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YantrikDB

YantrikDB FAQ — Cognitive Memory, MCP, Cluster Mode, Pricing

Common questions about YantrikDB, cognitive memory for AI agents, MCP integration, cluster mode, and licensing.

What is YantrikDB?

Section titled “What is YantrikDB?”

YantrikDB is a cognitive memory database for AI agents. It gives LLMs and agents persistent long-term memory with semantic recall, a knowledge graph, contradiction detection, autonomous consolidation, and temporal decay.

It ships in four shapes — pick the one that fits:

  • Embeddable Rust library — cargo add yantrikdb. Link it into your app.
  • Python package — pip install yantrikdb. For Python apps and notebooks.
  • MCP server — pip install yantrikdb-mcp. Drop-in memory for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf.
  • Network database — yantrikdb serve. Multi-tenant HTTP gateway with Raft cluster mode and at-rest encryption.

How is YantrikDB different from a vector database?

Section titled “How is YantrikDB different from a vector database?”

A vector database stores embeddings and returns top-k by cosine similarity. YantrikDB models how memory actually works. Every memory has importance, valence, half-life (decay), source attribution, and validity windows. The engine has an integrated knowledge graph with typed entity edges, contradiction detection between stored claims, autonomous consolidation that merges duplicates and surfaces patterns, and proactive triggers.

A vector DB is one of five indexes inside YantrikDB, not the whole picture.

Does YantrikDB work with Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf?

Section titled “Does YantrikDB work with Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf?”

Yes. YantrikDB ships an MCP server (yantrikdb-mcp) that drops into any MCP-compatible AI client — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, and Claude Desktop. Its grouped tool surface includes remember, recall, think, graph, conflict handling, skills, and personality. The exact set can vary by release, selected tool profile, engine capability, and deployment mode.

Terminal window
pip install yantrikdb-mcp

What is cognitive memory?

Section titled “What is cognitive memory?”

Cognitive memory models the human memory system:

  • Encoding — what to store (with importance, valence, source)
  • Consolidation — merging duplicates and surfacing patterns
  • Retrieval — importance- and recency-weighted recall, not just similarity
  • Forgetting — temporal decay so old low-importance memories fade
  • Contradiction handling — detecting and resolving conflicting beliefs

Vector search is one component; cognitive memory is the architecture.

Can I run YantrikDB without an internet connection?

Section titled “Can I run YantrikDB without an internet connection?”

Yes, but read the detail — it changed in 2026-08. A new file-backed store defaults to potion-base-8M (256 dims), which is downloaded once on first use (~28 MB, SHA-256 pinned, cached under your cache dir). It is not bundled because the crate already ships 7.9 MB of potion-base-2M weights and crates.io caps a published crate at 10 MB.

If that download cannot happen — you are offline, or the fetch fails — the store is created on the bundled potion-base-2M instead and a warning is logged, so YantrikDB still works with no network. That choice is permanent for that store: a database’s dimension is fixed at creation, so switching later means re-embedding.

Two paths never touch the network: in-memory (":memory:") stores stay on the bundled model deliberately, so test suites never require a download, and the Rust default is the bundled potion-base-2M. An existing store always reopens at the dimension it already holds, so upgrading the library never strands a database.

Optional higher-quality embedders (potion-base-8M at ~92% MiniLM, potion-base-32M at ~95% MiniLM) are downloadable and SHA-256 pinned; once downloaded they also work offline.

Is YantrikDB free?

Section titled “Is YantrikDB free?”

Yes — open source under Apache-2.0. Free to use, modify, self-host, and embed in closed-source products.

No copyleft and no commercial licence to buy. Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights for this implementation, so using YantrikDB does not expose you to the patent covering its methods.

What’s the difference between yantrikdb, yantrikdb-server, and yantrikdb-mcp?

Section titled “What’s the difference between yantrikdb, yantrikdb-server, and yantrikdb-mcp?”
RepoWhat it isInstall
yantrikos/yantrikdbEmbeddable Rust engine + Python bindingscargo add yantrikdb / pip install yantrikdb
yantrikos/yantrikdb-serverMulti-tenant network database — HTTP, wire protocol, clusterbrew install yantrikos/tap/yantrikdb
yantrikos/yantrikdb-mcpMCP server wrapper for Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurfpip install yantrikdb-mcp

How do I install YantrikDB?

Section titled “How do I install YantrikDB?”

