claude-mem vs ruflo
Two of the top projects in Skills, plugins and prompts, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
claude-mem
Persistent cross-session memory plugin for Claude Code and other coding agents
ruflo
Agent harness adding swarms, memory and hooks to Claude Code and Codex
Verdict
claude-mem ranks higher, 97 to 96. Of the 4 score parts we measure for both, claude-mem leads on 2, ruflo on none and 2 are even.
- Adoptionclaude-mem leads by 2 points, 98 to 96: close to even.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenanceclaude-mem leads by 2 points, 96 to 94: close to even.
- Agent-readyEven at 85.
Pick claude-mem if you are
Claude Code users who want session memory that persists across runs
- Local SQLite plus Chroma storage with a worker HTTP API and web viewer
- Three-step search/timeline/get_observations flow filters before fetching full details, cutting tokens
Pick ruflo if you are
Claude Code and Codex users wanting multi-agent swarms and persistent memory
- One command, `npx ruflo@latest init`, sets up agents, hooks, memory and MCP server
- Plugin-only install route adds no files to the project workspace
| What we compare | claude-mem | ruflo |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 98, widely used | 96, widely used |
| Momentum | Not scored for this kind | Not scored for this kind |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 96, healthy | 94, healthy |
| Agent-ready | 85, ready | 85, ready |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 116.1k | 81.5k |
| License | Apache-2.0 (permissive) | MIT (permissive) |
| Last commit | Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Last release | Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Docker | Yes | No |
| GPU | Not needed | Not stated |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Mentioned |
claude-mem
Claude-mem hooks into Claude Code's lifecycle events (SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse, PostToolUse, Stop, SessionEnd) to capture tool-usage observations, summarize them, and inject relevant context into later sessions. Data is stored in SQLite with FTS5 and Chroma for hybrid search, served by a local Bun-managed worker with a web viewer. Search is exposed through three MCP tools (search, timeline, get_observations). Installers also exist for OpenCode, T3 Code, Antigravity, OMP, Pi and OpenClaw.
Who it is for: Claude Code users who want session memory that persists across runs
Strengths
- Local SQLite plus Chroma storage with a worker HTTP API and web viewer
- Three-step search/timeline/get_observations flow filters before fetching full details, cutting tokens
- Installers for several harnesses besides Claude Code, including OpenCode, T3 Code and OpenClaw
- `<private>` tags exclude sensitive content from storage
Weaknesses
- Installer prompts for sign-in to a hosted observer with a 30-day trial; opt-out needs flags
- Depends on Node 20+, Bun and uv, auto-installed if missing
- `npm install -g claude-mem` gives only the SDK, not the hooks or worker
- Some features, such as TeamBrain and cloud sync, rely on the hosted cmem.ai service
- no GPU
- Docker + Compose
- Needs Node.js >=20, Bun, uv, SQLite, Chroma
- Models: Anthropic plan, OpenRouter, Gemini, claude-mem observer
ruflo
Ruflo is a TypeScript layer around Claude Code and Codex. `npx ruflo@latest init` adds agent definitions, hooks, a memory store and an MCP server to the project, and the same pieces are also published as 48 Claude Code plugins. It also ships a console UI for inspecting agent runs, plus federation between machines.
Who it is for: Claude Code and Codex users wanting multi-agent swarms and persistent memory
Strengths
- One command, `npx ruflo@latest init`, sets up agents, hooks, memory and MCP server
- Plugin-only install route adds no files to the project workspace
- Works with Codex and other MCP clients via `npx -y ruflo@latest mcp start`
- Console limits Claude control to read/write/manage/full levels, default read with ask approval
Weaknesses
- Very large surface: 406 MCP tools, 61 CLI commands and 48 plugins to understand
- Full loop needs the CLI install, which writes .claude/, .claude-flow/ and CLAUDE.md
- Mods are not sandboxed and run with your account's permissions
- Plugin route requires Claude Code 2.1.287 or later
- Needs Node.js (npx), Claude Code 2.1.287+ for plugin install
- Models: Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, DeepSeek, Ollama
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