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Compare scores, permissions, risks, and fit in one decision-focused table.

DimensionwitnessLocal memory & self-improvement engine that witnesses your growth as a developer.MartinLoop MCP ServerAn independent control layer that gives AI coding agents budgets, brakes, and receipts
FMRS62 / 100 · C79 / 100 · B
Reliability10 / 2012 / 20
Security and permissions14 / 2018 / 20
Maintenance10 / 2016 / 20
Documentation16 / 2018 / 20
Setup experience12 / 2015 / 20
Best for
  • Developers who want to preserve learnings across AI coding sessions.
  • Those seeking a second brain / AI memory that their agent can query for thinking patterns.
  • Privacy-conscious users who require all data stay local.
  • People who want to track their growth as a developer over time.
  • Engineering teams scaling AI coding agents while controlling spend
  • Platform teams that need auditable, rollback-aware agent execution records
  • Organizations using multiple agents (Claude, Codex, Gemini) under one governed flow
Not for
  • Those needing project-level memory or codebase history (it focuses on the person, not the code).
  • Those needing cloud sync or multi-user collaboration (it's local-first).
  • Users unfamiliar with CLI or unwilling to run a local model download.
  • Proactive coaching expecting in-session suggestions or nudges (it's a tool, not a coach).
  • Developers who just want a simple code-completion helper without run governance
  • Teams unwilling to accept local JSONL run records with HMAC signing
  • Environments without a supported adapter (Claude/Codex/Gemini CLIs, direct provider, or verifier-only)
Required permissions
  • Reads user prompts and assistant messages captured by Claude Code hooks.
  • Reads OpenCode's local SQLite session database.
  • Accesses local file system for storing data (default `~/.local/share/witness/`).
  • Invokes `claude -p` or a private `opencode serve` runner for distillation.
  • Read/write access to the configured repo root (writable scope restrictable via --allow-path/--deny-path)
  • Ability to invoke the chosen agent CLI (Claude/Codex/Gemini, etc.) and its underlying model account
  • Local disk writes for run records, receipts, and share outputs (share/run-receipt., etc.)
  • Execution of user-configured verifier commands (e.g. npm test)
Risks and side effects
  • Data is all local but requires regular backups; don't sync live data directory directly.
  • May require significant disk space as the model ~470MB and raw transcripts accumulate.
  • Uses LLM distillation which can incur compute and cost depending on runner configuration.
  • Ensure to use `witness export` for consistent snapshots for backup to avoid corruption.
  • Verifier commands are executed; poorly chosen verifier commands carry security risk despite preflight policy checks
  • Cost and token figures may be estimates (labeled with provenance) and should not be treated as settled accounting
  • Receipt integrity must be verified before use as trustworthy evidence; missing rollback evidence is flagged as EVIDENCE_BOUNDARY
  • Policy defaults come from martin.config.yaml and can be overridden by CLI flags; misconfiguration can loosen safety boundaries
Supported clientsClaude Desktop, OpenCodeClaude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, VS Code, GitHub Copilot, Continue
Tools50