Two different problems that sound like one.
Hosted memory layers feed context back into your AI tools so you stop re-explaining yourself. Inventory helps you find what you already said. These get confused constantly, and picking the wrong one wastes real money.
It solves something Inventory does not even attempt: your tools arrive already knowing your context, automatically, without you searching for anything.
| Cloud AI memory | Inventory | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Your AI remembering, so you re-explain less | You finding what was already said |
| Where your conversations live | On the provider's servers | On your Mac, and nowhere else |
| Account required | Yes | No |
| Works with no network | No | Yes, entirely |
| History from before setup | Usually starts from the day you connect it | Everything already on disk |
| How your AI tools get the context | Pushed in automatically, every session | Pulled on request — an agent calls search when it wants to, over MCP |
| Cost | Monthly, ongoing | $19.99 once |
Some conversations cannot be uploaded
Client work, employer code, anything under an agreement you signed. That is a hard constraint, not a preference, and it rules out the hosted category no matter how good the privacy policy reads.
Your back catalogue already exists
A memory layer starts learning the day you connect it. The two years already on your disk are the part you cannot search today, and they are exactly what Inventory indexes first.
One payment, no dependency
There is no server behind Inventory, so there is nothing to keep paying for and nothing to shut down. If the company vanishes, the app on your Mac keeps working.
If what you want is your AI arriving already briefed, so you stop repeating yourself, that is a memory layer and it is a genuinely different product. Some people want both. They do not overlap much.
Does Inventory send my conversations anywhere?
No. There is no account and no server. The only network request the app makes is checking whether a new version exists, and it works completely with the network off.
Does it use AI to search?
It searches by meaning as well as by keyword, using a small model that runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing is sent to an API, and no external model ever sees your conversations.
What happens if you stop working on it?
It keeps working. It is a local app reading local files with a local index — there is no service to switch off.
Doesn't Agent access make Inventory a memory layer too?
No. Agent access lets a tool call a search tool over MCP when it decides to — nothing is pushed to it, and nothing happens unless it asks. A memory layer works the other way round: context arrives automatically, every session, whether you need it or not. Different mechanism, different trade, and it stays off until you turn it on.
Get Inventory — $19.99 once, no account, and it indexes everything already on your disk the first time you open it.