head to head · open source
generative-ai-for-beginners vs how-claude-code-works
generative-ai-for-beginners has 119,980 GitHub stars, 63,157 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. how-claude-code-works has 3,644 stars, 705 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. generative-ai-for-beginners leads on adoption by 3,193% (119,980 vs 3,644 stars). generative-ai-for-beginners is written in Jupyter Notebook under MIT; how-claude-code-works is written in various languages under MIT. generative-ai-for-beginners has attracted 53% as many forks as stars, how-claude-code-works 19%. generative-ai-for-beginners was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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
| generative-ai-for-beginners | how-claude-code-works | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 120K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Jupyter Notebook | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 63K | ⑂ 705 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick generative-ai-for-beginners if
- You weight community size — 120K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Jupyter Notebook
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick how-claude-code-works if
- You want the how-claude-code-works feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- You evaluated both and how-claude-code-works fits your workflow better
About generative-ai-for-beginners
Generative AI for Beginners is Microsoft's free, MIT licensed curriculum of 21 Jupyter Notebook lessons that teaches developers how to start building generative AI applications, aimed at newcomers who want a structured, self paced path instead of scattered documentation.
read the full generative-ai-for-beginners overview →
About how-claude-code-works
How Claude Code Works is an MIT licensed, bilingual educational deep dive into the internals of Anthropic's Claude Code coding agent, written for developers who want to understand how a production agentic coding system is built rather than simply use one.
read the full how-claude-code-works overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is generative-ai-for-beginners or how-claude-code-works more popular?
generative-ai-for-beginners has 119,980 GitHub stars and how-claude-code-works has 3,644. generative-ai-for-beginners has the larger community by that measure.
Are generative-ai-for-beginners and how-claude-code-works free?
Both are open source. generative-ai-for-beginners is licensed under MIT and how-claude-code-works under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between generative-ai-for-beginners and how-claude-code-works?
generative-ai-for-beginners is written in Jupyter Notebook and how-claude-code-works in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, generative-ai-for-beginners or how-claude-code-works?
Choose generative-ai-for-beginners if you want the larger community (119,980 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose how-claude-code-works if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.