Engram vs Perseus Vault

In-depth architectural comparison of the Engram and Perseus Vault 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 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.

Explore Engram Details

Choose Perseus Vault 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).
• You have access to required keys: PERSEUS_VAULT_ENCRYPTION_KEY.
• Primary tools included: Single Rust binary with embedded SQLite, AES-256-GCM encryption at rest, Hybrid BM25 full-text and dense vector search.

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Engram HBarefoot Knowledge & Memory	Perseus Vault Perseus-Computing-LLC Knowledge & Memory
Summary	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	Local-first, MCP-native persistent memory for AI agents — a single Rust binary with embedded SQLite, hybrid FTS5 + dense-vector search, and optional AES-256-GCM encryption. Fully offline, no cloud.
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": {
    "hbarefoot-engram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "hbarefoot-engram"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perseus-computing-llc-perseus-vault": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "perseus-computing-llc-perseus-vault"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PERSEUS_VAULT_ENCRYPTION_KEY": "YOUR_PERSEUS_VAULT_ENCRYPTION_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

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