head to head · open source
claude-mem vs distilly
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars, 8,305 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. distilly has 24,828 stars, 2,154 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. claude-mem leads on adoption by 279% (94,125 vs 24,828 stars). claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; distilly is written in Python under MIT. claude-mem has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, distilly 9%. claude-mem was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai-agents, 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 | distilly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 25K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 distilly if
- You want the distilly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and distilly 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 distilly
Distilly is an MIT licensed Python project that distills a person's messages, documents, interviews, and public sources into a reusable, source grounded Person Profile — packaged as an Agent Skill — so AI agents and compatible bots can work with that person's experience, judgment, voice, and ways of working.
read the full distilly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is claude-mem or distilly more popular?
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars and distilly has 24,828. claude-mem has the larger community by that measure.
Are claude-mem and distilly free?
Both are open source. claude-mem is licensed under Apache-2.0 and distilly under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between claude-mem and distilly?
claude-mem is written in TypeScript and distilly 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 distilly?
Choose claude-mem if you want the larger community (94,125 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose distilly if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.