Question 1

What is Substrate?

Accepted Answer

Substrate is Context as a Service (CaaS) and Memory as a Service (MaaS) for AI coding agents. It provides custom MCP servers, an API doc parser, and a cloud-managed context and memory backend you can plug into Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Zed, and any MCP-aware tool.

Question 2

What is Context as a Service (CaaS)?

Accepted Answer

Context as a Service (CaaS) means the agent context layer — system prompts, retrieved docs, API references, project knowledge — is owned and run by a managed cloud service instead of rebuilt per project. Substrate is CaaS for AI coding agents: point it at a doc URL and it becomes a versioned, queryable context library served via a custom MCP server.

Question 3

What is Memory as a Service (MaaS)?

Accepted Answer

Memory as a Service (MaaS) is cloud-managed long-term memory for AI agents. Substrate's MaaS product is MemPalace: structured palaces and wings, semantic recall, wake-up text, and auto taxonomy, all served to any MCP-aware agent so memory persists across sessions and tools.

Question 4

What are custom MCP servers in Substrate?

Accepted Answer

Substrate spins up custom MCP servers on the fly from your own context. Drop in an API doc URL or upload internal docs, and Substrate's API doc parser turns them into MCP tools that any MCP client (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot) can call directly — no per-integration server code.

Question 5

Which AI coding agents work with Substrate?

Accepted Answer

Substrate exposes a standard MCP server, so it works with Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Zed, Cline, and any client that supports the Model Context Protocol. A Python SDK is also available for direct AI API integration.

Question 6

Is Substrate free?

Accepted Answer

Substrate is currently in closed beta with a free tier. Request access on the website to receive an invite.