operator-memory vs Trellis
Context engine for coding agents: each session consults, then updates, a Markdown brain of specs, decisions, standards and lessons — private, team-shared via Git, and per-user. No embeddings. — versus — Spec, task and memory layer that lives in your repo: .trellis/ holds conventions, PRDs and journals, auto-injected each session — one workflow across 20 coding-agent platforms.
Both keep an in-repo Markdown layer — specs, conventions, decisions — that coding agents load each session across many harnesses. Trellis is organised around tasks and PRDs; Operator around a brain the agent rewrites when project truth changes.
| operator-memory | Trellis | |
|---|---|---|
| Stars | 500 | 15k |
| Forks | 19 | 884 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Last activity | yesterday | 1 months ago |
| Topics | memory, coding | coding, memory |
| Curated connections | 5 | 7 |
operator-memory — the curator's take
Use it when you want agent memory that looks like project documentation: specs and decisions the agent keeps current, readable in a diff and shareable with your team by committing .operator-shared/. Works across Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi and DeepSeek's harness with no background service or vector DB. NOT a recall store for chat transcripts or fuzzy retrieval — a cold project starts with a sparse brain until you ask for the first specs, and it relies on the agent choosing to update docs, so long sessions can drift.
Trellis — the curator's take
Attacks the right problem — agents restart from zero every session — with the boring, durable fix: files in the repo, not a memory service. Team-shared specs are the real moat; one engineer's hard-won rules compound for everyone. It's opinionated though: the 4-phase loop (brainstorm → implement → check → update-spec) only pays if the team actually adopts the process — half-adopted, .trellis/ rots into stale paperwork. AGPL-3.0: fine to use, but check your company's license policy. Skip it for weekend projects; this is process overhead that needs a team to amortize.