See the full install guide and quickstart. One-liners:

Terminal window
# Embeddable engine (Python)
pip install yantrikdb


# Embeddable engine (Rust)
cargo add yantrikdb


# MCP server for AI clients
pip install yantrikdb-mcp


# Network server (macOS/Linux)
brew install yantrikos/tap/yantrikdb


# Docker
docker pull ghcr.io/yantrikos/yantrikdb:latest

What hardware does YantrikDB need?

Section titled “What hardware does YantrikDB need?”

Single-node: any 64-bit Linux, macOS, or Windows machine with 1 GB RAM and 1 GB disk handles tens of thousands of memories. A Raspberry Pi 4 runs a working single-agent instance.

Production cluster: 3-node deployment with 4 GB RAM and SSD recommended. See cluster setup.

Does YantrikDB support clustering and replication?

Section titled “Does YantrikDB support clustering and replication?”

Yes. YantrikDB Server cluster mode:

  • YRP native replication (RFC 028) — leader election, quorum-durable writes, automatic failover in ~3 seconds
  • Exactly-once keyed writes — retries dedupe through any replication state, never a double write
  • Linearizable reads + quarantine-not-wedge recovery + beyond-GC engine backfill
  • Witness quorum — safe HA with only 2 data nodes
  • Multi-tenant — each database replicates independently
  • At-rest encryption (AES-256-GCM)

Every committed write is applied to engine state on every replica, and chaos scenarios gate every release.

What does the Apache-2.0 license mean for my use?

Section titled “What does the Apache-2.0 license mean for my use?”

Apache-2.0:

  • ✅ Free to use, modify, distribute — including inside closed-source and commercial products
  • ✅ Self-host, embed, or offer as a hosted service, with no obligation to publish your changes
  • ✅ Includes an explicit patent grant covering this implementation
  • ℹ️ Keep the LICENSE and NOTICE files, and state any changes you made to the source

YantrikDB was AGPL-3.0 through v0.15.x. Those releases remain available under AGPL; everything from the relicense onward is Apache-2.0.

How does YantrikDB detect contradictions?

Section titled “How does YantrikDB detect contradictions?”

YantrikDB stores facts as structured claims with polarity (positive / negative), validity windows, source attribution, and confidence. The conflict detector compares claims about the same entity-relation-target tuple. When two claims with opposite polarity and overlapping validity coexist, a conflict record fires with both source memories cited.

See Wirecard showcase for a real-world worked example: eight polarity contradictions on €1.9 billion across six years of public record.

What is temporal decay in YantrikDB?

Section titled “What is temporal decay in YantrikDB?”

Temporal decay models how memories fade over time. Each memory has a configurable half-life (default 168 hours / 7 days). After one half-life, retrieval relevance is halved. Recent memories outrank older ones at equal semantic similarity, while old high-importance memories stay accessible.

Importance and access frequency counter-balance decay — frequently-recalled memories stay sharp. See relevance scoring for the mathematical model.

Is YantrikDB production-ready?

Section titled “Is YantrikDB production-ready?”

Embedded and single-node: yes — powers real workloads on a 3-node Proxmox homelab with multiple tenants.

Cluster mode: structurally production-ready in v0.8.13. Empirical RYW validation on a real 2-node cluster is ongoing. For multi-node deployments, follow the interim cluster-routing runbook.

How does YantrikDB compare to mem0?

Section titled “How does YantrikDB compare to mem0?”

mem0 is an LLM-driven memory layer — it uses an LLM to extract and store facts from conversations, backed by a configurable vector store.

YantrikDB is a cognitive memory database — it stores structured memories with importance, decay, polarity, and a knowledge graph at the substrate level, regardless of how the agent generates them.

mem0 is great for adding memory to LLM apps quickly. YantrikDB is for systems where memory mechanics — contradiction handling, validity windows, autonomous consolidation, audit-ready substrate — need to live below the LLM rather than alongside it.

Does YantrikDB support skills as a first-class primitive?

Section titled “Does YantrikDB support skills as a first-class primitive?”

Yes. As of v0.8.11, the skill substrate exposes:

  • POST /v1/skills/define — register a skill (skill_id, body, applies_to, skill_type)
  • GET /v1/skills/{skill_id} — exact lookup
  • POST /v1/skills/search — semantic search with optional filters
  • POST /v1/skills/{id}/outcome — append-only outcome event log
  • POST /v1/skills/{id}/forget — tombstone

Schema-not-semantics design line: the engine validates shape (skill_id pattern, body length, applies_to format) but does NOT enforce semantic ontology — that’s the agent-layer’s job. Outcome events are append-only; success-rate aggregation, ECU routing, and other pedagogy compose client-side.

Where can I get help?

Section titled “Where can I get help?”