head to head · open source
ponytail vs claude-mem
ponytail has 182,779 GitHub stars, 10,094 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. claude-mem has 110,572 stars, 9,645 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ponytail leads on adoption by 65% (182,779 vs 110,572 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. ponytail has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, claude-mem 9%. claude-mem was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-agents, claude, claude-code, claude-code-plugin), 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
| ponytail | claude-mem | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 183K | ★ 111K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 9.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 183K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick claude-mem if
- You want the claude-mem 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 claude-mem fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail He says nothing. He writes one line. It works. 54% less code (up to 94%) · 20% cheaper · 27% faster · 100% safe Measured on real Claude Code sessions editing a real open source repo (FastAPI + React), against the same agent with no skill. 54% is the mean across 12 feature tasks (Haiku 4.5, n=4); it reaches 94% where an agent over builds (a date picker) and is near zero where the code is already minimal. ponytail keeps every safety guard while a bare "write one liners" prompt drops one. (The earlier single shot benchmark reported 80 94% as a flat figure; against a fair agentic…
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About claude-mem
Claude Mem is now Grok Mem. The package is still claude mem . 🇨🇳 中文 • 🇹🇼 繁體中文 • 🇯🇵 日本語 • 🇵🇹 Português • 🇧🇷 Português • 🇰🇷 한국어 • 🇪🇸 Español • 🇩🇪 Deutsch • 🇫🇷 Français • 🇮🇱 עברית • 🇸🇦 العربية • 🇷🇺 Русский • 🇵🇱 Polski • 🇨🇿 Čeština • 🇳🇱 Nederlands • 🇹🇷 Türkçe • 🇺🇦 Українська • 🇻🇳 Tiếng Việt • 🇵🇭 Tagalog • 🇮🇩 Indonesia • 🇹🇭 ไทย • 🇮🇳 हिन्दी • 🇧🇩 বাংলা • 🇵🇰 اردو • 🇷🇴 Română • 🇸🇪 Svenska • 🇮🇹 Italiano • 🇬🇷 Ελληνικά • 🇭🇺 Magyar • 🇫🇮 Suomi • 🇩🇰 Dansk • 🇳🇴 Norsk Grok Mem is how Grok Bots remember. Sits next to Grok's own memory. Does not replace it. Quick…
read the full claude-mem overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or claude-mem more popular?
ponytail has 182,779 GitHub stars and claude-mem has 110,572. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and claude-mem free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and claude-mem under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and claude-mem?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and claude-mem 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, ponytail or claude-mem?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (182,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose claude-mem if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.