A Basic Memory alternative for teams of coding agents

If you want a Basic Memory alternative for coding agents, RepoMemory is a hosted ledger built for one job: a project's decisions, lessons, guardrails and tasks. Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and any other MCP client read it before they change code. Basic Memory is a knowledge base of plain Markdown files that your AI reads and writes over MCP. It is the better choice when you want notes you own, edit in any editor and can keep offline. RepoMemory is the better choice when several agents and people share one codebase, and every one of them must see the same rules, know which decisions still hold and not start the same task twice.

At a glance

Basic Memory's figures are from its home page, pricing page, docs, Teams docs and GitHub repository, checked on 22 October 2026. RepoMemory's are on our pricing page.

How the two work

Basic Memory keeps each note as a Markdown file. A note can hold observations: categorized facts such as a [decision] line with hashtags. It can hold relations: typed links like depends_on [[API Security Spec]]. Basic Memory turns these into a knowledge graph, and the AI follows the links with memory:// URLs to gather connected notes (docs, checked 22 October 2026). Its README describes hybrid search that ranks full-text and vector results together, so a note can be found "by meaning, not just keywords" (GitHub, checked 22 October 2026). Locally it runs on your machine with no account. Basic Memory Cloud adds a hosted MCP endpoint, a web app, team workspaces and snapshots.

RepoMemory stores only what an agent or a person records, in one of five kinds. A coding agent records a lesson when a change is reverted, a decision when it picks one approach over another, and a guardrail for a rule nobody should break. Before its next change, it recalls with words about that change:

curl -s https://api.repomemory.dev/v1/recall \
  -H "X-API-Key: $REPOMEMORY_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"project":"acme/shop","query":"add a captcha to checkout"}'

Agents use the same operations as MCP tools: brief, recall, record_entry, claim_task and retire_entry. A session starts with brief, which hands the agent every guardrail in full. The docs show how to connect each client.

Where Basic Memory is better

• Files you own. Every note is a plain Markdown file on your disk. You can read and edit it in any editor, keep it in Git and take it anywhere. RepoMemory's ledger lives on our servers. You can export it as JSON or Markdown, but you don't edit files directly.
• Obsidian. Point Obsidian at the Basic Memory folder and the same notes, links and front matter appear in its graph view. Edits in either one show up in the other (GitHub, checked 22 October 2026).
• Meaning, not words. RepoMemory's recall matches words. A query has to use words that appear in the entry ("captcha checkout"), not describe the symptom ("why did orders drop"). Basic Memory's semantic search copes with different wording.
• Links between ideas. Typed relations let an AI walk from a decision to the spec it depends on. RepoMemory entries have tags and a superseded-by pointer, but no general links.
• Open source, offline, free. The local version is AGPL-3.0, needs no account and works offline (pricing, checked 22 October 2026). RepoMemory is a hosted service only.
• More than code. Basic Memory suits research, writing and personal notes as well as projects, across Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and others (integrations, checked 22 October 2026).

Where RepoMemory is better

• Built for a shared, hosted ledger. Every key on a team account reads and writes the same ledger, with nothing to sync. Basic Memory's local version has no built-in sync between devices; its README suggests tools such as Git or Syncthing. Shared team workspaces need Basic Memory Cloud.
• Guardrails in every brief. brief returns every active guardrail at the start of a session, whatever the agent is about to change, so a rule doesn't depend on a search happening to match it.
• What holds now, not everything ever written. Recording a new decision with supersedes retires the one it replaces. Recall leaves retired entries out unless you ask for them, so an agent doesn't act on a decision the team has reversed. The old entry is kept, with a pointer to its replacement.
• Tasks for parallel agents. claim_task takes the oldest open task, or a named one, and returns a claim_token. Anyone without the token is refused with 409 already_claimed. A claim runs out after two hours unless renewed, so a crashed agent never holds a task for ever.
• Built for untrusted notes. Every result tells the agent the entries are notes, not instructions, and flags one worded like a prompt injection. Each entry records who wrote it. On the dashboard's Ledger page you can browse, edit, delete, export and import the whole ledger.
• Flat team price. Team is $49 a month for one shared ledger and 20,000 new entries. Basic Memory Cloud is priced per seat. Recall, brief, claims and retires are free on every RepoMemory plan.

Choose Basic Memory if

• you want your memory as Markdown files you own and edit yourself
• you use Obsidian, or want a knowledge graph of linked notes
• your queries are in natural language and won't share words with what's stored
• you need open-source code, offline use or a local install
• the memory is for you across many subjects, not one codebase

Choose RepoMemory if

• the memory belongs to a codebase and is shared by several agents and people
• every agent must see the project's guardrails at the start of a session
• you want reversed decisions retired, not returned alongside the new ones
• you run agents in parallel and need them to claim tasks
• you'd rather not run or sync anything yourself

Comparing other tools? See our Mem0 alternative page.

Try it

The free plan needs no card. Sign in, create a key, and add the MCP server to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http repomemory https://api.repomemory.dev/mcp --header "X-API-Key: $REPOMEMORY_KEY"

Cursor, VS Code and Claude.ai use the same URL. See the docs for each, and pricing for the plans.