ContextNest vs Cognee
vsCognee
Cognee
An open-source memory platform for agents. It turns documents, code and conversations into a knowledge graph, and it runs on your own machine or in Cognee Cloud.
Pricing: Open-source engine free. Cloud Free includes 1M tokens and one workspace. Standard is $1 per 1M tokens plus $5 per extra workspace. Enterprise is custom, in your own cloud (checked November 2026).
ContextNest is the company's approved knowledge, owned by people and read by every agent.
Choose Cognee when engineers want a knowledge graph built automatically from documents, code and conversations, on open-source software they can run themselves.
Where Cognee wins
Open source with a large following
It's Apache-2.0 licensed, has over 33,000 GitHub stars and runs locally for free with no API key.
Connects to the tools engineers use
It ships plugins for Claude Code and Codex, an MCP server for Cursor and Cline, and connections to Slack, GitHub and Linear.
Access control per dataset
Read, write, delete and share permissions go to users, roles or tenants, and access control is on by default.
Where Cognee strains
Each one shows up when the same knowledge has to serve many people, many agents and more than one model.
No approval before use
A person can settle a conflict between two facts, but as of November 2026 Cognee's docs do not describe an owner approving memory before agents use it.
Past states need a snapshot
Cognee keeps contradicted facts, marked superseded, but other writes overwrite a node's values and recall has no point-in-time filter, so showing what it held last month takes an archive you exported beforehand.
Forget ends at deletion
Cognee's docs say forget doesn't scrub the bytes from storage and describe no block on the same text being added again, while ContextNest's CLI and MCP server keep a checkable record of the erasure and refuse that text on publish or import.
ContextNest and Cognee, on the questions that decide it.
| The question | Cognee | ContextNest |
|---|---|---|
| Every agent reads itCan Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and your own agents all read the same knowledge? | YesPlugins for Claude Code and Codex, plus an MCP server for Cursor, Cline and other clients. | YesClaude, Cursor, PromptOwl agents and any MCP client read the same knowledge. |
| A person approves firstDoes a named owner approve knowledge before an AI may use it? | NoMemory is extracted automatically. A person can settle a conflict between facts. | YesTurn on stewardship and named owners approve every change before agents can use it. |
| Who sees what, enforcedIs access decided before the AI retrieves anything? | YesPermissions per dataset for users, roles and tenants, on by default. | YesAccess keys are scoped to a nest, and restricted documents reach only the people named on them. Give each agent a nest that matches its job. |
| Record of reads and versionsCan you see who read what, and rebuild what it said on a past date? | PartlyLogs each operation by user and keeps superseded facts, plus an optional hash-chained ledger. Overwritten values are gone, and recall can't look back to a date. | YesEvery read is recorded: which person or API key, which document, and when. Every approved version is kept. |
| Survives a switchDoes the knowledge stay when you change models, vendors or people? | YesDatasets export to Cognee's COGX archive, and the engine is open source. | YesPlain-text export, always. Your knowledge stays readable without us. |
| Self-hosted optionCan it run on infrastructure you control? | YesFree on your own stack under Apache-2.0. Enterprise deploys in your cloud. | YesThe governed knowledge layer runs on your infrastructure, or we host it. |
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Get a second opinion
Each link opens the assistant with a neutral comparison question filled in. The answer comes from the assistant, not from us.
Last reviewed November 2026. Based on each vendor's public website and documentation, and prices show the month we checked them. Products change quickly, so check the vendor's current documentation before you decide. See something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.Product names and logos are trademarks of their owners; used for identification only; no endorsement or affiliation implied.
How they work together
Let Cognee build the graph from your code, documents and conversations. Put the policies, pricing and product facts a person has signed off in ContextNest, and connect agents to both over MCP.
More on memory for one app, or knowledge every agent can trust
Keep Cognee. Govern what your agents read.
Start free, connect the AI tools your team already uses, and approve what they're allowed to rely on.