Head to head · Memory search · October 2026 research run

Graphicle vs Honcho

Graphicle scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Honcho's 64.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Honcho leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do memory search. Honcho accepts x402. Graphicle doesn't.

Best memory layers for AI agents · All 65 memory comparisons

Which one, for what

Graphicle B

Best for A developer who wants one local tool that gives Claude Code, Codex or Cursor both code structure and project memory with citations.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 63 against 50
  • Agent ergonomics, 86 against 65
  • Security & auth, 69 against 48

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

One release, v0.1.0 on 14 October 2026, from a repository created that day

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 60
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 48

Also in its favour

  • An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGraphicleHonchoEdge
Reliability16%206350Graphicle +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28379Graphicle +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.28665Graphicle +21
Security & auth14%17.56948Graphicle +21
Payments & pricing10%12.56080Honcho +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84873Honcho +25
Transparency & trust7%8.86867Graphicle +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 69.8/100B 64.1/100

Facts side by side

FactGraphicleHoncho
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorKarLex AI, Inc.Plastic Labs
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.honcho.dev/v3
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreePay per use
x402noyes, from $0.001/call
LicenceApache-2.0AGPL-3.0
Tools exposed25none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listedio.github.plastic-labs/honcho
Last release2026-10-142026-09-24
Terms last updated2025-03-14no date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-03-142025-04-24
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity144 stars7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

Verdicts

Graphicle

One local program gives a coding agent a code graph and project memory through 25 typed, annotated MCP tools that return cited excerpts within a token budget, with agent-written memories held for human approval. It is one day old at version 0.1.0, its SDKs are not on any registry, and the licence and advisory check fails on main.

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

Graphicle

  1. Call recall_project with a max_tokens budget, then read_project_source with the cited id and byte offset to continue a cut excerpt
  2. Use query_graph, get_neighbors and shortest_path for structure questions, and pass repo to reach another synced project
  3. Treat proposed memories as drafts. They are not served until a person approves them in graphicle open under Memory
  4. Ask the user before running graphicle setup, which edits agent settings, AGENTS.md and Git hooks, and use graphicle disconnect to undo it
  5. Over HTTP send the key as Authorization: Bearer, never in the URL, and on 429 wait for the Retry-After reset

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, Graphicle or Honcho?

Graphicle scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Honcho's 64.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Honcho leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

Do Graphicle 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 Graphicle and Honcho without installing anything?

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

Are Graphicle and Honcho open source?

Yes. Graphicle is open source (Apache-2.0). Honcho is open source (AGPL-3.0).

Other comparisons with Graphicle 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.