Head to head · Memory search · October 2026 research run
Context Mode Engine vs Graphiti
Graphiti scores 53.3 (D) on agent readiness against Context Mode Engine's 45.8 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Context Mode Engine leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do memory search.
Best memory layers for AI agents · All 103 memory comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Context Mode Engine indexes tool output and session events locally for coding agents.
Ahead on
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 51
- Security & auth, 35 against 23
Also in its favour
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.5 out of 5
Watch for
Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0
Graphiti D
Best for Teams that want Zep's temporal graph model on their own infrastructure and can run a graph database.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 50 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 71 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 65 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 42
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
Every add runs LLM extraction, so ingestion costs tokens and time
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Context Mode Engine | Graphiti | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 50 | Graphiti +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 65 | 71 | Graphiti +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 51 | Context Mode Engine +14 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 23 | Context Mode Engine +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 60 | Graphiti +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 10 | 65 | Graphiti +55 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 42 | 71 | Graphiti +29 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 45.8/100 | D 53.3/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Context Mode Engine | Graphiti |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | Agent framework |
| Vendor | MKSF LTD | Zep |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Elastic License 2.0, source available with restrictions on hosted or managed services. | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 13 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-06-29 | 2026-09-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | |
| Popularity | 31k stars | 29k stars, 151k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Context Mode Engine
Local indexing and selective retrieval. Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0.
Graphiti
Apache-2.0, with FalkorDB, Neo4j or Amazon Neptune as the store. Every add runs LLM extraction, so ingestion costs tokens and time.
Before you call either
Context Mode Engine
- Choose the installation guide for the exact coding client.
- Check host permissions before enabling code execution.
- Review the Elastic licence before hosting Engine for others.
Graphiti
- Set OPENAI_API_KEY (or another provider's key) and MODEL_NAME before starting the MCP server
- Use search_memory_facts for facts and search_nodes for entities instead of reading whole episodes
- Never call clear_graph to fix one fact. Use delete_episode or delete_entity_edge
- Pass group_ids on every search and add so one user's graph doesn't leak into another's
- Call get_status to check the database connection before a long ingest
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Context Mode Engine or Graphiti?
Graphiti scores 53.3 (D) on agent readiness against Context Mode Engine's 45.8 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Context Mode Engine leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.
Can an agent call Context Mode Engine and Graphiti without installing anything?
Context Mode Engine runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Graphiti runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.
Are Context Mode Engine and Graphiti open source?
No open-source release is listed for Context Mode Engine. Graphiti is open source (Apache-2.0).
Other comparisons with Context Mode Engine or Graphiti
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Graphiti
- Cognee vs Graphiti
- Graphiti vs Hindsight
- Graphiti vs Honcho
- Graphiti vs Hy Memory
- Graphiti vs LangMem
- Graphiti vs LocalGhost
- Graphiti vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- Graphiti vs Memory (MCP reference server)
- Graphiti vs Supermemory API + MCP
- Graphiti vs Zep
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs Graphiti
- Cognee vs Context Mode Engine
- Context Mode Engine vs Graphicle
- Context Mode Engine vs Hindsight
- Context Mode Engine vs Honcho
- Context Mode Engine vs Hy Memory
- Context Mode Engine vs Khoj
- Context Mode Engine vs LangMem
- Context Mode Engine vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- Context Mode Engine vs Supermemory API + MCP
- Context Mode Engine vs Zep
- Graphicle vs Graphiti
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/context-mode-vs-graphiti.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/context-mode.json·/api/v1/tools/graphiti.json - From a terminal
anchor compare context-mode graphiti(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "context-mode", "b": "graphiti"}at/mcp, no key