Central Intelligence vs Engram

In-depth architectural comparison of the Central Intelligence and Engram 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 Central Intelligence when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: API Key required (Freemium).
• You have access to required keys: CI_API_KEY.
• Primary tools included: Five MCP tools: remember, recall, context, forget, share, Semantic search via vector embeddings, Agent, user, and organization scoped memory.

Explore Central Intelligence Details

Choose Engram 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: engram_remember, engram_recall, engram_forget.

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Central Intelligence AlekseiMarchenko Knowledge & Memory	Engram HBarefoot Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Persistent memory for AI agents. Five tools (remember, recall, context, forget, share) with semantic search via vector embeddings and agent/user/org scoping. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP client.	Local-first persistent memory for AI agents. SQLite + local embeddings (all-MiniLM-L6-v2), hybrid semantic + FTS5 recall, secret detection, and contradiction handling. 6 MCP tools (remember, recall, forget, feedback, context, status) over stdio. Zero cloud, no API keys, fully offline. Works with Claude Desktop/Code, Cursor, and Windsurf. npm install -g @hbarefoot/engram
Category & Scope

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": {
    "alekseimarchenko-central-intelligence": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "alekseimarchenko-central-intelligence"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CI_API_KEY": "YOUR_CI_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hbarefoot-engram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "hbarefoot-engram"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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