🔌 Provider Overview

The Memory Platform ships with seven providers across three categories. Every provider implements a strict contract and must pass conformance tests before it can be used in production.

← Back to Academy 🏛️ View Architecture →

📊 Provider Comparison

Provider	Type	Status	Latency	Conformance	Backend
InMemory	Memory Provider	✅ Production	<1ms	15/15	Python dict (in-process)
Mem0	Memory Provider	✅ Production	~50ms	15/15	PostgreSQL via HTTP API
Honcho	Memory Provider	✅ Production	~80ms	15/15	Honcho API
Archive	Memory Provider	✅ Production	~200ms	15/15	Cold storage (file/object)
Mock	Testing Tool	✅ Development	<1ms	15/15	In-memory (test harness)
Obsidian	Knowledge Provider	✅ Production	~50ms	43/43	Obsidian Markdown vault
Skills	Knowledge Provider	✅ Production	~80ms	9/9	JSON-based skill registry

💾 Memory Providers

These providers handle dynamic, session-specific data. Every memory is scored by the Policy Engine before storage.

InMemory

Memory Provider✅ Production

Gold standard reference implementation. All other providers must match its behavior exactly to pass conformance.

15/15

Tests

<1ms

Latency

Backend:Python dict (in-process)

✦Canonical provider used in all tests

✦Zero external dependencies

✦Reference for provider contract behavior

✦Every conformance test validated against it first

Mem0

Memory Provider✅ Production

HTTP-based memory service backed by PostgreSQL. The primary operational memory store for the platform.

15/15

Tests

~50ms

Latency

Backend:PostgreSQL via HTTP API

✦Full CRUD for memory objects

✦Recency-weighted importance scoring

✦Parallel query support

✦Designed for high-throughput workloads

Honcho

Memory Provider✅ Production

Backend memory service providing persistent, long-term memory storage for agents and users.

15/15

Tests

~80ms

Latency

Backend:Honcho API

✦Purpose-built for AI agent memory

✦Session and user scoping

✦Automatic memory consolidation

✦Good balance of speed vs durability

📚 Knowledge Providers

These providers handle curated, long-lived information that is trusted at face value — no confidence scoring.

Obsidian

Knowledge Provider✅ Production

Knowledge graph integration using an Obsidian markdown vault as the backend. Each note becomes a knowledge entry.

43/43

Tests

~50ms

Latency

Backend:Obsidian Markdown vault

✦Full-text search across notes

✦Tag and link-based retrieval

✦Bidirectional note graph traversal

✦Markdown frontmatter metadata extraction

Skills

Knowledge Provider✅ Production

Agent skills matching engine. Stores and retrieves procedural knowledge as structured skill definitions.

9/9

Tests

~80ms

Latency

Backend:JSON-based skill registry

✦Semantic skill matching

✦Category-based organization

✦Relevance scoring for skill selection

✦Dynamic skill registration at runtime

🧪 Testing & Tooling

Providers used during development and testing to validate behavior and performance.

Mock

Testing Tool✅ Development

Test double used in benchmark and conformance suites. Validates provider behavior without side effects.

15/15

Tests

<1ms

Latency

Backend:In-memory (test harness)

✦Used in all 46 automated tests

✦Golden dataset validation runs against it

✦Deterministic behavior for reproducible tests

✦Policy engine integration testing

🧩 Provider Contract Architecture

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              MemoryProvider (ABC)                    │
│  store()  query()  get()  delete()  count()          │
└────┬────────────────────────────────────────────┬───┘
     │                                            │
     ▼                                            ▼
┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌───────────┐
│ 💾 InMemory  │  │ 🔵 Mem0  │  │ 🟣 Honcho │  │ 🗄️ Archive│
│ (dict,       │  │ (Post-   │  │ (Honcho    │  │ (cold     │
│  gold std)   │  │  gresQL) │  │  API)      │  │  storage) │
└──────────────┘  └──────────┘  └────────────┘  └───────────┘

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            KnowledgeProvider (ABC)                  │
│  query()  get()  delete()                           │
└────┬────────────────────────────────────────────┬───┘
     │                                            │
     ▼                                            ▼
┌──────────────┐                          ┌──────────────┐
│ 🟢 Obsidian  │                          │ 🧠 Skills    │
│ (Markdown    │                          │ (JSON        │
│  vault)      │                          │  registry)   │
└──────────────┘                          └──────────────┘

🔗 Related Resources

🏛️

Architecture

System design and component model

🧠

Memory vs Knowledge

How the platform separates concerns

⚙️

Governance

Provider integration rules and quality gates

📊

Provider Dashboard

Live provider status and metrics