head to head · open source
flow-next vs roam-code
flow-next has 698 GitHub stars, 55 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. roam-code has 518 stars, 50 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flow-next leads on adoption by 35% (698 vs 518 stars). flow-next is written in Python under MIT; roam-code is written in Python under Apache-2.0. flow-next has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, roam-code 10%. flow-next was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cli, code-review), 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
| flow-next | roam-code | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 698 | ★ 518 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 55 | ⑂ 50 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick flow-next if
- You weight community size — 698 stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick roam-code if
- You want the roam-code 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 roam-code fits your workflow better
About flow-next
Flow Next is a workflow plugin that runs inside AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Droid, turning a change request into specs, implementation, adversarial cross model review, and a pull request with recorded evidence, and it is aimed at individual developers and teams who already generate code with agents but lack a repeatable way to verify the result.
read the full flow-next overview →
About roam-code
roam code is a local first codebase intelligence CLI and MCP server that gives AI coding agents a reusable SQLite code graph, static pattern findings, and change safety checks across 28 languages — built for developers and teams who run coding agents against their own repositories and want no API key, no account, and no automatic source code upload.
read the full roam-code overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is flow-next or roam-code more popular?
flow-next has 698 GitHub stars and roam-code has 518. flow-next has the larger community by that measure.
Are flow-next and roam-code free?
Both are open source. flow-next is licensed under MIT and roam-code under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between flow-next and roam-code?
flow-next is written in Python and roam-code 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, flow-next or roam-code?
Choose flow-next if you want the larger community (698 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose roam-code if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.