Penfield MCP vs Deja Vu

In-depth architectural comparison of the Penfield MCP and Deja Vu 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 Penfield MCP when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: OAuth 2.0 (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: Persistent memory across sessions, Hybrid BM25, vector, and graph search, Knowledge graph with 24 relationship types.

Explore Penfield MCP Details

Choose Deja Vu 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: deja.

Explore Deja Vu Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Penfield MCP penfieldlabs Knowledge & Memory	Deja Vu vshulcz Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Penfield: persistent memory with hybrid search (BM25 + vector + graph), 24 relationship types for knowledge graphs, context checkpoints for cognitive handoff, artifact storage, and personality system. Works across Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP client.	Local memory layer over the session histories coding agents already write (Claude Code, Codex CLI, opencode): lexical search, recall tools, session-start auto-recall, secret redaction at index time, cross-machine sync over SSH.
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": {
    "penfieldlabs-penfield-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vshulcz-deja-vu": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@vshulcz/deja-vu"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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