head to head · open source
caveman vs Emdash
caveman has 116,900 GitHub stars, 6,789 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Emdash has 6,154 stars, 658 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caveman leads on adoption by 1,800% (116,900 vs 6,154 stars). caveman is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Emdash is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. caveman has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Emdash 11%. Emdash was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, claude-code), 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
| caveman | Emdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 117K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 658 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caveman if
- You weight community size — 117K 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 Emdash if
- You want the Emdash 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 Emdash fits your workflow better
About caveman
why use many token when few do trick Your AI coding agent bills by the word and writes like it knows that. Caveman make it stop. ▶️ ThePrimeagen reacts: "No way this actually works" 🏆 1 on GitHub Trending · July 2026 · 🥇 1 Repository of the Day on Trendshift · April 2026 1 on Hacker News · 904 points · 366 comments · 8 Product of the Day on Product Hunt 📄 Cited in CAVEWOMAN , an Adobe Research paper that measured caveman style output cutting cost 1.4 to 2.4×, up to 3× · 🧪 Tested by JetBrains on 86 real coding tasks: "costs you nothing measurable in quality" ⚡ One command, no account, no API key. npx skills…
read the full caveman overview →
About Emdash
Download · Docs · Releases · Discord · Contributing Emdash is a desktop app for running AI coding agents in parallel. Each task runs in its own Git worktree, so you can explore multiple fixes or features at once, review the diffs, and merge what works. It works with local projects and remote machines over SSH. Bring the CLI agents you already use: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Amp, and more. What You Can Do Run multiple coding agents at once without juggling terminals. Keep every agent isolated in its own Git worktree and branch. Send issues and tickets from Linear, GitHub, Jira, GitLab, Asana, Featurebase…
read the full Emdash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caveman or Emdash more popular?
caveman has 116,900 GitHub stars and Emdash has 6,154. caveman has the larger community by that measure.
Are caveman and Emdash free?
Both are open source. caveman is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Emdash under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caveman and Emdash?
caveman is written in Go and Emdash 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, caveman or Emdash?
Choose caveman if you want the larger community (116,900 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Emdash if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.