Where Hunch fits — and where it doesn't
Four categories of tools touch engineering memory for AI-assisted codebases. Each is genuinely good at something. This page compares properties you can verify yourself for Hunch's engineering-memory and change-control surface. Hunch also ships a self-hosted shared-state service for sourced decisions, completed work and commitments across authorized scopes.
Category-level by design: tools within a category differ, and all of them ship faster than any comparison table. Where a property varies inside a category we say so. Snapshot: August 2026.
| Property | Assistant built-in memorieseditor / platform memory features | Memory SaaS & MCP servershosted recall layers | Code-graph assurance CLIsstructure-derived evidence | AI code review botsPR-time analysis | Hunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source of truth lives in your git repoportable, reviewable files — no vendor store | ✗vendor account/cloud | variesmostly hosted | ✓local index | ✗ | ✓JSON in .hunch/ |
| Works across assistantssame memory for every MCP client | ✗bound to one product | ✓ | ✓ | ✗PR surface only | ✓ |
| Records the WHYdecisions with rejected alternatives, bug lineage | ✗facts & preferences | varieslessons in some | ✗structure, not rationale | varieslearned review patterns | ✓incl. what was rejected |
| Deterministic enforcementno model call in the block path | ✗recall only | ✗recall only | ✓ | ✗model-driven review | ✓graph reachability |
| Human-gated authoritynothing blocks without explicit activation | — | — | varies | varies | ✓advisory until a human says so |
| Blocks with a receiptevery gate cites the decision / incident behind it | ✗ | ✗ | variesevidence, structure-derived | ✗uncited comments | ✓con_/dec_/bug_ ids |
| Self-hosted, works offlineno account, no cloud dependency | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No per-token API costruns on your existing subscription or deterministically | ✓bundled | variesusage pricing common | ✓ | varies | ✓refuses metered APIs by default |
| Team memory in a repo you controlshared via your own private git remote | ✗org features, vendor-side | varieshosted team plans | ✗ | ✗ | ✓git is the sync layer |
| CI / code-scanning integrationgate PRs; SARIF output | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓PR comments | ✓PR guard + SARIF |
“varies” means credible tools in the category land on both sides of the property. Every Hunch claim above is testable against the open source — the source of truth is committed JSON, the gates are deterministic code, and blocks print their citations.
you may not need Hunch if…
you work solo in one editor and just want it to remember preferences — its built-in memory is enough. Or your invariants are purely import-shaped — an import-contract linter is a solid, deterministic answer.
hunch is built for…
teams (human + AI) where decisions, completed work, commitments and the why behind code must outlive a session — whichever assistant did the work.
the one-line difference
For engineering changes, Hunch connects an event → curated rationale → human-scoped authority → deterministic change receipt. The same product serves sourced work state to authorized agents; broader cross-agent impact remains under pilot measurement.