AI memory vs shared context
Zep and Letta alternative for teams
Zep and Letta give the agents you build memory. If you want shared context across your whole team's AI tools instead, here is the honest difference.
If you searched "Zep alternative" or "Letta alternative," start with the job. Both are good at what they do. Zep gives agents temporal, graph-based memory. Letta, formerly MemGPT, gives agents persistent memory they manage themselves, and you can self-host it. These are memory systems for agents you build. That is a different thing from a shared context layer for a team's existing tools, and if it is the second one you wanted, this is the difference.
What Zep and Letta are good at
Both live in your code and serve an agent.
Zep builds a temporal knowledge graph, Graphiti, so an agent can recall facts and how they changed over time. Where it wins:
- Temporal recall. It tracks what was true when, which matters for long-running agents.
- Graph-structured memory. Relationships between facts, not just a flat store.
- Retrieval built for agents. Designed to feed the right memory back into a running agent.
Letta gives an agent persistent, self-managed memory, the MemGPT idea of an agent deciding what to keep. Where it wins:
- Self-hosting. You can run it on your own infrastructure.
- Agent-managed memory. The agent curates its own long-term store.
- Builder control. Full control for people building agents from the ground up.
If you are building an agent and need it to remember, either is a fine pick, and you do not need a different tool.
Where the fit breaks
The misfit is when you wanted your team's AI tools to share context, and reached for an agent-memory system because "memory" sounded close. Neither Zep nor Letta is built for that:
- They are called from code, not curated by a team in a product.
- Their memory serves one agent, not every teammate's Claude Code, Cursor, and ChatGPT.
- They have no shared source a whole team reads over MCP.
- They are organized around an agent's sessions, not your real company structure.
This is the distinction we draw in full in AI memory vs shared context: agent memory is recall for one agent, shared context is understanding for a whole team. And it is the same root issue behind why AI agents forget in the first place.
Zep and Letta vs a shared context layer
| Zep / Letta | BaseThread | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Memory systems for agents you build | A shared context layer for teams |
| Who uses it | Developers building agents | A team and its existing AI tools |
| How you use it | Call it from code | Curate context, connect tools over MCP |
| Unit | Per agent | Per team |
| Read by Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT | No, not its job | Yes, over MCP |
| Organized by | Agent sessions and graph | Company, Products, Teams, Projects, You |
The "No" row is not a knock. It is the boundary of what these tools are for. Zep and Letta serve an agent you build. BaseThread serves a team you already have.
Why the unit decides everything
Zep and Letta are organized around an agent. The memory is that agent's, the recall is for that agent, and nothing about the design tries to serve ten people's tools at once. That is correct for their job.
A shared context layer starts from the team. BaseThread holds one curated source, organized by Company, Products, Teams, Projects, and You, that every teammate's tools read over MCP. As work happens, those tools write activity, decisions, and tasks back, and the record is harmonized across the team so overlapping contributions sharpen it instead of fragmenting it. The context is curated, not scraped, and scoped by role, so each person's AI sees what is theirs to see. Adding a fact helps everyone, not one agent.
Which should you choose?
- Building an agent that needs memory? Use Zep or Letta. That is the job they are built for.
- Want your team's existing AI tools to share one curated context plus a record of decisions and activity? That is a shared context layer. See how it works and the full comparison, which also covers Mem0 and built-in memory.
Plenty of teams use both: a memory store inside the agents they build, and a shared context layer across the tools they buy.
The honest summary
Zep and Letta are memory for agents you build, called from code, per agent, and they are good at it. If you wanted your team's existing tools to share one curated context and a record of decisions, that is a shared context layer, not agent memory. Pick by the job, not the keyword.
TL;DR
Zep gives agents temporal graph memory; Letta gives agents persistent self-managed memory you can self-host. Both serve one agent you build, from code. BaseThread is a team-shared, cross-tool context layer: a curated graph organized by your real org that Claude Code, Cursor, and ChatGPT read over MCP and write activity, decisions, and tasks back to. Different unit, different job. Many teams use both.
Zep, Letta, Mem0, built-in memory, and shared context, side by side and honestly.
Related reading
AI memory vs shared context: the difference
AI memory vs shared context: memory is personal and locked to one tool, shared context is team-wide and read by every tool. Here is how to tell them apart.
Mem0 alternative for teams (shared, not just agent, memory)
Looking for a Mem0 alternative for teams? Mem0 is a memory SDK for agents you build. If you want shared, curated context across your team's AI tools, here's the difference.
Why AI agents forget, and how teams fix it
AI agents forget because context is per-session and per-agent, not persistent or shared. Here is the real reason, and the fix that works for a whole team.
Glean alternative for small technical teams
Looking for a Glean alternative for a small technical team? Glean is enterprise search built for large orgs. Here is the lighter, AI-tool-native option for smaller teams.
Frequently asked questions
Is BaseThread a Zep or Letta alternative?
Only if you were using them for the wrong job. Zep and Letta are memory systems for agents you build: Zep gives agents temporal, graph-based memory, and Letta (formerly MemGPT) gives agents persistent, self-managed memory you can self-host. BaseThread is a shared context layer for a team's existing AI tools, read over MCP. If you are building an agent and need it to remember, Zep or Letta is the right tool. If you want your team's Claude Code, Cursor, and ChatGPT to share one curated source, BaseThread fits.
What is the difference between Zep and BaseThread?
Zep is infrastructure: a temporal knowledge graph that stores and retrieves memory for an agent you build, called from code. BaseThread is a product for a team: a curated context graph plus an AI-written record of activity, decisions, and tasks that every teammate's existing tools read over MCP. Zep serves one agent. BaseThread serves a whole team.
What is the difference between Letta and BaseThread?
Letta (formerly MemGPT) gives an agent persistent memory it manages itself, often self-hosted, for builders. BaseThread is the shared context layer the AI tools your team already uses read from, organized by your real company structure. Letta is for the agent you build. BaseThread is for the tools your team already bought.
Can I use Zep or Letta and BaseThread together?
Yes, and many teams will. Use Zep or Letta as the memory store inside agents you build, and BaseThread as the shared context layer across the AI tools your team uses day to day. Different units, different jobs.