Every tool in this space promises memory. Here's what they actually give you, and what's still missing.
The Infrastructure Spectrum
What each approach actually gets you
As memory infrastructure matures, each generation adds a layer. Most tools stop at layer 2 or 3. MI starts where they end.
MI™
MemoryIntelligence™
What you actually get:
✓ Auto-captured from any source
✓ Verified and structured
✓ Retrievable in milliseconds
✓ Hashed at every state
✓ $0 per query, forever
✓ 100% local, no cloud
Patent Pending
✓ Auto-structured pipeline ✓ Verifiable data receipts ✓ Cross-app, local-first
Infra 01
Vector Store / RAG
"Here's a chunk of text that matched your query."
Converts data into numerical embeddings and retrieves the closest match. Fast, but context-free. No understanding of when, why, or how something was created.
e.g. Pinecone, Weaviate, basic RAG
✗ No temporal context ✗ No structure or meaning ✗ No verification
Infra 02
Semantic Search
"Here's what you wrote, and roughly when."
Meaning-based retrieval that understands intent, not just keywords. Better recall, but still dependent on what you manually put in. One source, one silo, no chain of custody.
e.g. Obsidian + plugins, NotebookLM
✗ Manual input required ✗ Single source only ✗ No provenance
Infra 03
Knowledge Graph
"Here's what you wrote, and here's how it connects to something else."
Maps entities and relationships across data. Powerful for structured domains, but brittle with real-world unstructured input. Requires a data engineering team to build and maintain.
e.g. Neo4j, Diffbot, custom graph DBs
✗ Expensive to maintain ✗ Breaks on messy data ✗ No receipts or rights layer
Head to Head
How the tools compare
Click any tool to see where it overlaps with MI, and where it falls short.
MemoryIntelligence™
MI™ SDK
Everything Obsidian does, and what it never could.
Matches
✓ Local first✓ Data ownership✓ Note linking✓ Privacy
MI also adds
+ Auto-capture+ Provenance receipts+ Cross-app memory+ Zero maintenance+ $0/query
Bottom line
Obsidian is a filing cabinet you stock yourself. MI is memory that stocks itself.
Compute cost
95% token reduction. $0 per query.
Competitor
Obsidian
"A second brain for your notes", you still have to build it yourself.
What it is
Local, private markdown note-taking with graph-based linking. Manual, always.
Overlap
✓ Local first✓ Data ownership~ Linking
Falls short
✗ 100% manual✗ No auto-capture✗ No provenance✗ No receipts✗ No cross-app✗ Single silo
Most Obsidian vaults become graveyards within months. Memory shouldn't require this much upkeep.
Layer
Infra 02: Semantic search, fully manual
MemoryIntelligence™
MI™ SDK
Everything NotebookLM does, without giving your data to Google.