cachly vs Basic Memory: lessons or Markdown notes
Both keep what your AI learns beyond one session. Basic Memory stores it as Markdown files that you and your AI write together, on your disk or in its cloud. cachly keeps lessons from fixes and decisions in your codebase, in a hosted brain in Germany.
This page compares both on facts you can check. Each row links its source.
At a glance
| Aspect | cachly | Basic Memory | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | cachlyExperience for coding agents. Your assistant stores a lesson after a fix and finds it again when the same problem returns. | Basic MemoryA knowledge base of Markdown files that you and your AI both read and write. Observations and wikilinks form a knowledge graph. | Sources |
| How memory is written | cachlyA lesson: topic, what worked, what failed, context, files and commands. Your assistant writes it, the Stop hook records reported fixes, and git history adds more. | Basic MemoryThe AI writes and edits notes with MCP tools. You edit the same files, for example in Obsidian. | Sources |
| Where data lives | cachlyHosted by cachly: one instance per brain at Hetzner in Nuremberg, Germany. By default, cachly computes embeddings in the EU. The API runs behind Cloudflare, a US company. | Basic MemoryLocal: Markdown files on your disk with a local SQLite index. Cloud: hosted on Neon Postgres and Tigris S3. | Sources |
| Search | cachlySearch by meaning, with embeddings and a reranker on servers cachly runs in the EU. | Basic MemoryFull-text and semantic search with FastEmbed embeddings, and optional reranking. | Sources |
| Coding tools | cachlyClaude Code as a plugin. Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Cline, Continue.dev and Zed over MCP. A JetBrains plugin. | Basic MemoryClaude Code, Codex, Cursor and VS Code over MCP. Also Claude Desktop, ChatGPT and Obsidian. | Sources |
| Claude Code | cachlyA plugin with the hooks SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit and Stop. | Basic MemoryA plugin with session-start briefings and checkpoints before compaction. It needs the Basic Memory MCP server. | Sources |
| MCP tools | cachlyAn MCP server on your machine. The editor lists 27 tools; 124 in total through one dispatcher tool. | Basic MemoryTools for notes, search, the knowledge graph, projects and schemas. Each is marked as read-only, destructive or idempotent. | Sources |
| Run it yourself | cachlyHosted service. The MCP server and the hooks run on your machine and talk to your instance. | Basic MemoryThe local install is free, keeps all data on your disk and works air-gapped. It needs Python via uv. | Sources |
| Teams | cachlyTeam plan: €49 a month for 5 seats. A lesson one developer stores reaches the whole team. | Basic MemoryBasic Memory Teams: a shared cloud workspace with member roles. | Sources |
| License | cachlyMCP server and hooks: Apache-2.0. The hosted service is closed source. | Basic MemoryAGPL-3.0, for the local install and the cloud. | Sources |
| Pricing | cachlyFree €0: one brain, 25 MB, 500 recalls a month. Dev €19, Pro €49, Business €199 a month. Team: €49 a month for 5 seats. | Basic MemoryLocal: free. Cloud: Team $15 and Business $30 per seat a month, each with a 7-day trial. | Sources |
| Community | cachlycachly-mcp: public repository since April 2026. | Basic MemoryPublic repository since December 2024. | Sources |
As of . Every statement about Basic Memory comes from the linked source, read on that day. Products change; if you spot something outdated, write to [email protected].
When to pick Basic Memory
- You want your memory as plain Markdown files that you can read, edit and keep in Git or Obsidian.
- Your notes cover more than code, and you use them in ChatGPT and Claude Desktop as well.
- You need it air-gapped. The local install runs without any server.
- You want the full app as open source under AGPL-3.0, free on your own machine.
- You want a knowledge graph you can follow link by link.
When to pick cachly
- You want each lesson in a fixed form: the fix first, then what failed on the way, the files and the commands.
- You use Claude Code and want matching lessons next to each prompt, through a hook.
- You want your git history as a source of lessons.
- Your lessons should be stored in Germany, with embeddings computed in the EU.
- You want to try it before you create an account.
Try cachly
In Claude Code, cachly comes as a plugin with three hooks. Try it without an account: the first tool call creates a test brain on EU servers. The commands are in Hooks that carry experience.
For Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and other editors, MCP integration shows the one-command setup. What leaves your machine, and where it lands: EU hosting and your data.
Sources
Read in the original text on .
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