Head to head · Memory search · October 2026 research run
Context Mode Engine vs LangMem
LangMem scores 47.9 (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 reliability and schema & documentation. 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
- Reliability, 45 against 32
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 55
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.8 out of 5
Watch for
Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0
LangMem D
Best for Teams already on LangGraph that want memory tools and background extraction over a store they run.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 45 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 15 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 42
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
The newest PyPI release, 0.0.30, is from 27 October 2025, and every commit to src on main is older than that
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Context Mode Engine | LangMem | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 32 | Context Mode Engine +13 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 65 | 55 | Context Mode Engine +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 66 | LangMem +1 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 45 | LangMem +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 60 | LangMem +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 10 | 15 | LangMem +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 42 | 59 | LangMem +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 45.8/100 | D 47.9/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Context Mode Engine | LangMem |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | MKSF LTD | LangChain |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Elastic License 2.0, source available with restrictions on hosted or managed services. | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 11 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-06-29 | 2025-10-27 |
| 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 | 1.7k stars, 214k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (4) |
Verdicts
Context Mode Engine
Local indexing and selective retrieval. Hosted-service restrictions under Elastic License 2.0.
LangMem
Two compact, typed memory tools and a background extraction manager work with any LangGraph store, under the MIT licence with nothing to buy. The newest PyPI release, 0.0.30, dates from 27 October 2025. The repository has no changelog, tags or test workflow, and 23 of 54 open issues have no reply.
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.
LangMem
- Pass a store with an embedding index (
index={"dims": 1536, "embed": "openai:text-embedding-3-small"}), orsearch_memorycannot rank by meaning - Use a database-backed store such as
AsyncPostgresStorefor anything that must survive a restart.InMemoryStoreloses everything - Put a per-user placeholder in the namespace and set it in
config["configurable"]on every call, or users share one memory space - Send the memory
idwithupdateanddelete, and never withcreate. A retriedcreatewrites a duplicate under a new UUID - Run on Python 3.11 or later.
src/langmem/knowledge/extraction.pyusestyping.NotRequired, which Python 3.10 lacks
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Context Mode Engine or LangMem?
LangMem scores 47.9 (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 reliability and schema & documentation.
Can an agent call Context Mode Engine and LangMem without installing anything?
Context Mode Engine runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for LangMem.
Are Context Mode Engine and LangMem open source?
No open-source release is listed for Context Mode Engine. LangMem is open source (MIT).
Other comparisons with Context Mode Engine or LangMem
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs LangMem
- Cognee vs LangMem
- Graphiti vs LangMem
- Hindsight vs LangMem
- Honcho vs LangMem
- Hy Memory vs LangMem
- LangMem vs LocalGhost
- LangMem vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- LangMem vs Memory (MCP reference server)
- LangMem vs Supermemory API + MCP
- LangMem vs Zep
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs LangMem
- Cognee vs Context Mode Engine
- Context Mode Engine vs Graphicle
- Context Mode Engine vs Graphiti
- 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 Mem0 Platform + MCP
- Context Mode Engine vs Supermemory API + MCP
- Context Mode Engine vs Zep
- Graphicle vs LangMem
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/context-mode-vs-langmem.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/context-mode.json·/api/v1/tools/langmem.json - From a terminal
anchor compare context-mode langmem(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "context-mode", "b": "langmem"}at/mcp, no key