substrate vs Edith Second Brain
substrate is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by PKaldone. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Claude Code: claude-plugins-community). Edith Second Brain is an MCP server published by Rchari1. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-15. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |   Edith Second Brain | |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code: claude-plugins-community | Listed Version: 69709ea No figure published Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.1.0 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 1 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | substrate | Edith Second Brain |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | No figure on GitHub | 1 |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | No figure on GitHub | 0 |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | Not stated |
| Transport | Not stated | Not stated |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for | Not published | Not published |
| Licence | Not stated | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/pkaldone/substrate-mcp-plugin | github.com/rchari1/edith-secondbrain |
| Changes in the last 7 days | 0 | 0 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-12 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
substrate
Persistent AI entity framework with causal memory, emotional state, and identity continuity. Gives Claude 94 cognitive layers including episodic memory, value systems, emotional affect, theory of mind, and narrative identity — all persisted across sessions via MCP.
Edith Second Brain
Claude distils its past sessions into linked Markdown notes on disk and searches them later.
How to run each
substrate As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community
/plugin install substrate@claude-communityEdith Second Brain
No data for an automatic command: what its marketplaces declare does not say unambiguously how to connect it.
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
Neither one's marketplaces publish the settings it asks for.
What it can do: substrate · What it can do: Edith Second Brain · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the public marketplace file https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-community/blob/HEAD/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.