# Basic Memory vs LocalGhost (slim)

> Basic Memory scores 76.9 (BB) to LocalGhost's 55.7 (C) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-localghost.md (~6,300 tokens) · this version ~3,530 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-localghost.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basic-memory-vs-localghost
- 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 LocalGhost's 55.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. LocalGhost leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent memory.

- Basic Memory: BB 76.9, rank #38 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/basic-memory.min.md
- LocalGhost: C 55.7, rank #853 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localghost.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 67; Schema & documentation, 89 against 49; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 39; Security & auth, 61 against 50; Maintenance & community, 91 against 79. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine.
- LocalGhost, good for One technical owner who wants a phone-first personal archive (photos, location trail, notes, voice, health, news and prices) kept and read by local models on their own hardware. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 60 against 50.

| Category | Basic Memory | LocalGhost |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 83 | 67 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 49 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 85 | 39 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 61 | 50 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 91 | 79 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 82 | 78 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Basic Memory | LocalGhost |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | Platform |
| Vendor | Basic Memory LLC | LocalGhost |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | Token |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| MCP registry | `io.github.basicmachines-co/basic-memory` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-10 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-03 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-05 |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 4.5k stars, 20k PyPI/wk | 16 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (3) |

Why the edge:
- Agent ergonomics, Basic Memory +46: Basic Memory 85 (13 tools, one hidden unless enabled, so the 11 to 30 band (15), with 6 back for the manual tool and the progressive-discovery tags (21 of 25). Search narrows by mode, filters, note types, items, `since`, `path` and line context (18 of 20). Refusals are tool errors with typed codes an agent can act on (17 of 20). Every tool has readOnly, destructive and idempotent hints, and edits take an expected checksum that refuses a stale write (19 of 20). Most arguments are optional and the server starts with one command, but there is one language and no SDK beyond the CLI (10 of 15). Total 85.); LocalGhost 39 (Graded on the device API, as Schema is. `/v1/news` takes `since` and `limit`, the rate routes take `hours` or `days` and the Wikipedia route takes `n`, while `/v1/home` and `/v1/rates` return whole screens and nothing selects fields (12 of 25). `/v1/days` pages with `before` and `limit`, and `/v1/wiki` searches with `q` (12 of 20). edge.go folds every 400, 401, 403, 404 and 5xx a verified phone could get into the same 503 page, and the nginx path does the same with error_page, so the handlers' messages never reach the client and it can't tell a bad request from a locked box. Only a few statuses such as 409 pass through (2 of 20). Voice uploads are idempotent by id, `/v1/lock` is safe to repeat and trail deletion has a dry run, with no idempotency keys or retry guidance (10 of 20). The project's own Kotlin app is the only client, with no SDK and no documented way to enrol another (3 of 15).)
- Schema & documentation, Basic Memory +40: 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.); LocalGhost 49 (Graded on the HTTPS API that ghost.secd serves to enrolled phones under /v1, the only programmatic interface, as the Khoj and Open WebUI dossiers graded their HTTP APIs. There's no public API or MCP server, and the README and llms.txt say the box answers every other caller, an agent included, as if it were down. ghost.secd builds an OpenAPI 3.0 document from a route table and serves it at /v1/openapi.json only to enrolled devices. At v0.0.6 the table holds 49 paths while server.go registers 109 by hand (46 and 105 at v0.0.5), although the code comment says no route can exist outside the spec (8 of 25). llms.txt on www.localghost.ai and Markdown docs throughout the repository (10). Route summaries say what each call does and some say when to use it, and there's no API reference beyond them (8 of 20). Request and response shapes come from Go structs by reflection, but several shapes are marked loose with additionalProperties, request bodies among them, and query formats sit in summaries and handlers rather than in the spec (6 of 15). No API examples, and error statuses are folded into one 503 page by design, so no error responses are documented (3 of 15). /v1 prefixes, dated notes per release in server/releases/ and a dated changelog page (14 of 15).)
