Compare · claude-mem vs Letta

claude-mem vs Letta

Letta: Stateful agents with self-editing long-term memory (formerly MemGPT).

Letta (formerly MemGPT) builds stateful agents with self-editing long-term memory — a framework for the agents themselves. cmem is not an agent framework; it is a memory layer that rides alongside the agent you already use, capturing observations and serving them over MCP. Install it into Claude Code or point any MCP client at your private link.

Feature by feature
Capability
Letta
cmem.ai
What it is
Stateful-agent framework
Memory layer for your existing agent
Works with your current agent
Build on their runtime
Drop-in via MCP, no rewrite
Automatic coding capture
Varies
A second model takes notes
Local-first storage
Per their deployment
Local SQLite, cloud sync opt-in
One link across machines
Check their docs
Private MCP link
Price
Varies
$0 cloud during early access
How migration works

Move without ripping anything out

01

Install the engine

Run npx claude-mem@latest install. The open-source engine wires into Claude Code natively and starts writing observations — nothing to migrate first.

02

Keep what you have

cmem speaks MCP, so it sits alongside Letta rather than replacing it. Point any MCP client at your private link and both can read.

03

Recall everywhere

Once CMEM Cloud mirrors your DB, the same memory is reachable from every agent and machine through one private MCP link.

What you get

Memory that compounds, built in

Automatic capture

A second model writes structured notes out-of-band — no prompting, no slowdown.

Auto-categorization

Decision, bugfix, feature, discovery, security — every note lands in a taxonomy.

Search three ways

Semantic, keyword, and timeline search over everything your agents have done.

Causality threading

Before/after links connect why a change happened to what came next.

Local-first & private

Memory lives in local SQLite with privacy stripping; cloud sync is opt-in.

Smart-explore

Structural codebase exploration that is 6–12× cheaper than reading files in full.

See all features →

Early access

Try a drop-in memory plugin

The engine is open source and free to install today. Cloud sync is $0 during early access — join the waitlist and your private MCP link arrives by email.