vestige/docs/comparison.md
Sam Valladares 00511948ff Add developer launch kit for Vestige v2.1.23
Dual-wave marketing assets (Receipt Lock + cognitive memory), GitHub Pages
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Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
2026-06-02 12:38:18 -05:00

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Vestige vs Mem0 vs RAG vs Native AI Memory

Canonical comparison for launch posts and arguments. Grounded in SCIENCE.md and LAUNCH_STATS.md.

One-line thesis

RAG is retrieval. Native memory is a black box. Mem0 is a strong cloud memory API. Vestige is a local cognitive system that forgets, strengthens, dreams, and can block unverified agent claims.

Comparison table

Capability RAG / vector DB Native AI memory (Claude, ChatGPT) Mem0 Vestige
Runs local Often cloud embeddings Cloud only Cloud API (local option limited) 100% local default
You own the data Your infra Vendor Vendor / API SQLite on your disk
Forgetting curve None — equal weight forever Opaque Categories + metadata FSRS-6 power-law decay
Duplicate handling Manual Opaque Some dedup Prediction Error Gating on ingest
Retrieval strengthens memory No Unknown Partial Testing Effect on every search
Offline consolidation No No No dream — replay + connect
Contradiction awareness Returns both chunks No Some products deep_reference / contradictions
Active suppression Delete only No Delete suppress — inhibited, not erased
Agent overclaim guard No No No Receipt Lock (optional Sanhedrin hooks)
Visualization None None Dashboard (cloud) 3D graph + WebSocket events
Protocol Custom Proprietary API + MCP MCP (25 tools)
License Varies Proprietary Apache / commercial AGPL-3.0 (local use = free)

When to use what

Use RAG when

  • You have a fixed document corpus (PDFs, wiki, codebase index).
  • You need one-shot Q&A over static content.
  • You do not need memory lifecycle or session continuity.

Use Mem0 when

  • You want a hosted memory API with minimal setup.
  • Team sync and cloud dashboards are acceptable.
  • You do not need FSRS decay or local-only air-gapped deploy.

Use native Claude/ChatGPT memory when

  • Casual personal context is enough.
  • You do not need inspectable storage, decay curves, or contradiction tooling.

Use Vestige when

  • You run Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or any MCP client daily.
  • Context bloat from "remember everything" hurts retrieval quality.
  • Contradicting memories have burned you (config changed, lib upgraded).
  • You want Receipt Lock so agents cannot fake "tests passed."
  • Privacy / air-gapped matters — embeddings run locally via ONNX.

Honest limitations (Vestige)

  • AGPL-3.0: hosting as a service without source disclosure is not allowed.
  • First-run download: ~130MB embedding model (then offline).
  • Receipt Lock requires optional Claude Code Cognitive Sandwich hooks + a verifier endpoint for Sanhedrin.
  • Neuroscience modules mix faithful implementations and engineering heuristics — see SCIENCE.md for citations vs approximations.
  • Solo project: no enterprise SLA; GitHub issues are the support channel.

Receipt Lock (Vestige-only)

Coding agents often end sessions with:

"All tests passed. Build is green. Ready to merge."

Receipt Lock checks those operational claims against structured command receipts from the transcript. No matching successful receipt → claim blocked, local veto receipt written under ~/.vestige/sanhedrin/.

vestige sandwich install --enable-sanhedrin

Details: README Receipt Lock section.

Install

npm install -g vestige-mcp-server@latest
claude mcp add vestige vestige-mcp -s user

Full stats: LAUNCH_STATS.md · Repo: https://github.com/samvallad33/vestige