head to head · open source
agent-orchestrator vs relay
agent-orchestrator has 14,021 GitHub stars, 1,911 forks, 711 open issues and last shipped yesterday. relay has 1,089 stars, 95 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agent-orchestrator leads on adoption by 1,188% (14,021 vs 1,089 stars). agent-orchestrator is written in Go under Apache-2.0; relay is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. agent-orchestrator has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, relay 9%. agent-orchestrator was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| agent-orchestrator | relay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 95 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick agent-orchestrator if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick relay if
- You want the relay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and relay fits your workflow better
About agent-orchestrator
Agent Orchestrator Plan, run, and supervise coding agents from one place. Give every coding task its own agent, workspace, and feedback loop. Plan and delegate larger outcomes with a project aware orchestrator. Follow every worker, pull request, CI run, and review in a live Kanban. Download AO • Documentation • Releases • Contributing • Discord English · 简体中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Español · Français · Deutsch · Português (Brasil) A workspace for agent driven development One coding agent can handle a task. Running several across a project creates a different job: deciding what matters, splitting work…
read the full agent-orchestrator overview →
About relay
Get your agents talking. Let Claude Code message Codex. Let your Hyperagent talk to your Hermes agent. Give your custom agents a way to message each other. Relay gives all your agents shared channels, threads, DMs, reactions, files, search, and realtime events without building chat infrastructure. Quick Start Relay requires Node.js 22 or newer. Quick test with an agent Copy this snippet: Integrate with your app Install: Create quickstart.ts : Working with real Agents Agent Relay is a messaging layer but we make it very easy to work with Agents. Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode retain PTY as their automatic…
read the full relay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is agent-orchestrator or relay more popular?
agent-orchestrator has 14,021 GitHub stars and relay has 1,089. agent-orchestrator has the larger community by that measure.
Are agent-orchestrator and relay free?
Both are open source. agent-orchestrator is licensed under Apache-2.0 and relay under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between agent-orchestrator and relay?
agent-orchestrator is written in Go and relay in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, agent-orchestrator or relay?
Choose agent-orchestrator if you want the larger community (14,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose relay if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.