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Tissue ecosystems are cellular communities that maintain setpoints through a network of intercellular interactions. We position health and chronic inflammatory disease as alternative stable setpoints that are: (1) robust to perturbation, and (2) capable of adaptation and memory. Inflammatory memory-the storage of prior experience to durably influence future responsiveness-is central to how tissue ecosystems may be pushed past tipping points that stabilize disease over health. Here, we develop a reductionist framework of circuit motifs that recur in tissue setpoints. In type 2 immunity, we distinctly find the emergence of two-cell positive feedback motifs. By contrast, directional motif relays and three-cell networks feature more prominently in type 1 and 17 responses. We propose that these differences guide the ecological networks established after surpassing tipping points and associate closely with therapeutic responsiveness. We highlight opportunities to improve our current knowledge of how circuit motifs interact when building towards tissue-level networks across adaptation and memory. By developing new tools for circuit motif nomination and applying them to temporal profiling of tissue ecosystems, we hope to dissect the stability of the chronic inflammatory setpoint and open therapeutic avenues for rewriting memory to restore health.