Both projects start from the same idea: your knowledge is Markdown on your disk, and an MCP server lets an agent read and write it. Basic Memory is a released product with a cloud tier and a wide client list. Okto Neuron is a prerelease that derives a graph from the vault and answers with the bytes a claim came from. This page is about the difference, not a ranking.
Basic Memory treats the database as a secondary index over standard Markdown and lets the AI write structured notes. Okto Neuron treats the vault as the trust root too, but the thing it builds on top is a graph of claims, and the thing it returns is a pointer to the exact block a claim was read from.
Plain Markdown plus a local SQLite index, no servers required. The AI writes notes in a simple pattern of observations and relations; search returns notes, observations and relations ranked by their best-matching chunks, with the matched chunk text.
Plain Markdown plus a derived graph that can always be rebuilt. Ingest mints claims from blocks; ask returns text with a synthesis_status, and with include_sources=true, the path, byte range and content hash of every source block.
Competitor cells paraphrase the Basic Memory README, docs and pricing page. Okto Neuron cells were checked against the v0.1.0 source, when the project was still called Marginalia; the licence, benchmark and maturity rows reflect 0.3.0.
| Dimension | Basic Memory | Okto Neuron |
|---|---|---|
| Where data lives | Markdown files on your disk. Optional cloud sync, hosted on Tigris S3, with an air-gapped local mode | Markdown vault on your disk. The vault is the trust root; nothing is hosted |
| Storage and index | Files plus a local SQLite index (Postgres also supported). Hybrid full-text and vector ranking with FastEmbed | A graph derived from the vault on Okto Grafx by default (Ladybug legacy, Neo4j optional). Rebuildable from the files |
| Agent access | MCP-native, 20+ tools (write_note, read_note, edit_note, search_notes, build_context, and more). Clients listed: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT, Obsidian | MCP with five tools over a bearer-authenticated port; REST and UI on loopback. The installer wires Claude Code |
| Provenance unit | Note, observation and relation permalinks (memory:// URLs). Search returns the matched chunk text, chunks of about 900 characters with about 120 overlap. Note-level checksum | A block: vault-relative path, byte_start, byte_end and a sha256 content_hash, returned with include_sources=true on ask |
| Temporal model | Frontmatter created and modified; recent_activity timeframes. Cloud tier adds snapshots and point-in-time restore | Ingest-time supersession bounded to the document being edited: the old claim gets valid_until and drops from recall, with a supersedes edge. Cross-document corrections are deferred, not applied |
| Extraction | No server-side LLM extraction. The AI client writes structured Markdown; structure emerges from text patterns. Local FastEmbed is for search only | LLM curation at ingest: claims are minted from blocks and a judge confirms corrections. Synthesis on ask reports synthesis_status |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Elastic License 2.0 from 0.3.0 (source-available). Releases up to 0.2.0 stay Apache 2.0 |
| Hosted option | Basic Memory Cloud at $15/seat/month, Business at $30/seat/month with HIPAA. Local use is free | None |
| Benchmarks | None in the sources reviewed | LoCoMo categories 1-4 from our own harness and judge, on the benchmarks page |
| Maturity | Released product with a paid cloud tier | Prerelease 0.3.0 for macOS and Linux; so far rehearsed on Linux only |
These are real gaps, not framing. Basic Memory has shipped things Okto Neuron has not started.
Basic Memory Cloud syncs across devices, adds snapshots and point-in-time restore, and offers a Business tier. Okto Neuron has no hosted option and no sync.
Basic Memory lists Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT and Obsidian. Okto Neuron's installer wires Claude Code; other clients are unverified.
More than twenty MCP tools covering write, edit, search, context building, schema validation and project management. Okto Neuron ships five tools in a 0.3.0 prerelease.
Basic Memory's whole loop is the client writing structured Markdown back into your vault. Okto Neuron's remember ingests a file or raw text into the graph; it does not author your notes.
Basic Memory's provenance unit is a note, observation or relation permalink plus the matched chunk text and a note-level checksum. Okto Neuron's is a block with byte_start, byte_end and a sha256 content_hash, so a reviewer can open the file and check the exact bytes.
Edit a note and re-ingest it. The old claim is dated with valid_until, drops from recall, and is linked from the new claim by a supersedes edge. This only applies inside the document being edited; cross-document corrections are deferred for triage. There is no vault-wide contradiction detection.
Every ask stamps retrieval.synthesis_status: ok, empty, provider_error, truncated or abnormal_stop. Basic Memory does not run an LLM server-side, so this row is a difference in what the tool does, not a gap.
The MCP surface is bearer-authenticated on its own port; REST and UI are credential-free on loopback. Write tools stay loopback-only.
You want the AI to write and maintain the notes, in Markdown, across several clients.
You need sync across devices, hosted backups, or a business tier with HIPAA.
You want a released product with a wide tool surface today.
Each claim in an answer has to be checkable against the exact bytes of the exact file.
You want an edited fact to supersede the old one on the next ingest, with the history kept.
You want a graph over your vault, on your machine, with nothing hosted, and you are fine with a prerelease.
Every competitor statement on this page comes from one of these pages, read on 2026-09-19. If a source has changed since, the page is wrong and we would like to know.
| Claim area | Primary source |
|---|---|
| Positioning, local-first, cloud table, clients | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/basicmachines-co/basic-memory/main/README.md |
| File-first architecture, SQLite or Postgres, FastEmbed | https://docs.basicmemory.com/reference/technical-information |
| MCP tools | https://docs.basicmemory.com/reference/mcp-tools-reference |
| Knowledge format, observations and relations | https://docs.basicmemory.com/concepts/knowledge-format |
| memory:// URLs | https://docs.basicmemory.com/concepts/memory-urls |
| Chunking and search results | https://docs.basicmemory.com/concepts/semantic-search |
| Cloud, snapshots, restore | https://docs.basicmemory.com/cloud/cloud-guide |
| Pricing | https://basicmemory.com/pricing |
Prerelease 0.3.0. Free to run locally. No account required.