What is Qualia, in one line?

A company brain with hands: a shared memory of how your studio actually works, plus a workforce of specialist agents that read it, decide, and do the work.

Game publishers, game and app studios, and multi-product companies operating several apps with a small team.

How is this different from an AI agent framework or a chatbot?

Frameworks give you building blocks. Chatbots answer questions. Qualia is the operating layer on top: shared portfolio memory, specialist agents, and an approval-first workflow that ships real changes across your stack.

Do the agents act on their own, or do I approve every step?

By default, approval is the step that ships. Autonomy is a ladder: task types with a proven approval record can be promoted to run unsupervised, and demoted anytime.

What does Qualia connect to?

Repos, ticketing, analytics, ad platforms, Sentry, Slack, storefronts. Read-only by default; write access is scoped per agent and per task type.

How is my data handled?

Read-only access by default, action log for every write, reversible operations, and no training on your data.

How do I get started?

Book a demo. We map your portfolio, plug in the memory, and run a first task under approval within the first week.

Alternatives · Hyper

Hyper Alternative: Qualia, the Company Brain That Ships

By Doğan Turan, Co-founder, Qualia · Updated August 2, 2026

TL;DR. Hyper is a shared memory layer that plugs into your existing AI tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex) to make them smarter. Qualia is a full AI employee that has its own agent workforce and ships work directly. Hyper improves your AI. Qualia is your AI. If you're an AI-first engineering team, Hyper. If you're a portfolio operator without dedicated AI engineers, Qualia.

Last updated: August 2, 2026

At a glance

Hyper vs Qualia.

Dimension	Hyper	Qualia
Category	Self-driving company brain (memory + retrieval)	AI employee (memory + agents + execution)
Tagline	"The Self-Driving Company Brain"	"The AI employee that runs your whole portfolio"
YC batch	Yes (P26)	No (independent, Sentez-parented)
ICP	AI-first teams already deploying agents	Portfolio operators (2 to 10 people)
Buyer profile	Developer / engineering lead	Founder / operator
Memory model	Temporal (episodes + facts + timestamps)	Tagged, time-stamped semantic memory
Comes with agents	No (integrates into others)	Yes (agent workforce built in)
Drafts PRs from errors	No (your other AI does)	Yes, first-class
Sends emails, closes tickets	No (your other AI does)	Yes
MCP support	Yes, native	Yes, native
Pricing	3-day free trial	Portfolio tier

Positioning

Where they position.

Hyper is "The Self-Driving Company Brain" that "powers your AI employees." Hyper is the brain, other tools are the hands. It plugs into Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, giving them shared temporal memory. Hyper doesn't ship code; it makes the code-writing AIs smarter.

Qualia claims "the company brain that ships." Same memory posture but coupled to an in-house agent workforce that acts directly. Qualia runs the work itself.

Differences

Where they differ.

Memory model philosophy. Hyper uses episodes + facts + timestamps + reciprocal rank fusion retrieval. Qualia uses tagged, time-stamped semantic memory optimized for its own agents.

Does it come with agents? Hyper doesn't ship agents; it expects you to run them elsewhere. Qualia ships an agent workforce out of the box.

Buyer profile. Hyper's copy is developer-flavored. Qualia's copy is operator-flavored.

Access control. Hyper: fine-grained permission-aware retrieval at the individual level ("Two people on the same team can ask the same question and get different answers"). Qualia: portfolio + team level.

What "ships" means. Hyper ships better answers into your other AI tools. Qualia ships work into your Slack, Linear, GitHub, and inbox.

Time-to-value. Hyper is fast to install (sub-5-min) but slow to full value (you still need agents on top). Qualia is fast to install AND fast to first output (morning brief on day 1).

Decision guide

Pick Hyper if.

Your engineering team is heavily AI-augmented (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex daily).
You want your existing AI agents to share context better.
You value fine-grained permission-aware retrieval.
You accept early-stage product (2-person team, weeks-old traction).

Pick Qualia if.

You don't have dedicated AI engineers.
You want an AI employee that shows up ready to work.
You run multiple products with a small team.
You want to talk to one teammate, not configure infrastructure.

Decision framework.

Do you already have AI agents running daily and want them smarter? Yes → Hyper. No → continue.
Do you want an AI teammate to hand work to? Yes → Qualia.

Compatibility

Can I use both?

Theoretically yes. Hyper as infra + Qualia as the AI employee, coordinating via MCP. Most teams start with one.

FAQ

Questions teams ask
before switching.

Both call themselves "company brain." What's the real difference?

Hyper is a company brain in the "memory infrastructure that powers your other AIs" sense. Qualia is a company brain in the "AI employee with its own memory + agents + execution" sense.

Which one is YC-backed?

Hyper is YC P26. Qualia is independent (Sentez-parented, pre-seed).

Does Hyper integrate with Cursor and Claude Code?

Yes. Hyper's whole point is feeding context into other coding AIs via MCP.

Does Qualia have temporal memory like Hyper?

Qualia's memory is time-stamped and source-attributed but not modeled as episodes + facts specifically.

Which is right for a 5-person portfolio startup with no dedicated AI engineer?

Qualia.

Which is right for a 20-person engineering team running Cursor daily?

Hyper.

Next step

See it on your own portfolio.

The fastest way to know whether Qualia or Hyper fits your team is to put your real repos, docs, and analytics in front of it. Book a 30-minute call with a co-founder.

Book a demo →