diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 27f7eb581..3c3bc08e4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1187,6 +1187,14 @@ servers. Its token-bearing `base_url` must use HTTPS by default; plaintext HTTP
 requires an explicit local-development opt-in. See the
 [mem0 backend guide](backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/mem0/README.md).
 
+An opt-in `honcho` backend is available for self-hosted or hosted Honcho (v3
+API). It builds user-model memory — long-term preferences and a cross-session
+working representation — on Honcho's server side, so the backend makes no LLM
+calls locally. Each user gets an isolated workspace derived from `user_id`; a
+missing user id fails closed instead of falling back to a shared workspace.
+Fact CRUD and Settings-page fact editing are not available for this backend. See
+the [Honcho backend guide](backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md).
+
 Memory updates now skip duplicate fact entries at apply time, so repeated preferences and context do not accumulate endlessly across sessions.
 
 In the default DeerMem `middleware` mode, automatic extraction now classifies every proposed fact by scope, durability, and authority before a deterministic write gate accepts it. Only durable, descriptive user-level facts are stored; current-thread or project constraints and one-time action permissions stay in conversation state. User-global summaries require both user scope and descriptive authority, contradiction removals are scope-gated, and a replacement-dependent removal is applied only when its replacement actually survives validation and storage. These classification labels are extraction-only metadata, add no extra LLM call, and are not written into the fact files. The explicit CRUD tools in `memory.mode: tool` remain a separate, model-directed path. Deployments that override the bundled DeerMem prompts via `memory.backend_config.prompts_dir` must add the new classification fields to their custom templates (the `memory_update` fact/summary/removal formats and the `consolidation` consolidated-fact schema): the write gate fails closed, so an un-migrated template stops every extraction-driven fact, summary, and removal write, surfacing only through the `rejected_by_scope_gate` metrics and the high-rejection-rate warning.
diff --git a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ed852bc11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+# Honcho memory backend
+
+Uses Honcho (self-hosted or hosted, v3 API) as DeerFlow's
+user-model memory store. Honcho covers the user dimension of memory — long-term
+user modeling, preferences, and a cross-session working representation — built
+by Honcho's own server-side deriver. Ingestion is cheap plain message writes;
+this backend makes **no LLM calls** locally.
+
+## Configuration
+
+```yaml
+memory:
+  enabled: true
+  injection_enabled: true
+  manager_class: honcho
+  mode: middleware            # or "tool"
+  backend_config:
+    base_url: http://localhost:8000
+    # api_key: $HONCHO_API_KEY   # hosted Honcho; plain-http + api_key needs allow_insecure_http: true
+    workspace_prefix: deerflow-u-   # one isolated workspace per user id
+    # workspace_overrides: {}    # map specific user ids to custom workspaces
+    # user_peer_overrides: {}    # map specific user ids to custom peer names
+    assistant_peer: deerflow
+    message_char_limit: 8000
+    max_injection_chars: 6000
+    timeout_seconds: 10
+    connect_timeout_seconds: 3
+    failure_policy:
+      read: fail_open                  # fail_open | fail_closed
+```
+
+A configured `api_key` over a plain-`http://` base URL is rejected at startup
+unless you explicitly set `allow_insecure_http: true` (local-development opt-in,
+same posture as the mem0 backend). Use HTTPS for any non-local deployment.
+
+Config errors (bad URL, insecure key combination) fail fast at Gateway startup;
+connectivity is deliberately not probed, so a temporarily unreachable Honcho
+does not block startup — reads then degrade per `failure_policy.read`.
+
+## Multi-user isolation
+
+Every operation resolves a workspace from `user_id`:
+`workspace_overrides[user_id]` on exact match, else
+`workspace_prefix + <stable id>`. The stable id is the sanitized user id plus
+an 8-hex-char SHA-256 suffix of the original id, so distinct raw ids that
+sanitize identically cannot silently merge into one workspace. Honcho scopes
+all queries to a single workspace, so under the default derivation users
+cannot see each other's memory by construction.
+
+- A missing or empty `user_id` **fails closed**: writes become no-ops and reads
+  return empty — there is never a shared fallback workspace.
+- A `workspace_overrides` entry deliberately shared across users shares that
+  workspace's search index (`search` is workspace-scoped; `get_context` /
+  `get_memory` stay peer-scoped).
+- Session ids reuse the same collision-resistant derivation
+  (`df-` + stable id of `thread_id`).
+
+## Recall and search
+
+- `mode: middleware` recall is query-less: `get_context` fetches the user's
+  working representation (up to 25 conclusions) and injects it truncated to
+  `max_injection_chars`.
+- `mode: tool` adds query-aware `memory_search` backed by Honcho's
+  workspace-scoped search, while the passive per-turn write middleware is
+  retained because Honcho's deriver learns from `add()` writes.
+
+## Limitations
+
+- No DeerMem-style fact CRUD: `create_fact`/`delete_fact`/`update_fact`,
+  `import_memory`, and Settings-page fact editing are not implemented
+  (`get_memory` returns a minimal DeerMem-shaped document with the working
+  representation as the `workContext` summary and an empty fact list).
+  `memory_add`/`memory_update`/`memory_delete` return a clear
+  unsupported-operation error; conversation writes still happen through the
+  retained middleware. DeerMem remains the default backend.
+- No migration of existing DeerMem data.
+- Writes are fire-and-forget per call: a failed write is logged and dropped
+  (at-most-once); nothing is buffered locally, so `shutdown_flush` is a no-op.
+- `agent_name` is not mapped — Honcho models the user, not per-agent facts.
+
+## Async execution and failure behavior
+
+The Honcho HTTP client is synchronous for compatibility with the
+`MemoryManager` contract. DeerFlow offloads it at every async boundary via
+`asyncio.to_thread` (the manager's `a*` methods), so a slow Honcho request
+never blocks ASGI handlers or SSE heartbeats.
+
+`failure_policy.read: fail_open` (default) logs a recall failure and continues
+without new memory context. `fail_closed` propagates the backend error through
+prompt construction and aborts the run instead of silently degrading.