# Basic Memory vs Graphicle (slim)

> Basic Memory scores 76.9 (BB) to Graphicle's 70.6 (BB) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-graphicle.md (~5,350 tokens) · this version ~2,930 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-graphicle.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-graphicle
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Basic Memory scores 76.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Graphicle's 70.6 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Graphicle leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do agent memory.

- Basic Memory: BB 76.9, rank #38 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/basic-memory.min.md
- Graphicle: BB 70.6, rank #192 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/graphicle.min.md
- Basic Memory, good for Memory for coding agents and assistants kept as Markdown the user owns, with search and a graph. Ahead on Reliability, 83 against 63; Schema & documentation, 89 against 83; Maintenance & community, 91 against 83; Transparency & trust, 82 against 71. Also No key needed to call it.
- Graphicle, good for A developer who wants one local tool that gives Claude Code, Codex or Cursor both code structure and project memory with citations. Ahead on Security & auth, 67 against 61; Payments & pricing, 60 against 50. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Basic Memory | Graphicle |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 83 | 63 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 83 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 85 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 61 | 67 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 91 | 83 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 82 | 71 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Basic Memory | Graphicle |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Basic Memory LLC | KarLex AI, Inc. |
| Transports | stdio | stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 13 | 25 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.basicmachines-co/basic-memory` | `io.github.Graphicle-AI/graphicle` |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2025-03-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2025-03-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 4.5k stars, 20k PyPI/wk | 144 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Basic Memory +20: Basic Memory 83 (Local-software lines, as a stdio MCP server the owner runs. `basic-memory` on PyPI with Python 3.12 or newer stated, installed with uv (20). Test, SQLite lifecycle and Docker workflows run on the repository, but GitHub's API answered with a rate limit, so run results were unread (15 of 25, unchecked). 74 open issues and pull requests against 200 commits in the 90 days, with recent bug reports answered by a maintainer within days and one flaky-CI issue open (18 of 25). The changelog calls out breaking changes in their own sections (15). v1.0.0 on 29 October 2026 (15). Total 83.); Graphicle 63 (Read as local software. Installs from an official Homebrew tap, an install script that checks each archive's SHA-256, or release archives, with macOS and Linux (glibc) on arm64 and x86_64 stated, and since 0.1.5 a Windows preview build that isn't code-signed. No language package registry (20). A public CI workflow formats, lints and tests each of the three crates on macOS and Linux. On 15 October every test job passed on both pushes to main and the cargo-deny job for licences, advisories and sources failed; 0.1.7 (25 October) replaced a yanked crate that cargo-deny warned about, but GitHub's Actions pages weren't readable on 1 November, so the runs are per the 15 October check (18). Outside reports and fixes have been handled in releases (issue #8 on kubernetes speed, pull requests #9 and #10 in 0.1.6 and 0.1.7), but the open issue list couldn't be read on 1 November, so the record is still too thin to judge (15). A dated changelog with eleven releases, each with an "After upgrading" section that names the steps a release needs (re-sync, memories that go stale), but large additions and stored-data changes ship in 0.1.x patch bumps (10). Version 0.1.10, not declared stable (0). 20+18+15+10+0 = 63.)
- Transparency & trust, Basic Memory +11: Basic Memory 82 (AGPL-3.0, an OSI licence (30). The terms and privacy policy of 27 October 2026 agree on 30-day retention after cancellation, backups up to 90 days and no training on or sale of content, and name the infrastructure providers (26 of 30). The 1.0 release ships a migration guide mapping every removed tool and command, without a written deprecation period (14 of 20). Telemetry is disclosed in the README with what is and isn't sent and one opt-out, but it is on by default (16 of 20). Total 86.); Graphicle 71 (Apache-2.0 with NOTICE files that credit Graphify and every adapted project (30). The README privacy section and the FAQ list every case in which the program uses the network, say there is no telemetry or account, and keep data in one SQLite store with deletion receipts. A grep of the source for outbound hosts found only model providers, connectors and GitHub, which agrees. The karlex.ai privacy policy of 14 March 2025 covers the website, not the software (20 of 30). SECURITY.md lists supported versions. No deprecation policy (3 of 20). No telemetry to opt out of, and the network cases are disclosed, with `freshness off` and `--code-only` to limit them (18 of 20). 30+20+3+18 = 71.)
- Payments & pricing, Graphicle +10: Basic Memory 50 (Self-hosted rule, with the price lines read for the cloud. No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Cloud plans are public, and credits are $0.01 each, but what a credit buys isn't priced per unit (10). The open-source server is free with no card (20). An agent can install it from PyPI and run it with no account (20). Total 50.); Graphicle 60 (No payment protocol (0). Read with the self-hosted rule. Free under Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy (20). No card or account (20). An agent can install it and run `graphicle setup --yes` with no signup, as the README suggests (20). The commercial team edition is still in private preview with no prices on karlex.ai on 1 November, so there is no paid option to score. 0+20+20+20 = 60.)
