zep: the enterprise-grade temporal knowledge graph for AI agents

Short version: zep is a full managed memory platform for AI agents — temporal knowledge graph + time-aware retrieval + enterprise deployment options. If your product touches regulated workloads (financial, healthcare, legal) and needs a production-ready memory layer with auth and audit built in, zep is the grown-up pick. 15–20 minute install. By the getzep team.

What is zep?

zep is a temporal knowledge graph memory platform. Unlike a flat memory store, zep's graph has time as a first-class dimension — you can ask "what did my agent know about Alex as of April 1st?" and get a correct answer, even if that knowledge has since been updated.

Beyond the graph itself, zep ships with the things enterprise deployment needs: RBAC, audit logs, HIPAA-ready deployment options, managed cloud with SLAs. It's positioned as the memory layer for teams that can't afford to duct-tape mem0 + their own auth + their own temporal layer.

Who this is for

Enterprise teams deploying AI agents into regulated environments (financial, healthcare, legal, compliance).
Products where "when did the agent know this?" is a real audit question, not a hypothetical.
Teams that want managed infrastructure with support SLAs rather than self-hosting.
Engineering leads whose security review blocks self-hosted memory.

Skip this if

You're early-stage or solo — zep is overkill for a founder experimenting. Start with memory-mcp or mem0, graduate to zep when you have real compliance requirements.

What problem it solves

Two problems at once:

Temporal accuracy. A user's preferences change. A customer's contract expires. A company's metrics update. Flat memory silently overwrites history. zep's graph tracks when things changed, which matters for agents that reason about past state.
Enterprise readiness. Self-hosted mem0 doesn't ship with RBAC or audit logs. For enterprise deployments, you'd have to build those on top or piece together infrastructure. zep ships them.

If you're a solo founder, these aren't worth the setup cost. If you're deploying to a Fortune 500 customer, they're table stakes.

How to install it (plain English)

Sign up or self-host. Managed cloud: sign up at getzep.com. Self-host: Docker Compose deployment.
Add sessions and messages. zep's API is session-oriented — you create a session per user/conversation and add messages to it.
Query with time awareness. Search supports "as of" semantics — retrieve what was true at any historical moment.
Configure RBAC, audit logs, retention policies as needed for compliance.

Full walkthrough: /memory/tools/zep.

What you can do with it (for a non-technical founder)

If your team is selling into enterprise:

Answer audit questions correctly — "what did your AI know about this customer on June 1?" has a real answer, not a guess.
Pass security review — RBAC, audit logs, compliance-ready deployment options.
Scale to millions of users — managed tier handles the ops.
Integrate with your enterprise stack — SSO, standard auth flows, enterprise support channels.
Retain the time dimension — regulated industries need "point-in-time" semantics; zep is built for it.

What CLO adds on top

zep provides temporally-accurate, compliance-ready memory for your product's agents. Cognition CLO provides retention modeling for your team's internal knowledge. Run zep inside your product; run CLO for your internal team. Same company, different layers.

FAQ

How is zep different from graphiti?

Same company. graphiti is the open-source Python library for temporal knowledge graphs; zep is the full platform built on graphiti with managed hosting, auth, and enterprise features. Use graphiti when you want to own the stack; use zep when you want the managed platform. See /blog/zep-vs-graphiti.

Does zep support HIPAA?

Managed tier offers HIPAA-compliant deployment options for enterprise tiers. Self-hosted on your own HIPAA-compliant infrastructure is also supported.

What's the pricing model?

Free tier for development; paid tiers scale with message volume and enterprise features. Check getzep.com/pricing for current numbers.

Can I migrate from mem0 to zep?

Possible — both are graph/vector hybrids. Migration requires transforming mem0's user_id-scoped memories into zep's session-oriented format. Small script territory.

Does zep integrate with Claude Code?

Yes, via API. The integration is typically at the product layer — your backend calls zep; your backend calls Claude; your backend routes the results.

Is it open source?

The core library (graphiti) is open source. The full platform is source-available with commercial terms for enterprise.

Ready to install? Full walkthrough at /memory/tools/zep. Comparison with graphiti: /blog/zep-vs-graphiti. Credit to the getzep team — star the repo and check out the managed offering if enterprise deployment is in your near future.