without Agent Memory for AI agents?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes. SurrealDB provides the multi-model database for context, graph traversal, vector search, and real-time subscriptions. Agent Memory adds structured memory on top. You can start with SurrealDB and add Agent Memory when you need agent memory."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What frameworks does SurrealDB integrate with?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"SurrealDB integrates with LangChain, LlamaIndex, and any MCP-compatible client through the MCP server. Official SDKs are available for Python, JavaScript, Rust, Go, Java, .NET, and PHP."}}]} ```