---
title: "Temporal / Bi-Temporal Query · agent retrieval pattern · Agent Fieldbook"
url: https://agentfieldbook.org/memory/retrieval/temporal-query/
description: "Store valid_at / invalid_at on facts; query the graph as-of a point in time (time-travel)."
section: "Memory · Retrieval"
source: Agent Fieldbook — generated from the published page
---

# Temporal / Bi-Temporal Query

Store valid_at / invalid_at on facts; query the graph as-of a point in time (time-travel).

Verified against [arxiv.org](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13956)

- [arxiv.org](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13956)

## How it works

## At a glance

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Stage | Retrieval |
| Phase | Read |
| Used by | Zep· Graphiti (bi-temporal knowledge graph) |

## Trade-off

Graph and temporal bookkeeping overhead; complex invalidation logic on write.

## Basis

## Verified against

- [https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13956](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13956)

The corpus does not rewrite vendor documentation. Where copy is quoted verbatim it is marked as such and attributed to its source.