Zep

Zep

Zep is a memory platform for AI agents that builds temporal knowledge graphs from chat and business data. Zep ingests an agent's conversations and records, then tracks how facts change over time — invalidating information that is later contradicted while keeping the history. As of 2026 agents query Zep for relevant user and business context with sub-200ms retrieval in a few lines of code. Zep is built on the open-source Graphiti framework and layers enterprise governance, access control, and scale on top.

Production credibility: Founded 2023 in San Francisco by Daniel Chalef and part of Y Combinator's W2024 batch, with backing from Engineering Capital and Step Function. Its open-source Graphiti library reportedly passed 20,000 GitHub stars in under a year, building one of the larger agent-memory communities. The managed Zep service offers cloud, bring-your-own-key, and self-hosted deployment at the enterprise tier.

Key Features

• Temporal knowledge graphs built from chat, business, and user data
• Automatic invalidation of facts that are later contradicted, with history retained
• Sub-200ms context retrieval at scale (stated up to 100M+ graphs)
• Provenance: every fact traces back to its source conversation
• Attribute-based access control, retention policies, and audit trails
• Framework-agnostic SDK integration in roughly three lines of code

Ideal Use Case

Developers building agents and assistants that need durable, evolving memory of a user or business — where facts change over time and stale or contradicted information would degrade the agent's answers.

How Zep differentiates

Mem0 is the closest comparison; both give agents long-term memory. Zep's distinction is the temporal knowledge-graph model from its Graphiti framework, which tracks how facts change over time and traces each fact to its source, rather than relying mainly on vector recall. It also adds enterprise governance — access control, retention, audit trails. The open-source Graphiti library can be self-hosted, while the managed service handles scale and compliance.

FAQ

Q: What is Zep? A: Zep is a memory platform for AI agents that builds temporal knowledge graphs from chat and business data, so agents recall relevant context — including how facts change over time — with sub-200ms retrieval.

Q: Zep vs Mem0? A: Both provide long-term agent memory. Zep's differentiator is a temporal knowledge-graph model (via Graphiti) that tracks how facts change over time and adds enterprise governance, rather than primarily vector or document recall.

Q: Is Zep open source? A: Zep is a commercial managed platform built on its own open-source Graphiti framework. The Graphiti library can be self-hosted; the managed service adds scale, governance, and deployment options.

Q: How fast is memory retrieval? A: Zep states sub-200ms retrieval regardless of scale, up to 100M+ context graphs.

tl;dr

Zep is a memory platform for AI agents that builds temporal knowledge graphs from chat and business data, tracking how facts change over time with sub-200ms retrieval. Built on the open-source Graphiti framework; YC W2024; 20K+ GitHub stars. A knowledge-graph alternative to Mem0 for agent memory.