head to head · open source
claude-mem vs ralph-claude-code
claude-mem has 94,286 GitHub stars, 8,321 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ralph-claude-code has 9,639 stars, 719 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped yesterday. claude-mem leads on adoption by 878% (94,286 vs 9,639 stars). claude-mem is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; ralph-claude-code is written in Shell under MIT. claude-mem has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, ralph-claude-code 7%. 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, ai-agents, 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 | ralph-claude-code | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 719 |
| 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 ralph-claude-code if
- You want the ralph-claude-code feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and ralph-claude-code 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 ralph-claude-code
Ralph for Claude Code is an MIT licensed Shell tool that turns Claude Code into a continuous autonomous development loop with intelligent exit detection and rate limiting, built for developers who want an AI agent to work through a backlog without a human re prompting every iteration.
read the full ralph-claude-code overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is claude-mem or ralph-claude-code more popular?
claude-mem has 94,286 GitHub stars and ralph-claude-code has 9,639. claude-mem has the larger community by that measure.
Are claude-mem and ralph-claude-code free?
Both are open source. claude-mem is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ralph-claude-code under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between claude-mem and ralph-claude-code?
claude-mem is written in TypeScript and ralph-claude-code in Shell. 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 ralph-claude-code?
Choose claude-mem if you want the larger community (94,286 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ralph-claude-code if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.