head to head · open source
shannon vs CyberStrike
shannon has 48,205 GitHub stars, 5,529 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. CyberStrike has 2,819 stars, 434 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shannon leads on adoption by 1,610% (48,205 vs 2,819 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; CyberStrike is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. shannon has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, CyberStrike 15%. CyberStrike was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-penetration-testing, ai-security, cybersecurity, ethical-hacking), 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
| shannon | CyberStrike | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 434 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CyberStrike if
- You want the CyberStrike feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and CyberStrike fits your workflow better
About shannon
Shannon is an autonomous AI pentester for web applications and APIs that reads an application's source code, identifies attack paths, and executes real exploits so that only vulnerabilities with a working proof of concept are reported, built for AppSec, DevSecOps, and security engineering teams that ship code continuously.
read the full shannon overview →
About CyberStrike
CyberStrike is open source TypeScript project. It is AI powered offensive security harness. It lives in AI & Machine Learning / AI Security & Privacy ecosystem. It targets automated penetration testing. It solves problem of turning general AI model into red team agent. It uses terminal TUI. It connects Claude, GPT, or any LLM subscription. It handles reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, exploitation, and reporting autonomously. It has 13+ specialized agents, 7,600+ security skills, and 120+ OWASP test cases. It supports 150+ AI providers, 5,300+ models, 56+ built in tools, and 176+ MCP tools. It has 2746 star…
read the full CyberStrike overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or CyberStrike more popular?
shannon has 48,205 GitHub stars and CyberStrike has 2,819. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and CyberStrike free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and CyberStrike under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and CyberStrike?
shannon is written in TypeScript and CyberStrike 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, shannon or CyberStrike?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (48,205 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose CyberStrike if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.