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Knowtarium vs Basic Memory

Basic Memory gives your AI tools a lasting memory made of markdown files, served over MCP. Knowtarium is a desktop app for reviewing what agents write into a knowledge base. Both keep your knowledge in plain files; Knowtarium adds a review step that holds every agent change as a diff until you approve it.

Pre-order See how it works

The short version

Which one is for you?

They solve different problems. Here's which one fits the way you work.

Choose Basic Memory if

You want one memory shared by Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor, free and open source on your own machine, or hosted with web and mobile access, semantic search and shared team workspaces.

Choose Knowtarium if

You want every agent change held for your approval, a record in each file of who wrote it and who checked it, freshness dates, and an agent check of your own edits against connected documents. Our guide to a Claude Code second brain shows the setup.

Side by side

Feature by feature.

TopicKnowtariumBasic Memory

Made forReviewing and trusting knowledge that agents writeGiving AI tools a memory that lasts between conversations, which you can read and edit too

FormatOKF, the open specification published by Google Cloud: markdown with fields for who wrote each document, who checked it and when it expiresPlain Markdown with its own conventions: frontmatter (title, type, permalink, tags), categorized observations and typed wikilink relations, indexed in SQLite

Open sourceNoYes, under the AGPL-3.0, and free on your own machine

How agents work with itClaude Code, Codex and Cursor edit the files directly, guided by an included skill; an optional local MCP server serves chat apps without file accessMainly over MCP: tools to write, read, edit, move and search notes and to follow the graph; works with Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT and other MCP clients

Who wrote it, who checked itRead from generated and verified, and shown as a trust tier on every documentNo built-in field for either (custom frontmatter like author is free-form); in the cloud app, an activity feed shows changes from members and connected agents

Reviewing agent changesEvery agent change waits as a diff against the last verified version until you approve itIn the cloud app, an agent can propose suggestions you accept or reject one by one; agents can also write notes directly

FreshnessDocuments past stale_after are flagged and queued for a refreshNo built-in expiry field; custom frontmatter is free-form

HistoryEvery change is kept as a diffCloud: every save creates a version you can compare and restore, plus daily snapshots. Local: your own backups, such as git

SearchFull-text searchFull-text and semantic search, with optional reranking

PlatformsDesktop app for macOS, Windows and LinuxLocal: a Python package with a CLI and MCP server, used alongside editors like Obsidian or VS Code. Cloud: web app and mobile access

TeamsNone: a personal app, with no sharing or real-time collaborationBasic Memory Teams: shared workspaces, member roles and editing a note together in real time

Price$20 once, $10 during pre-orders; no subscription, no accountFree and open source locally; cloud from $15 per seat per month ($30 on Business), with a 7-day trial

Facts about Basic Memory checked on September 26, 2026 against basicmemory.com, docs.basicmemory.com and the basic-memory GitHub repository. Basic Memory is a product of Basic Machines; its name is a trademark of its owner. OKF is published by Google Cloud. Knowtarium isn't affiliated with either. Spot something out of date? Emailcontact@magentix.studio.