Kontexta

REF. C — COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

How kontexta compares

MATRIX C — CAPABILITY COMPARISON

Capability	CLAUDE.md	Vendor memory	mem0	Zep	kontexta
Setup cost	None — just a file	None — built in	SDK integration in your app	SDK + service	MCP server + kontexta.json
Cross-agent portability	Per-agent flavored files drift apart	Locked to one vendor	App-level, not agent-level	App-level, not agent-level	Same MCP surface for Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini, Aider
Retrieval model	Whole file dumped into context	Whole file / vendor-managed	Vector + graph (semantic)	Temporal knowledge graph	Deterministic FTS5 + regex; surgical section reads
Token accounting	None	None	None exposed to agent	None exposed to agent	Every response carries est_tokens / size_bytes
Command execution	N/A	Vendor-defined tools	N/A (memory only)	N/A (memory only)	Sandboxed Hands with per-command contracts and approval
Storage	Repo file (clutters PRs)	Vendor cloud	Self-host or hosted, vector DB	Self-host or hosted	Local SQLite, git-synced markdown vault
Best at	Static project conventions	Zero-config personal memory	Semantic recall inside one app	Long-running conversational memory	Multi-agent handoff + governed local execution

REF. C.1 — DESIGN RATIONALE

Why kontexta

R-01

Cross-agent continuity

Switch from Claude Code to Aider or Continue mid-project. Both read the same vault and journal back into it.

R-02

Automatic memory

Every tool call is captured server-side without agent involvement. Periodic distillation turns the raw event log into per-topic markdown summaries you can search, share, and version.

R-03

Governed execution

Every Hands command is declared in kontexta.json. Approval gates for the destructive ones. No rogue shell.

R-04

Deterministic retrieval

SQLite FTS5, not vectors. Exact keyword and regex search — no embedding hallucination, no third-party API.

R-05

Context economy

Surgical fetching: outlines, sections, search excerpts. Every response carries est_tokens so agents budget intentionally.

R-06

Local-first architecture

Your vault on your SSD. No cloud sync, no upload. KONTEXTA_DATA_DIR points wherever you want.