head to head · open source
Archon vs workflow
Archon has 23,505 GitHub stars, 3,474 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. workflow has 2,425 stars, 365 forks, 360 open issues and last shipped today. Archon leads on adoption by 869% (23,505 vs 2,425 stars). Archon is written in TypeScript under MIT; workflow is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Archon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, workflow 15%. workflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (workflow-engine), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| Archon | workflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 365 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Archon if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick workflow if
- You want the workflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and workflow fits your workflow better
About Archon
Archon is an open source workflow engine for AI coding agents, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license. It lives in the AI coding ecosystem, alongside tools such as Claude Code, and is distributed through the Bun runtime and the GitHub CLI. The project describes itself as a harness builder: it lets a developer encode a development process as a YAML workflow and then run that workflow reliably across projects. Workflows are stored in a .archon/workflows/ directory and committed to the repository, so the same definition can be invoked from the CLI, a web UI, Slack, Telegram, or GitHub.…
read the full Archon overview →
About workflow
Workflow SDK is a TypeScript and JavaScript library that makes application functions durable. It lives in the TypeScript/JavaScript ecosystem and targets server side frameworks such as Next.js. The project is intended for apps and AI agents that need to continue work across failures, waits, and restarts.
read the full workflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Archon or workflow more popular?
Archon has 23,505 GitHub stars and workflow has 2,425. Archon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Archon and workflow free?
Both are open source. Archon is licensed under MIT and workflow under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Archon and workflow?
Archon is written in TypeScript and workflow in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Archon or workflow?
Choose Archon if you want the larger community (23,505 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose workflow if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.