Tela vs Penfield MCP

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

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: API Key required (Free / Open Source).
• You have access to required keys: TELA_PUBLIC_BASE_URL, TELA_SHARE_SECRET, TELA_API_KEY_SECRET, TELA_PG_PASSWORD.
• Primary tools included: MCP access to search, read, and write wiki pages, Ranked PostgreSQL full-text search, Optional pgvector semantic retrieval.

Explore Tela Details

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.

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Tela zcag Knowledge & Memory	Penfield MCP penfieldlabs Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Self-hostable, markdown-native team wiki with a built-in MCP server: agents search, read, and write your wiki pages (ranked Postgres full-text + semantic search, backlink traversal). Plus Atlas, which auto-generates a cited, coverage-checked wiki from your git repos and Jira. Go + Postgres. npx tela-mcp	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.
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": {
    "zcag-tela": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tela-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TELA_PUBLIC_BASE_URL": "YOUR_TELA_PUBLIC_BASE_URL_HERE",
        "TELA_SHARE_SECRET": "YOUR_TELA_SHARE_SECRET_HERE",
        "TELA_API_KEY_SECRET": "YOUR_TELA_API_KEY_SECRET_HERE",
        "TELA_PG_PASSWORD": "YOUR_TELA_PG_PASSWORD_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "penfieldlabs-penfield-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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