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Head to head · Agent memory · October 2026 research run

Honcho vs TencentDB Agent Memory

Honcho scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against TencentDB Agent Memory's 56 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent memory. Honcho accepts x402. TencentDB Agent Memory doesn't.

Best memory layers for AI agents · All 188 memory comparisons

HonchoPlastic Labs · HTTP API B64.2/100#422 of 1238 TencentDB Agent MemoryTencent Cloud · HTTP API C56/100#766 of 1238

Which one, for what

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

  • Schema & documentation, 79 against 61
  • Security & auth, 48 against 30
  • Payments & pricing, 80 against 60

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

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.

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

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 runHonchoTencentDB Agent MemoryEdge
Reliability16%205051TencentDB Agent Memory +1
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27961Honcho +18
Agent ergonomics13%16.26568TencentDB Agent Memory +3
Security & auth14%17.54830Honcho +18
Payments & pricing10%12.58060Honcho +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87370Honcho +3
Transparency & trust7%8.86968Honcho +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 64.2/100C 56/100

Facts side by side

FactHonchoTencentDB Agent Memory
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorPlastic LabsTencent Cloud
Hosted endpointhttps://api.honcho.dev/v3no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFree
x402yes, from $0.001/callno
LicenceAGPL-3.0MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registryio.github.plastic-labs/honchonot listed
Last release2026-09-242026-10-26
Terms last updatedno date givenno document linked
Privacy policy last updated2025-04-24no document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk2.2k npm/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Honcho

Pay per call over x402 or MPP at agentcash.honcho.dev, with free read endpoints. No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA.

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

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

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, Honcho or TencentDB Agent Memory?

Honcho scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against TencentDB Agent Memory's 56 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Honcho and TencentDB Agent Memory need an API key?

Honcho takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. TencentDB Agent Memory needs an API key. An agent can also pay Honcho per call over x402, with no account.

Can an agent call Honcho and TencentDB Agent Memory without installing anything?

Honcho has a hosted endpoint at https://api.honcho.dev/v3. No hosted endpoint is listed for TencentDB Agent Memory.

Are Honcho and TencentDB Agent Memory open source?

Yes. Honcho is open source (AGPL-3.0). TencentDB Agent Memory is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Honcho or TencentDB Agent Memory

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