crystalline
★ 17
vs
stashbase
★ 1.1k
crystalline vs stashbase
crystalline: Crystalline provides AI agents with crystallized intelligence, allowing them to accumulate and retain knowledge across sessions, unlike an LLM's fluid intelligence. It acts as a local search index on plain markdown files, enabling agents to onboard curated knowledge and capture new learnings, evolving from a stranger to a peer.; stashbase: StashBase enables AI agents to search and utilize content from your local files, including PDFs, DOCX, images, audio, and video. It creates a searchable index from your folders, allowing agents to find relevant context by meaning rather than just keywords.
01
TL;DR
crystallineRAG / Knowledge Base · ★ 17
Onboard AI agents with curated domain-specific knowledge at the start of each session.
stashbaseRAG / Knowledge Base · ★ 1.1k
When to choose:
- You want a desktop app that indexes folders of PDFs, DOCX, images, audio and video and shares them with Claude, Codex and other MCP clients.
- Your files must stay the source of truth: the index can be rebuilt, and removing a folder never deletes files.
- You want exact text search with no key, and semantic search only if you opt in.
When to skip:
- Your documents cannot leave the machine and you need semantic search: it sends content to OpenAI or OpenRouter.
- You are on Linux and need official support: Linux builds are community-supported.
- You only need one file converted now and then: an MCP converter is lighter.
02
Side-by-Side Comparison
Field
crystallinestashbaseCategory
RAG / Knowledge Base
RAG / Knowledge Base
Stars
★ 17
★ 1.1k
License
AGPL-3.0
Apache-2.0
Install Command
brew install jordiboehme/tap/crystalline && crystalline install claude-code && mkdir -p ~/knowledge/engineering && crystalline domain init ~/knowledge/engineering --name engineering && crystalline domain add engineering ~/knowledge/engineering
brew install --cask liliu-z/stashbase/stashbase
Updated
2d ago
2d ago
Open Source
Yes
Yes
Tags
AI Agents, Knowledge Base, RAG
Local Files, RAG, AI Agents
03
Features
crystalline01Structured knowledge organization using domains (folders) and engrams (markdown files).
02Hybrid search combining full-text and semantic ranking for efficient knowledge retrieval.
03Fluid web UI for human-agent collaboration, enabling reading, editing, and managing knowledge.
04Supports GitHub-based team collaboration with review workflows for shared knowledge.
05Knowledge graph and temporal filtering to understand relationships and time-bounded facts.
stashbase01Extracts searchable text from various formats including PDFs, DOCX, images (OCR), audio, and video (transcription).
02Semantic search capabilities to find relevant context by meaning, supported by an AI Index.
03Connects and shares searchable context across Claude, Codex, and other MCP clients and built-in agents.
04Maintains local files as the source of truth, with indexes and derived data stored separately.
04
Use Cases
crystalline↳Onboard AI agents with curated domain-specific knowledge at the start of each session.
↳Enable AI agents to capture and persist new observations, decisions, and lessons learned from their work.
↳Facilitate team knowledge sharing and collaboration on a continually growing and evolving knowledge base.
↳Reduce redundancy and repeated explanations by providing agents with access to accumulated 'crystallized intelligence'.
↳Efficiently retrieve specific facts or context from a large collection of knowledge units based on task routing.
stashbase↳Providing AI agents with searchable access to research papers and contracts stored locally.
↳Enabling chatbots to answer questions based on internal documentation, scanned documents, and recordings.
↳Developers wanting to query project design documents and architecture notes using a built-in AI agent.
↳Organizing and searching personal knowledge bases that primarily consist of diverse local file types.
05
Best For
crystalline—
stashbaseTrending
FAQ
FAQ
What is the difference between crystalline and stashbase?
Both crystalline and stashbase are in the RAG / Knowledge Base category. crystalline has 17 stars, while stashbase has 1.1k stars.
Which is better, crystalline or stashbase?
The best choice depends on your use case. Choose crystalline if Onboard AI agents with curated domain-specific knowledge at the start of each session., and stashbase if Providing AI agents with searchable access to research papers and contracts stored locally..
Is crystalline free or open source?
Yes, crystalline is open source on GitHub (AGPL-3.0).
Is stashbase free or open source?
Yes, stashbase is open source on GitHub (Apache-2.0).
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