Compared with other tools

Several open tools give an AI agent a memory. Most of them are memory engines: you push data into them, and a model works out what to remember. memo works the other way. It reads your own notes, mail and messenger archives into one local store, and your agent searches that store and keeps what you confirm. This page puts memo next to five of these tools so you can pick the one that fits your job. It says what each tool does. It does not say which finds better answers, because nobody has measured that here.

The marks come from each project's own documentation and source, checked on 24 October 2026; a tool may do more than its documentation says. Each mark for another tool links to the page it comes from. The marks for memo were checked against version 0.90.0.

The tools:

• memo — this tool: a command line and an MCP server over a local store of your notes, mail and messages.
• Hindsight — an agent memory server: an agent saves text and asks questions, and a model pulls out facts.
• mem0 — a memory layer for apps: a library, a self-hosted server and a hosted platform.
• Graphiti — a framework that builds a knowledge graph of facts that change over time. Zep is its paid cloud.
• Cognee — a memory platform that turns documents and conversations into a knowledge graph.
• basic-memory — Markdown notes that an agent reads and writes over MCP.

✅ yes · 🟡 partly · ❌ no · ➖ not in its documentation

FeaturesCopy Anchor Link

Notes on memo:

• Sources. Telegram, MAX, WhatsApp, Zoom meetings and Google Drive reach the store through the sister tools tg, max, wa, zm and drive. memo reads that store. It imports notes folders and mail itself; mail goes through Himalaya, and mail is covered below. search all covers messages, mail and notes; meetings have their own search meetings.
• Search. All six tools search by words and by meaning. This page does not rank them. In memo, search by meaning uses a local model that memo models download fetches; without it, word search still works.
• No LLM key. Sync and search need no remote language-model API key; meaning search uses a local model. answers create --analyze calls a model you configure, and only if you ask.
• MCP. memo mcp uses stdio for local apps; memo mcp --http serves the same commands through the owner’s HTTPS tunnel and access-code OAuth login (remote setup). It offers memo_tools_search, memo_read and memo_write. Discovery retains blocked commands with their current availability and reason. CLI-only exclusions are mcp, upgrade, skill install, jobs start and jobs stop. Saved permissions use deny, readonly, ask or allow. MEMO_READ_ONLY=1 refuses writes. Agent memories, facts and proposed actions wait for review.
• Safety. Permissions in the configuration set each command to deny, readonly, ask or allow. MEMO_READ_ONLY=1 keeps writing commands discoverable but refuses their calls. Memories, facts and actions an agent adds are saved as proposed until you confirm them. Decisions on project proposals are the exception: an agent may make them, with a recorded reason, until you set agent_decisions to false.
• Knowledge. memo stores messages and the facts and links you or your agent record, each with the message, note or meeting that shows it. It does not find facts in text by itself. A fact takes the date it happened, and a decision can be marked as replacing an earlier one. Nothing ends a fact by itself when the world changes.
• Platforms. Tested on Linux only; macOS and Windows are not tested yet.
• Benchmark. No memory benchmark result for memo is published. The scores the other tools publish come from their own tests on their own data and are not comparable with each other.

memo mail compared with email toolsCopy Anchor Link

Mail is a tool of its own in memo. The memory tools above do not do this job, so this table puts memo next to tools people use for mail. memo reads mail through Himalaya, so Himalaya is the layer under it, not only a rival. The marks come from each project's documentation, checked on 24 October 2026.

• Himalaya — a mail command line for IMAP, SMTP, JMAP, Gmail and others. memo calls it to read mail.
• gog — one command line for Google services; its gmail commands read, send and manage Gmail.
• Google Workspace MCP — a maintained MCP server for Google services, with Gmail tools. The best known Gmail MCP server is archived, so it is not compared.
• notmuch — fast search and tags over mail you already hold in a local folder.

Notes on memo:

• Himalaya. memo needs it installed and set up first. It reads mailboxes through it and changes nothing there, except memo mail delete and memo mail restore, which move mail to and from Gmail's Trash only with --yes.
• Filters. memo does not create filters in Gmail. It reads a Gmail filter export and turns each filter into a rule for what to import.
• Sending. memo never sends mail. It has no code for it.
• Himalaya marks. The partial marks mean: a Maildir folder can be read and listed, but Himalaya builds no search index; mbox is a supported format, but Takeout is not named. Himalaya also manages server-side Sieve filters, which are not Gmail filters.
• notmuch marks. It reads mail you already hold as Maildir, so it needs a sync tool such as offlineimap beside it, and it converts an mbox file to Maildir first.

Where another tool fits betterCopy Anchor Link

• You want an agent to write, reply to or send mail. Himalaya, gog and the Google Workspace MCP send mail; memo only reads it.
• You manage Gmail itself: labels, archive, filters. gog and the Google Workspace MCP change Gmail's own settings; memo only trashes and restores mail.
• You live in a mail client and want fast tag-based search with no other tools. notmuch is built for that, and a text editor or terminal client sits on top of it.

Install and licenceCopy Anchor Link

When another tool fits betterCopy Anchor Link

• You want memory to build itself from conversations. Hindsight, mem0, Graphiti and Cognee use a model to pull facts and entities out of what you feed them. memo keeps only what you or your agent record and you confirm.
• You need facts that change over time, handled for you. Graphiti marks an old fact as no longer true when new information arrives, and keeps both. memo records dates and replaced decisions, but you or your agent mark them.
• You are building a product for other people, or need a hosted service. Hindsight, mem0 and Cognee have libraries, a cloud, a dashboard and MCP over HTTP; mem0, Hindsight and Cognee publish benchmark scores. memo is a tool for one person's computer, with a terminal, local stdio MCP and authenticated HTTP MCP through your tunnel.
• You live in Markdown notes and want sync and a mobile app. basic-memory's cloud syncs notes between devices. memo has one store per computer and no interface of its own.

If memo fits, start with installation; to connect an agent without a terminal, see the MCP server.