Throughline vs Cognee
A side-by-side look at the Throughline and Cognee MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Throughline for knowledge & memory work; choose Cognee for knowledge & memory. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
TChoose Throughline when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
Choose Cognee when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
- Its auth model fits you: No auth required.
- You have the keys it needs:
LLM_API_KEY. - You want tools like
remember, recall, forget.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | T Throughline | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Knowledge & Memory | Knowledge & Memory |
| Quality signal | 37/100 · Fair | 53/100 · Good |
| Install command | Not confirmed yet | Not confirmed yet |
| Transport | — | — |
| Auth | Not declared | No auth required |
| Pricing | Not declared | Free |
| Required env vars | None listed | LLM_API_KEY |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | — | 32,674 |
| Directory activity | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 5 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | Not listed | 4 |
| Full listing | View Throughline | View Cognee |
Tools & capabilities
Throughline tools
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Cognee tools 4
rememberStore data in memory. Pass `data` for text, or `filename` + `content_base64` to ingest an uploaded file (up to 10 MB). With `session_id`: fast session cache (text only). Without `session_id`: permanent graph memoryrecallSearch memory with auto-routing. Searches session cache first when `session_id` is provided, then falls through to the permanent graphforgetDelete memory by dataset name or id, a single data item by `data_id` (paired with its `dataset_id`, both shown by `recall` with `include_references=True`), or delete all owned memory with `everything=True`cognify_statusCheck the progress of background ingestion started by `remember(background=True)`. Unadvertised by default; discoverable via `search_tools` and callable by name
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Throughline
No confirmed install command for Throughline yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.
Cognee
No confirmed install command for Cognee yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.