- Maintenance & community, Basic Memory +8: Basic Memory 91 (v1.0.0 on 29 October 2026 (30). v0.24.0 and v0.24.1 on 22 October and v1.0.0, three releases in 90 days (20). Recent issues from outside users got maintainer replies within a few days (20 of 25). Verified namespace io.github.basicmachines-co/basic-memory in the official MCP registry, published by a workflow (15). uv.lock and CI, with an open report of an unmaintained dependency (6 of 10). Total 91.); Graphicle 83 (v0.1.10 on 30 October 2026 (30). Eleven releases, v0.1.0 (14 October) to v0.1.10 (30 October), all inside the last 90 days (20). Outside pull requests #9 and #10 shipped in 0.1.6 and 0.1.7 and issue #8's kubernetes timings drove 0.1.5, per the changelog, with Discussions and a Discord linked, but reply times and open issues weren't readable on 1 November (12 of 25). In the official MCP registry as io.github.Graphicle-AI/graphicle, a GitHub-verified namespace, with 0.1.10 published on 30 October and marked latest (15). The SDKs are still not on PyPI or npm. Pinned GitHub Actions, dependency-graph updates and passing tests, but the licence and advisory job failed on main on 15 October and its later runs weren't readable (6 of 10). 30+20+12+15+6 = 83.)
- Schema & documentation, Basic Memory +6: Basic Memory 89 (Typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool from Pydantic annotations (25). llms.txt on the site and the docs, with Markdown versions of pages (10). Descriptions say what each tool does and point to the next tool, such as `bm_search` ending with "Read full notes with bm_read", and `bm_man` serves the manual, with less on when not to use a tool (16 of 20). Closed values for search mode, edit command and schema command, with aliases accepted for common argument names (13 of 15). Typed refusal codes are documented in the changelog and docs, with fewer worked examples per tool (11 of 15). Dated changelog and MCP registry versions, plus an unreleased breaking change after 1.0 (14 of 15). Total 89.); Graphicle 83 (Every MCP tool has a JSON Schema input with `additionalProperties: false` and required fields marked, read from the tool list fixtures in the repository at v0.1.10 (25). No llms.txt. The docs are Markdown files in the repository that an agent can read raw (5 of 10). Server instructions say which tool to use for structure and which for what the project says, `recall_project` says when to leave the reranker off, and memory tools explain draft review, while graph tools such as `query_graph` carry one-line descriptions (14 of 20). Enums on `mode`, `pack_order`, memory `kind` and `state`, length and item limits, minimum values and closed nested objects (14 of 15). Examples throughout the docs. The OpenAPI file documents 400, 403, 409 and 429 for the HTTP API and limit errors name the setting to change, but MCP error results are not catalogued (10 of 15). A dated changelog, semver crate versions and `/v1` paths (15). 25+5+14+14+10+15 = 83.)
- Security & auth, Graphicle +6: Basic Memory 61 (Local stdio server with no credential, and cloud OAuth 2.1 through WorkOS with read-only or project-scoped keys on Pro (22 of 30). Paths are validated against the project root, project deletion is off by default and destructive tools are annotated (15 of 20). SECURITY.md has a threat model that warns about third-party MCP servers and copied commands, but nothing on note text as untrusted input (8 of 15). A local log file, and cloud audit logs only on Business (8 of 15). SECURITY.md gives an email and a 72-hour response aim but lists only 0.x.x as supported; no security.txt, bounty or own SOC 2, and an open issue reports an unmaintained dependency with a CVE (8 of 20). Total 61.); Graphicle 67 (Read with the API checklist for a server the owner runs, as for Cognee and Graphiti. Over HTTP each person or agent gets its own key with a role, optional expiry and optional project list, stored as a hash, revocable, and sent in a header with the docs saying never in the URL. The stdio server runs with the owner key, which can read every project, and its graph tools take `repo` to reach other projects (24 of 30). The MCP server has no delete or command tool, agent writes are drafts that a person approves, and `--tools` and per-key project revocation narrow access. No approval step is needed because nothing destructive is exposed (18 of 20). Recall returns documents, connector content and captured sessions, which can carry injected text. Server instructions say memory is evidence, not tool permission, drafts need verbatim quotes, and capture redacts credentials and drops `<private>` spans. No general prompt-injection guidance found (9 of 15). Workspace usage counters, `workflow_status` and hash-chained deletion receipts, while the team audit trail belongs to the commercial edition (6 of 15). SECURITY.md with private reporting through GitHub advisories, a security.txt at karlex.ai valid to 7 April 2027 (re-read on 1 November), a cargo-deny advisory check in CI that failed on 15 October, and `### Security` sections in the 0.1.6 and 0.1.7 changelog entries. No bug bounty or certification, and the changelog names no advisory for the 0.1.7 fixes (10 of 20). 24+18+9+6+10 = 67.)