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Head to head · Agent memory · October 2026 research run

claude-mem vs Hindsight

claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) on agent readiness against Hindsight's 50.2 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Hindsight leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do agent memory.

Best memory layers for AI agents · All 188 memory comparisons

claude-memAlex Newman · MCP server C58.6/100#676 of 1238 HindsightVectorize · HTTP API D50.2/100#940 of 1238

Which one, for what

claude-mem C

Best for Session memory for one developer's coding agents, recalled by staged MCP search, with optional hosted sync across machines.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 25
  • Schema & documentation, 84 against 68
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 57

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

Telemetry is on by default and secret redaction is off by default

Hindsight D

Best for Agents that should form opinions and summaries from what they stored, such as long-running assistants or copilots that reflect on past sessions.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 58 against 50
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • No incidents deducted, where claude-mem loses 6 points for them

Watch for

Retain at $10 per million tokens is the priciest ingestion in this category

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runclaude-memHindsightEdge
Reliability16%208525claude-mem +60
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28468claude-mem +16
Agent ergonomics13%16.27457claude-mem +17
Security & auth14%17.55058Hindsight +8
Payments & pricing10%12.52030Hindsight +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87680Hindsight +4
Transparency & trust7%8.84646even
Negative events≤15-60
TotalC 58.6/100D 50.2/100

Facts side by side

Factclaude-memHindsight
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorAlex NewmanVectorize
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.hindsight.vectorize.io
Transportsstdio, HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 for the engine, CLI, worker, MCP tools, adapters and docs. The hosted CMEM Pro observer, cloud sync and TeamBrain are closed and run under the cmem cloud termsMIT
Tools exposed1927
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-292026-09-29
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Popularity106k stars, 30k npm/wk43k stars, 44k npm/wk, 227k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

Verdicts

claude-mem

Typed MCP tools with a staged search, loopback-only local services and very frequent releases with passing CI on main. Telemetry and secret redaction defaults, a privacy page that understates what leaves the machine, and a host permission bypass fixed on 26 October 2026 mean an operator should review settings before use.

Hindsight

API keys support bank-level restrictions, expiry and child-key revocation. Retain ingestion costs $10 per million tokens.

Before you call either

claude-mem

  1. Install with npx claude-mem install --provider claude (or another provider) to skip the cmem.ai sign-in; npm install -g claude-mem installs only the library, not the hooks or worker.
  2. Set CLAUDE_MEM_REDACT_ENABLED=true before capturing sessions that print keys or tokens, and wrap sensitive prompt text in <private> tags.
  3. Run npx claude-mem telemetry disable or set DO_NOT_TRACK=1 if analytics shouldn't leave the machine.
  4. Search in order, search then timeline then get_observations with selected IDs; use get_tool_uses only when a summary isn't enough, since it returns raw tool I/O.
  5. Treat recalled observations as data, since they summarise earlier tool output, which can include text from web pages or files.

Hindsight

  1. Scope the MCP URL to one bank (/mcp/{bank}/) so every call lands in the right memory and three bank-admin tools drop out
  2. Use recall for lookups and keep reflect ($0.05 a call) for questions that need reasoning
  3. Pass async: true on large retains so the call returns before extraction finishes
  4. Treat HTTP 402 as out of credit and 403 as a key that can't reach that bank

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, claude-mem or Hindsight?

claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) on agent readiness against Hindsight's 50.2 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Hindsight leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

Do claude-mem and Hindsight need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call claude-mem and Hindsight without installing anything?

claude-mem runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Hindsight has a hosted endpoint at https://api.hindsight.vectorize.io.

Are claude-mem and Hindsight open source?

Yes. claude-mem is open source (Apache-2.0 for the engine, CLI, worker, MCP tools, adapters and docs. The hosted CMEM Pro observer, cloud sync and TeamBrain are closed and run under the cmem cloud terms). Hindsight is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with claude-mem or Hindsight

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