Hello ST Community,
I am using the NanoEdge AI Studio to generate an anomaly detection library for an STM32L4 device (fixed installation, vibration monitoring). The library works fine, but I need to persist the knowledge learned during runtime so that after a power cycle or reboot, the device does not have to learn again from scratch.
I followed the official documentation and community advice (including the solution marked as accepted in [this thread](https://community.st.com/t5/edge-ai/is-there-any-way-to-save-or-export-knowledge-which/td-p/123456)):
- Added the `.neai` section in my linker script with `KEEP(*(.neai))`
- Declared `extern char _sneai_knowledge[];` and `extern char _eneai_knowledge[];`
- Computed `NEAI_KNOWLEDGE_SIZE = (uint32_t)_eneai_knowledge - (uint32_t)_sneai_knowledge;`
- Implemented functions to save this RAM section to internal Flash and restore it on boot.
However, `NEAI_KNOWLEDGE_SIZE` is **0** and the `.map` file shows that the `.neai` section is empty:
```
.neai 0x20008218 0x0 load address 0x0801ee5c
0x20008218 . = ALIGN (0x4)
0x20008218 _sneai_knowledge = .
*(.neai)
0x20008218 _eneai_knowledge = .
0x20008218 . = ALIGN (0x4)
```
I also checked the library summary provided by NanoEdge AI Studio:
- Library ID: 97
- Model: ICM
- RAM: 2.9 KB
- Flash: 2.3 KB
- Minimum learning iterations: 22
No `.neai` content is present in the generated library.
**My understanding:**
The `.neai` section will only contain data if the library was generated with the **"Embedded Knowledge"** option enabled. However, I cannot find this option anywhere in the Deployment step of my NanoEdge AI Studio. (See attached screenshot of my Deployment interface – no "Embedded Knowledge" checkbox visible.)
**My questions are:**
1. Where exactly is the "Embedded Knowledge" option located in the current version of NanoEdge AI Studio?
2. Is it still required to enable this option to have a non-zero `.neai` section?
3. If that option is not available (or even if it is), what is the recommended way to preserve runtime-learned knowledge for my ICM model? Are there any official APIs like `neai_export_knowledge()` / `neai_import_knowledge()` that I should use instead?
4. Where is the runtime knowledge actually stored for an ICM model (preprocessing_ctx, icm_ctx)? And is it safe to manually back up those structures to Flash?
Any guidance from ST engineers or experienced users would be highly appreciated. I have already spent a lot of time trying to make the `.neai` approach work, but it seems my library does not use that section at all.
Thank you in advance!
Best regards,
Cooli
