head to head · open source
caveman vs Grok Build
caveman has 108,615 GitHub stars, 6,296 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped today. Grok Build has 27,172 stars, 5,112 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. caveman leads on adoption by 300% (108,615 vs 27,172 stars). caveman is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Grok Build is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. caveman has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Grok Build 19%. caveman 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
| caveman | Grok Build | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 109K | ★ 27K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 5.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caveman if
- You weight community size — 109K 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 Grok Build if
- You want the Grok Build 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 Grok Build 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 Grok Build
Grok Build is a terminal based AI coding agent developed by SpaceXAI, distributed as the grok CLI/TUI. It operates as a fullscreen, mouse interactive interface that integrates with the user’s codebase to perform code editing, command execution, web search, and long running task orchestration. The project lives in the Rust ecosystem and is licensed under Apache 2.0.
read the full Grok Build overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caveman or Grok Build more popular?
caveman has 108,615 GitHub stars and Grok Build has 27,172. caveman has the larger community by that measure.
Are caveman and Grok Build free?
Both are open source. caveman is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Grok Build under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caveman and Grok Build?
caveman is written in Go and Grok Build 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, caveman or Grok Build?
Choose caveman if you want the larger community (108,615 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Grok Build if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.