Sign in

Head to head · Agent memory · October 2026 research run

claude-mem vs Honcho

Honcho scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against claude-mem's 58.6 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. claude-mem leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do agent memory. Honcho accepts x402. claude-mem doesn't.

Best memory layers for AI agents · All 188 memory comparisons

claude-memAlex Newman · MCP server C58.6/100#676 of 1238 HonchoPlastic Labs · HTTP API B64.2/100#422 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 50
  • Schema & documentation, 84 against 79
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 65

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

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

Honcho B

Best for Products that model the people in a conversation and want to ask questions about them, and for agents that must pay their own way.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 80 against 20
  • Transparency & trust, 69 against 46

Also in its favour

  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • No incidents deducted, where claude-mem loses 6 points for them

Watch for

No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runclaude-memHonchoEdge
Reliability16%208550claude-mem +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28479claude-mem +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27465claude-mem +9
Security & auth14%17.55048claude-mem +2
Payments & pricing10%12.52080Honcho +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87673claude-mem +3
Transparency & trust7%8.84669Honcho +23
Negative events≤15-60
TotalC 58.6/100B 64.2/100

Facts side by side

Factclaude-memHoncho
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorAlex NewmanPlastic Labs
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.honcho.dev/v3
Transportsstdio, HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402noyes, from $0.001/call
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 termsAGPL-3.0
Tools exposed19none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedio.github.plastic-labs/honcho
Last release2026-10-292026-09-24
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readno date given
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2025-04-24
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readyes
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readyes
Popularity106k stars, 30k npm/wk7.4k stars, 18k npm/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.

Honcho

Pay per call over x402 or MPP at agentcash.honcho.dev, with free read endpoints. No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA.

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.

Honcho

  1. Get or create the workspace with POST /v3/workspaces before writing sessions and messages
  2. Batch up to 100 messages per request, each under 25,000 characters
  3. Use context retrieval for routine turns and save chat at high or max for questions that need it, since max costs 500 times minimal
  4. Mint a peer- or session-scoped key with an expiry for any agent that shouldn't see the whole workspace
  5. Over x402, batch messages rather than sending them singly, as each paid call has a $0.001 floor

Questions

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

Honcho scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against claude-mem's 58.6 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. claude-mem leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

Do claude-mem and Honcho need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Honcho per call over x402, with no account.

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

claude-mem runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Honcho has a hosted endpoint at https://api.honcho.dev/v3.

Are claude-mem and Honcho 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). Honcho is open source (AGPL-3.0).

Other comparisons with claude-mem or Honcho

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report