head to head · open source
claude-mem vs claude-skills
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars, 8,305 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. claude-skills has 26,077 stars, 3,677 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 19 days ago. claude-mem leads on adoption by 261% (94,125 vs 26,077 stars). claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; claude-skills is written in Python under MIT. claude-mem has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, claude-skills 14%. claude-mem was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (claude-code, claude-skills), 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
| claude-mem | claude-skills | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 3.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick claude-mem if
- You weight community size — 94K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick claude-skills if
- You want the claude-skills feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and claude-skills fits your workflow better
About claude-mem
claude mem is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript memory layer for AI coding agents that captures what an agent did during a session, compresses it with AI, and injects the relevant parts back into future sessions, built for developers running Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex, Gemini, Hermes, Copilot, OpenCode and similar tools.
read the full claude-mem overview →
About claude-skills
claude skills is an MIT licensed library of 388 Claude Code skills, plugins, and agent skills that packages domain expertise for AI coding agents, aimed at developers and teams running Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and nine other coding agents.
read the full claude-skills overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is claude-mem or claude-skills more popular?
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars and claude-skills has 26,077. claude-mem has the larger community by that measure.
Are claude-mem and claude-skills free?
Both are open source. claude-mem is licensed under Apache-2.0 and claude-skills under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between claude-mem and claude-skills?
claude-mem is written in TypeScript and claude-skills in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, claude-mem or claude-skills?
Choose claude-mem if you want the larger community (94,125 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose claude-skills if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.