Coldstart vs Kage

In-depth architectural comparison of the Coldstart and Kage MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Coldstart when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: Deterministic AST-based navigation, Repo-local Markdown notebook, Content-hash freshness checks.

Explore Coldstart Details

Choose Kage when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: OKF-compatible Markdown memory in Git, Citation validation at write and recall time, Local BM25 and vector retrieval.

Explore Kage Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Coldstart AkashGoenka Knowledge & Memory	Kage kage-core Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Codebase memory for coding agents, with no embeddings and no API key. A deterministic AST index answers "which files are relevant to this task?" in milliseconds, and agents write durable notes about the repo that are content-hash checked — a note flags itself stale the moment the code it describes changes. Notes are markdown inside the repo, so they commit and review alongside your code. npm i -g @cstart/coldstart && coldstart init	Verified, git-native memory for coding agents. Memory is plain JSON packets committed in your repo, each checked against the code it cites — hallucinated citations rejected at write, stale or changed memory withheld at recall, plus diff-time stale-catch. Local-only (BM25 + vectors), no account, no API key. npx -y @kage-core/kage-graph-mcp install

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "akashgoenka-coldstart": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "akashgoenka-coldstart"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kage-core-kage": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kage-core/kage-graph-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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