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Head to head · Memory search · October 2026 research run

Context Mode Engine vs Khoj

Context Mode Engine scores 45.8 (E) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Khoj leads on reliability, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do memory search.

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Context Mode EngineMKSF LTD · MCP server E45.8/100#993 of 1171 KhojKhoj Inc. · Platform E38.5/100#1076 of 1171

Which one, for what

Context Mode Engine E

Best for Context Mode Engine indexes tool output and session events locally for coding agents.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 65 against 34
  • Agent ergonomics, 65 against 46
  • Security & auth, 35 against 29

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 1.0 out of 5
  • No incidents deducted, where Khoj loses 7 points for them

Watch for

Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0

Khoj E

Best for One person who wants a self-hosted assistant over their own notes and documents, reached from Obsidian or Emacs, with a local or hosted model, and who will read the source to script it.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 65 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 19 against 10
  • Transparency & trust, 60 against 42

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

No tagged release since 2.0.0-beta.28 on 26 March 2026 and no commit since 2 August

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runContext Mode EngineKhojEdge
Reliability16%204565Khoj +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26534Context Mode Engine +31
Agent ergonomics13%16.26546Context Mode Engine +19
Security & auth14%17.53529Context Mode Engine +6
Payments & pricing10%12.54060Khoj +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.81019Khoj +9
Transparency & trust7%8.84260Khoj +18
Negative events≤150-7
TotalE 45.8/100E 38.5/100

Facts side by side

FactContext Mode EngineKhoj
KindMCP serverPlatform
VendorMKSF LTDKhoj Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsstdioHTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceElastic License 2.0, source available with restrictions on hosted or managed services.AGPL-3.0-or-later
Tools exposed11none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-06-292026-03-26
Terms last updatedno date given2024-06-05
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity31k stars38k stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (4)1/5 (2)

Verdicts

Context Mode Engine

Local indexing and selective retrieval. Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0.

Khoj

AGPL-3.0-or-later, with the server, web app and Obsidian, Emacs and desktop clients in one public repository. No tagged release since 2.0.0-beta.28 on 26 March 2026 and no commit since 2 August.

Before you call either

Context Mode Engine

  1. Choose the installation guide for the exact coding client.
  2. Check host permissions before enabling code execution.
  3. Review the Elastic licence before hosting Engine for others.

Khoj

  1. Install with pip install --pre khoj or a 2.0.0-beta image tag. Plain pip install khoj and latest give 1.42.10 from July 2025
  2. Point the Obsidian, Emacs or desktop client at your own server. They default to app.khoj.dev, which shut down on 15 April 2026
  3. Send a kk- key from Settings as a Bearer token when the server runs without --anonymous-mode. In anonymous mode /auth isn't mounted and no key exists
  4. Call GET /api/search?q=...&n=5 for passages and put file:"notes.md" or dt>="2026-01-01" inside q to filter. No route is documented
  5. Set KHOJ_TELEMETRY_DISABLE=True before the first start. Tagged releases send the caller's IP with telemetry

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Context Mode Engine or Khoj?

Context Mode Engine scores 45.8 (E) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Khoj leads on reliability, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Context Mode Engine and Khoj without installing anything?

Context Mode Engine runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for Khoj.

Are Context Mode Engine and Khoj open source?

No open-source release is listed for Context Mode Engine. Khoj is open source (AGPL-3.0-or-later).

Other comparisons with Context Mode Engine or Khoj

Disclosure

Khoj competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds, and LocalGhost's own about page names it as a competitor. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.

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