head to head · open source
claude-mem vs headroom
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars, 8,305 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom has 72,745 stars, 5,589 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. claude-mem leads on adoption by 29% (94,125 vs 72,745 stars). claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0. claude-mem has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, headroom 8%. 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, anthropic, 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
| claude-mem | headroom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 73K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 5.6K |
| 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 headroom if
- You want the headroom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and headroom 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 headroom
Headroom is an Apache 2.0 Python library, local proxy, agent wrapper and MCP server that compresses tool outputs, logs, files, RAG chunks and conversation history before they reach an LLM, and it is built for developers running AI coding agents or LLM applications who want to cut token usage without changing the answers they get.
read the full headroom overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is claude-mem or headroom more popular?
claude-mem has 94,125 GitHub stars and headroom has 72,745. claude-mem has the larger community by that measure.
Are claude-mem and headroom free?
Both are open source. claude-mem is licensed under Apache-2.0 and headroom under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between claude-mem and headroom?
claude-mem is written in TypeScript and headroom 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 headroom?
Choose claude-mem if you want the larger community (94,125 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose headroom if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.