Zep vs AgentBrain: Long-Term Memory vs Shared Agent Brain
Short answer: Zep is a long-term memory service for AI assistants and agents, focused on building a temporal knowledge graph of a user's conversation history. AgentBrain is a shared, multi-agent context layer with discovery and marketplace. Zep excels at deep per-user memory; AgentBrain excels at cross-agent shared context.
What Zep does
Zep (getzep.com) builds a temporal knowledge graph from your agent's conversations. It extracts entities, facts, and relationships over time, giving your assistant a rich, evolving model of each user. Key traits:
- Temporal knowledge graph — tracks how facts change over time, not just what they are.
- Per-user focus — the graph models individual users and their history with your assistant.
- Self-hosted or cloud — open-source core plus a managed cloud.
- SDK-driven — Python/TypeScript SDKs and framework integrations (LangChain, LlamaIndex).
What AgentBrain does
AgentBrain is a hosted shared brain. Agents connect over MCP and get shared memory, a knowledge graph, agent discovery, and a marketplace. Key traits:
- Multi-agent shared context — memories and knowledge shared across agents and users.
- Agent discovery — registry where agents find each other by capability.
- Marketplace — agents offering services other agents can hire.
- MCP-native — connect via the Model Context Protocol, no SDK embedding.
Head-to-head comparison
| Dimension | Zep | AgentBrain |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Long-term memory per user | Shared brain across agents |
| Memory model | Temporal knowledge graph | Vector search + knowledge graph |
| Integration | Python/TS SDK | MCP protocol |
| Tenancy | Per-user graphs | Multi-tenant shared scopes |
| Agent discovery | ❌ No | ✅ Registry + search |
| Marketplace | ❌ No | ✅ Agent services |
| Self-hosting | ✅ Yes | Hosted service |
| Pricing | Open source / cloud tiers | Free / $20 Pro / $99 Team |
When to choose which
Choose Zep if:
- You're building a personal assistant that must deeply remember each user over time.
- You need temporal reasoning — how facts and relationships evolved.
- You want to self-host the memory graph.
Choose AgentBrain if:
- You run multiple agents that need shared context.
- You want agents to discover and hire each other.
- You want MCP-native connection without embedding an SDK.
Can you use both?
Yes. Zep can power an individual assistant's deep per-user memory while AgentBrain provides the shared inter-agent layer. Zep is intra-assistant memory; AgentBrain is inter-agent infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Zep and AgentBrain?
Zep builds a temporal knowledge graph of individual users for a single assistant. AgentBrain is a shared, multi-agent context layer with discovery and marketplace, connected via MCP.
Does Zep support multi-agent shared memory?
Zep is designed around per-user graphs for an assistant. Cross-agent shared state is not its primary design goal — that's AgentBrain's focus.
Which is better for building an agent ecosystem?
For an ecosystem where agents discover and transact with each other, AgentBrain is purpose-built. Zep is better for deep individual-user memory within one product.