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Head to head · Agent memory · October 2026 research run

claude-mem vs TencentDB Agent Memory

claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) on agent readiness against TencentDB Agent Memory's 56 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TencentDB Agent Memory leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. 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 TencentDB Agent MemoryTencent Cloud · HTTP API C56/100#766 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 51
  • Schema & documentation, 84 against 61
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 68
  • Security & auth, 50 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 70

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

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

TencentDB Agent Memory C

Best for Small teams that run several coding agents on a host they control and want shared, permissioned memory, skills and code context injected through a proxy.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 46

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where claude-mem loses 6 points for them

Watch for

The core's bearer gate is off by default, and the deploy notes say enabling it breaks the proxy's auth and session setup

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runclaude-memTencentDB Agent MemoryEdge
Reliability16%208551claude-mem +34
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28461claude-mem +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.27468claude-mem +6
Security & auth14%17.55030claude-mem +20
Payments & pricing10%12.52060TencentDB Agent Memory +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87670claude-mem +6
Transparency & trust7%8.84668TencentDB Agent Memory +22
Negative events≤15-60
TotalC 58.6/100C 56/100

Facts side by side

Factclaude-memTencentDB Agent Memory
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorAlex NewmanTencent Cloud
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transportsstdio, HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFree
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 exposed19none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-292026-10-26
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno document linked
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Popularity106k stars, 30k npm/wk2.2k npm/wk

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.

TencentDB Agent Memory

A self-hosted team memory stack with layered recall, per-asset visibility and ACLs, documented HTTP APIs and frequent releases, 2.0.0 to 2.0.3 since August. The default deployment publishes its ports on all host interfaces with the core's bearer gate off, data-plane deletes trust a service-ID header, and the proxy's rate-limit and session admin routes have no authentication.

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.

TencentDB Agent Memory

  1. Set MEMORY_CORE_GATEWAY_API_KEY, KNOWLEDGE_SERVICE_KEY and a non-default admin key before exposing ports 8420, 8424, 8096 or 8125 beyond the host
  2. In headless runs send x-team-id, x-agent-id and x-task-id headers to the proxy. Without all three it falls back to an interactive picker and skips memory
  3. Expect every proxied turn to be stored. The proxy records upstream messages and model replies to Memory Core, and injected memory lands in your system prompt
  4. Check data.valid on /v3/meta/auth/verify and data.isError on /v3/tools/call. Both can fail inside a success envelope
  5. Retry /v3/session/add only on 500, 503 or a network error. The API reference says it isn't idempotent and writes a new object each call

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, claude-mem or TencentDB Agent Memory?

claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) on agent readiness against TencentDB Agent Memory's 56 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TencentDB Agent Memory leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

Do claude-mem and TencentDB Agent Memory need an API key?

claude-mem takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. TencentDB Agent Memory needs an API key.

Can an agent call claude-mem and TencentDB Agent Memory without installing anything?

claude-mem runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for TencentDB Agent Memory.

Are claude-mem and TencentDB Agent Memory 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). TencentDB Agent Memory is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with claude-mem or TencentDB Agent Memory

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