What are the best free alternatives to Beads?

Engram, AX Check, Obsidian Mind, Promptfoo, agentsview. All are reviewed on Stack Gems in the same category (agent memory tools); 8 free or open source.

Is there an open-source alternative to Beads?

Yes: Engram (OSS/MIT), Obsidian Mind (OSS/MIT), Promptfoo (Freemium), agentsview (OSS/MIT).

Alternatives · Memory & Evals

Beads alternatives (2026)

Beads: The task memory to give a coding agent once its plans outgrow a markdown file — try --stealth first on repos you share.

Its Catch: It runs on Dolt, a version-controlled SQL database: the default embedded mode allows a single writer, and several concurrent writers need a separate dolt sql-server.

Below: 8 free or free-tier tools from the same category (agent memory tools), free and open source first, then the closest match by shared tags. Each keeps its own Catch.

1.EngramMIT persistent agent memory — MCP, CLI, TUI, SQLite
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 7.4k GitHub stars
VerdictMIT agent memory primitive. MCP/CLI/TUI on SQLite; not a full agent framework.
CatchVs Mem0 / Letta / full agent frameworks: Engram is the memory primitive (store + retrieve + surfaces), not an orchestration framework or coding agent. “local or cloud” branding means optional hosted/sync gravity — day-one stays OSS you run. You still decide what gets written and when.
2.AX CheckHosted free agent-experience checklist + recorded coding-agent sessions
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT
VerdictFree hosted AX smoke test. Grades how agents use your product, not how good your model is.
CatchGrades are provisional and technical-only — treat the report as a useful first pass, not a product-wide quality certificate. Vs Promptfoo / DeepEval: AX Check grades product AX (docs, CLI, MCP, SDK), not model quality, eval scores, or safety behavior. Hosted free is convenient; verify the session evidence and rerun after interface changes.
3.Obsidian MindMIT Obsidian vault as persistent agent memory
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 5.4k GitHub stars
VerdictThe most complete plain-Markdown memory setup for Claude Code and friends — free, but opinionated and Obsidian-bound.
CatchIt is opinionated about work life — standups, 1:1s, brag docs, incident capture — so it fits people who want an agent-run work journal, not just a project memory file. Needs Obsidian 1.12+ (a free but closed-source app) with its CLI enabled, plus Node 22+. QMD downloads about 2 GB of local models on first use. Hooks run on every session and message, so read them before you trust a vault. Vs mem0 or Letta: those are memory layers you build into an app; this is a personal vault for your own coding agent.
4.PromptfooMIT LLM evals & red-teaming CLI; Community free, 10k probes/mo
Free / OSS · Freemium · 26.1k GitHub stars
VerdictMIT eval/red-team CLI. Free core; probe cap + Enterprise sales wall.
CatchVs DeepEval/Braintrust: YAML/CLI-first, not pytest-native Python or Braintrust SaaS. Community caps red-team probes (~10k/mo); Enterprise/On-Prem are contact-sales (SSO, dashboards, dedicated runner). LLM API costs are yours. Acquisition governance is a multi-year bet.
5.agentsviewMIT local-first agent session/cost archive — 20+ coding agents
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 6.2k GitHub stars
VerdictMIT local agent archive. Session/cost on disk; not Langfuse/Braintrust cloud.
CatchVs Langfuse / Braintrust (cloud LLM observability): agentsview is a local session/cost archive for coding-agent transcripts, not a hosted tracing/eval platform. Optional anonymous telemetry ping; you still need the agent logs on disk. Not a replacement for production OpenTelemetry of your app’s LLM calls.
6.oh-my-hermesMIT Hermes-agent niche tooling — memory & workflows
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 3.4k GitHub stars
VerdictMIT Hermes-agent tooling. Niche, not a multi-host skill pack.
CatchHermes-specific — not a generic Claude Code / Codex skill pack. Young surface; expect Hermes Agent as the host and follow upstream Hermes breaking changes. Vs ECC (multi-host ecosystem) and security-audit-skill (Cloudflare audit skill): oh-my-hermes is niche Hermes tooling, not a cross-harness coordination layer or a security scanner.
7.FridaySelf-hosted cognitive memory MCP for coding agents
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 68 GitHub stars
VerdictMIT self-hosted memory MCP. Use when coding agents need durable local memory without Mem0 Cloud.
CatchVs Mem0 / Letta / Graphiti: Friday is the self-hosted MCP memory appliance for coding agents, not a multi-tenant memory API or a full agent OS. You operate Neo4j/Compose and embedding/model keys; star count is still early — pin and verify before production trust.
8.book-to-skillMIT converter from books/docs into cross-agent SKILL.md packs
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 35.3k GitHub stars
VerdictMIT book→skill converter. Excellent for private grounded skills; keep copyrighted sources offline and private.
CatchVs Skillbox and Claude Code Templates: this generates content skills from documents, not a self-hosted skills registry/MCP plane and not a catalog of Claude Code agents/hooks/MCPs. Do not redistribute generated skills of copyrighted books — the README is explicit that third-party book skills should stay private; the tool does not grant you redistribution rights. Quality tracks your extractors (docling for technical PDFs) and the host's skill discovery rules.

FAQ

What are the best free alternatives to Beads?: Engram, AX Check, Obsidian Mind, Promptfoo, agentsview. All are reviewed on Stack Gems in the same category (agent memory tools); 8 free or open source.
What is the catch with Beads?: It runs on Dolt, a version-controlled SQL database: the default embedded mode allows a single writer, and several concurrent writers need a separate dolt sql-server.
Is there an open-source alternative to Beads?: Yes: Engram (OSS/MIT), Obsidian Mind (OSS/MIT), Promptfoo (Freemium), agentsview (OSS/MIT).

Beads alternatives (2026)

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