Cognee MCP alternatives
Cognee turns text, files and code into a knowledge graph with vector embeddings alongside it. The MCP server's remember tool runs the add and cognify pipeline, where an LLM extracts entities and relationships, and recall chooses among graph completion, RAG, temporal and Cypher strategies. Locally it defaults to SQLite, LanceDB and an embedded graph database, and it can point at Cognee Cloud instead.
It is a flexible memory engine for people who want to control the pipeline. For a team that wants its coding agents to share memory without building one, Glen is the first alternative to look at.
The 9 best alternatives
- GlenOur pick
Shared team memory without building the pipeline
Cognee is a memory pipeline you assemble and run, and each MCP client gets its own dataset by default. Glen is that system already assembled for a team: recorded automatically, shared across the org, nothing to operate.
Recorded automaticallyClaude CodeCodexCursorSlackGitHubLinearNotionCall transcriptsOne memory for your orgSourced, permissioned per fact, newer decisions winEvery teammate's agentClaude CodeCodexCursorGets one cited answer, injected into the session before it goes looking.29%fewer tokens across 100 replayed PRs21%faster, measured end to endParity+quality on withheld testsCogneeGlenWho writes memoryThe agent, via rememberRecorded from every session and toolWho can read itOne dataset per clientYour whole org, permissions per factWhat the agent getsGraph or RAG completionOne cited answer, injected in-sessionWhat you runLLM key and local storesNothing: hosted, OAuth 2.1 The closest to Glen in mechanism: claude-mem records sessions through hooks in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others, compresses tool use into observations with an observer model, and injects context when a session starts. The difference is scope. Memory lives in SQLite on one machine, grouped by project, and TeamBrain, its sharing feature, was a pilot with no public pricing when we checked. It is good memory for one developer, and your teammates' agents never see any of it.
Set up claude-mem →Mem0 runs an LLM over whatever the agent passes to add_memory, extracts discrete memories, and returns them through semantic search from a hosted endpoint at mcp.mem0.ai. It is built for per-user memory inside an application: every memory hangs off a user_id, agent_id or run_id, nothing is written unless the agent decides to call add_memory, and search hands back matching memories rather than an answer with sources. The self-run mem0-mcp package is archived and Mem0's OpenMemory was sunset in July 2026, so the hosted server is the only maintained route.
Set up Mem0 →MemPalace keeps conversations and files verbatim, without summarizing, and files each piece into wings and rooms so a search can be scoped to one person or project; ChromaDB with local embeddings does retrieval, and a SQLite graph tracks facts with validity windows. Hooks for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor save sessions automatically. A palace lives on one machine unless you run your own HTTP hub, search returns raw drawers for the agent to read rather than an answer, and its 47 tool definitions sit in every session's context window.
Set up MemPalace →Graphiti, the open-source library under Zep's commercial product, is the most careful about time of anything on this list: facts are graph edges with validity timestamps, and a newer episode that contradicts an older fact invalidates it. You run it yourself on FalkorDB or Neo4j with your own LLM and embedding keys, and the README calls the MCP server a reference implementation with no authentication, so anyone who reaches the port can read or clear the whole graph. Episodes still arrive only when the agent calls add_memory.
Set up Zep Graphiti →Supermemory's hosted server turns content the agent saves into documents, extracts memories from them asynchronously, and returns matches with a similarity score and the source document's ID. Spaces partition memory per project or user, and clients with MCP Apps support get a space picker and an interactive memory graph. Through this server, memory enters when the agent or the user calls a save tool, so what a space holds is whatever someone remembered to store.
Set up Supermemory →ByteRover keeps project knowledge as topic files in a .brv/context-tree directory inside the repository, with git-style branches and merges and optional cloud sync for a team. Its MCP server is deliberately small: brv-query runs BM25 over the tree and brv-curate saves a topic the agent wrote. Knowledge enters only when an agent or a person curates it, so the tree holds what someone chose to document, which is the AGENTS.md problem with better tooling.
Set up ByteRover →LongMemory, the CaviraOSS project published until recently as OpenMemory and unrelated to Mem0's product of that name, sorts memories into five sectors that decay at different rates and links them through a waypoint graph. It is six tools over a local SQLite file, with a user_id on each call to keep users apart. It records only what the agent chooses to store, and the team-aware rewrite on its main branch was not on npm when we checked.
Set up LongMemory (formerly OpenMemory) →Basic Memory writes memory as plain Markdown in a folder you choose, parses observations and wiki-link relations into a graph, and indexes it in SQLite for hybrid search. The files open in Obsidian and diff cleanly in git, and Basic Memory Cloud serves the same 17 tools over OAuth with shared workspaces. A note exists only when the agent calls bm_write or bm_edit, so the memory is exactly as complete as the agent's judgment about what was worth writing down.
Set up Basic Memory →
How to choose
Pick Cognee if you want to build and tune a knowledge-graph memory yourself, with full control over storage and models. Pick Glen if the goal is for a team's agents to share what the team knows, with nothing to operate. Graphiti is Cognee's closest peer as a self-hosted graph; Mem0 and Supermemory are hosted memory APIs; claude-mem and MemPalace record sessions on one machine.
FAQ
- What is the best Cognee alternative?
- Glen for a coding team that wants shared memory with nothing to run. Zep's Graphiti if you want another self-hosted knowledge graph with strong handling of facts that change.
- Do different agents share Cognee memory?
- Not by default. Each MCP client writes to its own dataset, such as claude_code_memory or cursor_vscode_memory, unless you set COGNEE_MCP_AGENT_SCOPED=false.
- How does Glen store memory, compared with Cognee?
- Glen stores observations with their sources and returns a synthesized, cited answer. It handles changing decisions by letting the newer one supersede the older one.