A single-file memory layer for AI agents that packages data, embeddings, search structure, and metadata into one portable '.mv2' file — no server, database, or sidecar files. Organized as an append-only sequence of immutable 'Smart Frames' (content + timestamps + checksums), giving time-travel queries over past memory states. Core is a Rust crate (memvid-core) with Node.js, Python, and CLI SDKs on top.
- Storage
- One self-contained .mv2 file with a header, embedded write-ahead log for crash recovery, compressed data segments, a Tantivy full-text (lex) index, an HNSW vector index, a chronological time index, and a TOC footer. Optional password-based encryption (.mv2e). Multimodal ingestion via CLIP (images) and Whisper (audio); PDF text extraction in pure Rust.
- Retrieval
- Local search over the single file combining BM25 full-text (Tantivy) and vector similarity (HNSW), with sub-5ms 'Smart Recall' and predictive caching. Embeddings come from bundled local ONNX models (BGE/Nomic/GTE) or OpenAI API embeddings; an explicit model-binding guard prevents querying an index with a mismatched embedder.
- Self-host
- Self-host: trivial
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Pricing
- Open-source Apache-2.0 core (memvid-core crate + Node/Python/CLI SDKs), free to self-host. A hosted website, sandbox, and docs exist at memvid.com; any managed-tier pricing was not captured. · Free + paid
- GitHub stars
- 15,695
- Last release
- 2026-05-27
- Last commit
- 2026-05-27
- First catalogued
- 2026-06-28
Strengths
- Infrastructure-free: an entire memory store (data + embeddings + lex/vector/time indexes) lives in one portable, append-only file with no server or external DB
- Hybrid retrieval (Tantivy BM25 + HNSW vectors) plus multimodal ingestion (CLIP images, Whisper audio, pure-Rust PDF) and optional file-level encryption
- Polyglot: a Rust core with Node.js, Python, and CLI SDKs; runs fully offline with bundled local ONNX embedders
Watch out
- README headlines self-reported benchmark gains (e.g. '+35% SOTA on LoCoMo', latency/throughput figures) — record via harvest-benchmarks with selfReported:true, not here
- The repo moved to the memvid/memvid org; Memvid v1 (QR-code-based memory) is deprecated, so older write-ups describe a different design
- A hosted memvid.com offering exists but its pricing/relationship to the OSS core was not captured — priceTier and pricing need reviewer confirmation
Best for
- Agents or apps needing portable, serverless, single-file memory they can copy/version/share, with offline hybrid + multimodal retrieval
Benchmark results
No sourced results yet.
Sources
- Memvid README (vendor)
- GitHub API repo metadata (stars, Apache-2.0 license, releases) (third-party)
Last verified 2026-06-28 · updated by discover-frameworks