Memory & context
memory layers and context management
thedotmack/claude-mem thedotmack/claude-mem is the de facto leader by adoption and offers a broadly useful, token-efficient, session-persistent memory layer with multi-model support; pick it if you want a well‑trodden, general-purpose starting point. Teams build alternatives because they need radically different tradeoffs — stricter local privacy, DB-backed graphs, production integrations, extreme compression, or explicit planning/learning behaviors.
Which one matches your setup?
Answer any of the questions — the shortlist updates as you go. Recommendations come from the capability passports below, nothing else.
Comparison matrix
Axes are extracted from each project's docs by our review pipeline; the maturity score is computed from stars, growth and commit activity — not an opinion. Click a column to sort.
| Runs in | Models | Context | Cost to run | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
⭐ 93.1k +686/7d | CLIIDECoding-agent pluginWeb app | BYOKAnthropicOpenAIGemini | Related files & memory | Configurable filters | ●●●●● | Self-hostable (local worker) | ●●●●● | Your API key for model calls; optional cloud backup to cmem.ai |
⭐ 68.9k +1005/7d | CLICoding-agent pluginWeb app | BYOKOpenAIAnthropicGeminiFixed provider | Diff + related files | Dedup & shaping | ●●●●● | Self-hostable | ●●●●● | Local software is free; LLM calls use your API key. |
⭐ 64.7k +444/7d | CLIWeb appCoding-agent plugin | BYOKOpenAI | User/session only | Multi-signal retrieval | ●●●●● | Self-hostable | ●●●●● | Your LLM/API key costs; self-host or paid cloud available |
⭐ 30.5k +143/7d | CLIWeb appCoding-agent plugin | BYOKOpenAI | Whole-graph memory | Feedback & routing | ●●●●● | Self-hostable | ●●●●● | Your LLM API key, or use Cognee Cloud (managed) |
⭐ 28.0k +346/7d | CLICoding-agent pluginWeb app | BYOKOpenAIAnthropicGeminiOllama / local | Diff + related files | Confidence scoring | ●●●●● | Fully local | ●●●●● | Free to run locally; optional cloud API keys for agent LLMs. |
⭐ 26.9k +200/7d | CLIIDECoding-agent pluginCI | OpenAIAnthropicFixed provider | Project-level context | Compaction & filtering | ●●●●● | Fully local | ●●●●● | Free, open-source; external agent APIs may incur cost. |
⭐ 26.6k +224/7d | CLIIDECoding-agent plugin | BYOK | Three files only | Basic gating & checks | ●●●●● | Self-hostable | ●●●●● | Free (open-source); agent/model usage may incur costs |
⭐ 22.4k +858/7d | CLIWeb appCoding-agent plugin | BYOKOpenAIAnthropicGeminiOllama / localFixed provider | Related context | Rerank & filtering | ●●●●● | Self-hostable | ●●●●● | Your LLM API key (or self-hosted models); Hindsight itself can be self-hosted |
⭐ 20.3k +138/7d | CLIIDECoding-agent plugin | AnthropicGemini | Whole-repo analysis | BM25 & sandboxing | ●●●●● | Fully local | ●●●●● | Free, local install |
⭐ 12.7k +187/7d | CLIWeb app | BYOKOllama / localOpenAIGemini | Related files | Embedding + Rerank | ●●●●● | Self-hostable | ●●●●● | No keys for demo; real usage requires your OpenRouter + DeepInfra (or other OpenAI-protocol) API keys |
⭐ 11.2k +118/7d | CLICoding-agent pluginWeb app | BYOK | Whole-memory retrieval | Smart dedup & feedback | ●●●●● | Fully local capable | ●●●●● | Cloud: API key (hosted); self-host/local available |
⭐ 4.3k +84/7d | CLI | AnthropicOpenAIGemini | Whole-vault analysis | Rewrite & reconcile | ●●●●● | Cloud APIs (your keys) | ●●●●● | Your API keys + optional paid services |
Capability profiles
Six axes, 0–5 each. The shape tells you the strategy: a wide hexagon is a generalist, a spike is a specialist. Showing the 8 most established — the rest are in the full catalog.
Claude-Mem pairs a Claude Code–focused persistent memory with progressive-disclosure search tools and a local worker/web UI to deliver token-efficient, session-persistent context.
Local-first, reversible context compression that both shrinks prompts and actively reduces model output tokens via a drop-in proxy and cross-agent memory.