- Reliability, Basic Memory +16: 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.); LocalGhost 67 (Read with the local-software lines, as the Goose, Aider, Khoj, Screenpipe and Open WebUI dossiers do, and graded on wisp 0.0.6 (tag v0.0.6, commit 2c4786d, 10 October 2026), which main pins at c706f92. Each release carries a reproducible linux-amd64 server bundle with `install.sh`, a signed APK, a source archive and SHA256SUMS signed by the site key, on GitHub and the mirror, and the setup page states Debian 13 on x86-64, TPM 2.0, an optional NVIDIA card and Android 15 or later. The v0.0.6 signature verified for us on 10 October. There's no .deb or package-manager install (18 of 20). The CI workflow runs build, vet and the Go tests against Postgres on every push to main. We ran the Go suite at v0.0.6 and at c706f92 on 10 October and every package passed, TestFetchListAndSpools included, which failed at v0.0.5. The Postgres tests skip without a database, and neither the CI badge nor the Actions page showed us a result (20 of 25). shields.io showed 0 open and 1 closed issue on 6 October. The release notes name their own regressions and fix them in the release: 0.0.6 ships the fix for the Wikipedia import that stopped at an invalid byte and for /v1/wiki answering every phone with an empty body, while the CRYPTO50 index fault seen on 3 October is still unexplained (20 of 25). 0.0.x tags with dated notes per release that say what changed and how a phone on the previous release moves over, but no breaking-change section, and the v0.0.4 tag sits on a commit (1062b7f) that main doesn't contain (9 of 15). 0.0.6, pre-1.0 (0).)
- Maintenance & community, Basic Memory +12: 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.); LocalGhost 79 (wisp 0.0.6 tagged on 10 October 2026 (30). Six releases, v0.0.1 to v0.0.6, from 2 to 10 October, each with dated notes (20). shields.io shows 0 open and 1 closed issue and no open pull requests. Pull request #1 (July) is merged and #3 (28 July, a macOS test fix) isn't in main, and the 0.0.4 notes say most of that release answers two outside reviews of 0.0.3. GitHub's issue and pull-request pages refused us, so we couldn't see written replies or their timing (12 of 25). Not an MCP server and no SDK, read as current official builds as the Open WebUI dossier read this line. Each tag ships a signed server bundle, a signed APK and a source archive on GitHub and the mirror, with no package-manager channel, fewer channels than the PyPI, GHCR and desktop builds Open WebUI was credited 13 for (11 of 15). Go 1.27.1 since 0.0.4 and three direct Go dependencies, with golang.org/x/crypto at v0.31.0 from December 2024, no Dependabot, and the Go suite passing at v0.0.6 and on main in our run of 10 October (6 of 10).)
- Security & auth, Basic Memory +11: 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.); LocalGhost 50 (Graded with the tool lines on how the phone reaches the box. Each phone holds a client certificate from the box's own CA (ECDSA P-256, no scopes) and a session token of at most 48 hours from a PIN unlock, sent in a header. Since 0.0.6 a certificate is good for two weeks and the phone renews it once a day while it talks to the box, re-signing the same key, and the QR's own certificate is good for an hour. One phone can be retired by its key since 0.0.2, and after the first unlock the phone swaps the QR's key for one it makes in the Android Keystore and the box retires the QR's certificate. That's 20 for revocable credentials with rotation and no scopes. The `localghost://enroll` link carries the device's certificate and private key in its query string, and we didn't take the 10 off. The Screenpipe dossier took it for a key documented as a `token` parameter on HTTP requests, and the Khoj dossier didn't for a key in a query string that wasn't a documented way to authenticate, so the line covers secrets in request URLs that pass through servers, proxies and logs. This link is drawn only as a QR on an interactive terminal and never printed as text (internal/pair/command.go), the app has no intent filter for the scheme and reads the QR with its own scanner, and the link never becomes a network request (20 of 30). Every enrolled phone has full owner rights, with no read-only device. Since 0.0.6 DEPLOY, ROLL BACK and LOCK BOX NOW ask for confirmation first and deleting a model, a notification, a connector or a chat takes a second tap, trail deletion has a dry run and a deploy runs on trial with automatic rollback, while the API's deletes run without a confirmation step (8 of 20). The box and phone pass news feeds, web search results, coin websites and Wikipedia text to the model, and we found no injection guidance. The daemons own the control flow, the model calls no tools, and some writers drop text carrying names or numbers not in their facts (6 of 15). Requests are logged at debug level only, and `ghost-cli ghost.secd devices` and Box Status show the enrolled phones and the daemons, with no per-call audit trail (5 of 15). security.txt valid to 1 October 2027, SECURITY.md with a 72-hour acknowledgement, a 14-day response, 90-day disclosure, a commitment not to take legal action and a promise to publish advisories after fixes, and a PGP key that also signs the releases. No bounty, no certification and no advisories published (11 of 20). On a fresh box ghost.secd trusts an X-Client-Cert header any local process can forge until the operator runs `ghost-ctl edge-passthrough`. The 0.0.5 and 0.0.6 notes list it as a known gap, since 0.0.6 secd checks a certificate's dates and retirement itself on every request, and the PIN is still needed, so it's weighed in the credential line rather than as an incident.)
- Payments & pricing, LocalGhost +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.); LocalGhost 60 (Read with the self-hosted rule, as the Khoj dossier did. Nothing is on sale. Pre-built boxes are planned at the cost of parts plus a 30 per cent margin with no price set, and the README's Ethereum donation address isn't a payment protocol on the tool's endpoints (0). Free under MIT with no account and no card, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines.)