head to head · open source
codebase-memory-mcp vs bb
codebase-memory-mcp has 44,980 GitHub stars, 3,684 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bb has 3,946 stars, 553 forks, 463 open issues and last shipped yesterday. codebase-memory-mcp leads on adoption by 1,040% (44,980 vs 3,946 stars). codebase-memory-mcp is written in C under MIT; bb is written in TypeScript under MIT. codebase-memory-mcp has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, bb 14%. codebase-memory-mcp 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, codex), 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
| codebase-memory-mcp | bb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.7K | ⑂ 553 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick codebase-memory-mcp if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bb if
- You want the bb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bb fits your workflow better
About codebase-memory-mcp
codebase memory mcp is a high performance code intelligence MCP server, written in C, that indexes a codebase into a persistent knowledge graph so AI coding agents can answer structural questions in under a millisecond, and it is built for developers and teams who run agents such as Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, aider, or Kilo Code against large repositories.
read the full codebase-memory-mcp overview →
About bb
bb is the agent IDE that builds itself: an MIT licensed TypeScript application that lets developers drive coding agents from a desktop app, a web app, a CLI, or an HTTP API, and extend the tool itself while it runs.
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Frequently asked questions
Is codebase-memory-mcp or bb more popular?
codebase-memory-mcp has 44,980 GitHub stars and bb has 3,946. codebase-memory-mcp has the larger community by that measure.
Are codebase-memory-mcp and bb free?
Both are open source. codebase-memory-mcp is licensed under MIT and bb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between codebase-memory-mcp and bb?
codebase-memory-mcp is written in C and bb 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, codebase-memory-mcp or bb?
Choose codebase-memory-mcp if you want the larger community (44,980 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.