Provides a production-ready, self-hostable memory layer with a token-efficient memory algorithm, entity linking, and agent skills for easy integration into AI assistants.
Runs the full memory layer (graph, vectors, sessions) on a single self-hosted Postgres-backed stack, combining vector search and evolving knowledge graphs.
Provides a local, multi-agent persistent memory server with hybrid retrieval and confidence scoring that shares memories across any MCP/HTTP agent.
A Dolt-backed, version-controlled structured memory graph that gives coding agents dependency-aware, persistent task memory with semantic compaction for long-horizon workflows.
Provides crash‑proof, filesystem-backed three-file planning with per-turn re-injection and an opt-in completion gate, enabling deterministic session recovery after /clear across 60+ agents.
Hindsight provides a learning-focused agent memory with biomimetic data structures and a reflect operation to build mental models, going beyond simple RAG-style recall.
All repositories (35)
Persistent Context Across Sessions for Every Agent – Captures everything your agent does during sessions, com…
Compress tool outputs, logs, files, and RAG chunks before they reach the LLM. 20% fewer tokens for coding agen…
The Memory Layer for AI Agents - Drop-in memory infrastructure for AI agents and apps. Context that persists.…
Cognee is the open-source AI memory platform for agents. Give your AI agents persistent long-term memory acros…
#1 Persistent memory for AI coding agents based on real-world benchmarks
Persistent file-based planning for AI coding agents and long-running tasks. Crash-proof markdown plans, sessio…
Distilly — Distill how they think into reusable Skills for any Agent or Bot. Formerly Colleague Skill（原同事 Skil…
Context window optimization for AI coding agents. Sandboxes tool output (98% reduction), persists session memo…
One portable memory layer for every AI agent: local-first, Markdown-native, user-owned, and self-evolving acro…
Self-evolving memory OS for LLM & AI Agents: ultra-persistent memory, hybrid-retrieval, and cross-task skill r…
Persistent memory for Claude Code and 6 other CLI agents, stored as plain markdown in your Obsidian vault. Sto…
Knowhere extracts, parses, and outputs structured chunks ready for AI Agents and RAG.
Unbounded context. Memory that manages itself. One session, for life. The hippocampus for coding agents, part…
Non-destructive compression gateway for AI coding agents. Cuts token bills 25% on turn 1 to past 85% in long o…
🍙 A personal AI agent & local memory hub for all AI agents, gives every AI one shared, fully controlled memo…
A memory plugin for AI coding that turns engineering experience, repository knowledge, and your way of working…
Up to 71.5x fewer tokens per session on Claude Code with Obsidian + Graphify. Persistent memory, codebase know…
A self-improving skill for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, AGENTS.md): recognize a hard-won golden path…
Memory for coding agents built from the session history already on disk: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot C…
Encrypted, fully offline agentic memory. One click install, GUI w/ memory map, all OS and agents. Superior mem…
LLM-supervised persistent memory for AI agents — graph-based recall, cross-session knowledge, single binary. W…
A persistent, file-based memory layer for coding agents — give Claude Code, Codex & others a project brain (du…
Persistent, provider-neutral memory for Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, Pi, and MCP coding agents.
Composable three-tier memory control plane for DeepSeek Harness: persistent runtime context, searchable projec…
Hermes Agent memory plugin/provider for scope-aware recall, SQLite truth, LanceDB semantic search, and hybrid…
Turn project work into reusable knowledge — an AI-agent skill for Claude Code & Codex
Noema long-term memory plugin for DSH: durable, inspectable agent memory with recall tools and a settings page…
CDAF (Cached Descriptive Asset Files) - open sidecar format for video so AI agents stop re-analyzing the same…
Most AI agents forget you the moment the tab closes. Constellation Engine gives them a hippocampus — a living…
Cross-agent plugin for manually excluding and editing AI conversation context, with search, filtering, hide/re…
SOUL.md governance framework for Hermes Agent — structured memory, skill management, and operational rules
Hosted alternatives
If running your own reviewer is more ops than you want, these managed services cover the same job.
The managed side of mem0: the same memory API run for you, with the vector store, extraction and retrieval hosted instead of self-operated.
Try Mem0 Platform →Hosted long-term memory for agents built on a temporal knowledge graph, so recall and fact updates come as a service rather than infrastructure you maintain.
Try Zep Cloud →The managed runtime for stateful agents from the Letta (MemGPT) team: persistent memory and agent state kept for you instead of hosting the server and its store.
Try Letta Cloud →