# Letta

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Letta and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free open-source agent framework with selective memory retrieval and long-context handling. Critics point to heavy dependencies and embedding API costs.

## Why people recommend it

- Cited as a notable option (3 comments): "roll our own solution on top of Letta or Mastra" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47030237)) "You may find something like Letta interesting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945310)) "OpenCode and Letta are two notable examples" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46978557))
- Memory retrieval handles long context (2 comments): "lets you retrieve selectively and only grab what's relevant to the current query" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46899070)) "have made long context documentation pretty manageable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47199614))

## What people warn about

- Relies on embedding or LLM APIs (3 comments): "heavy runtimes (Python/Node), docker containers, proprietary storage silos, and recurring embedding API costs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49581249)) "requires a vector DB, embedding API, or 50+ pip dependencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47234779)) "sends your text to an LLM for extraction and classification" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47143873))
- Heavy runtimes and many dependencies (2 comments): "heavy runtimes (Python/Node), docker containers, proprietary storage silos, and recurring embedding API costs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49581249)) "requires a vector DB, embedding API, or 50+ pip dependencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47234779))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Engrim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/engrim.md): 21 recommend
- [MemPalace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mempalace.md): 9 recommend
- [Grov](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grov.md): 8 recommend
- [claude-mem](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-mem.md): 8 recommend
- [Hippo AI agent memory](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hippo.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Letta", https://hackerapproved.com/p/letta/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).