head to head · open source
gentle-shell vs claude-code-skills
gentle-shell has 934 GitHub stars, 138 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. claude-code-skills has 566 stars, 84 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. gentle-shell leads on adoption by 65% (934 vs 566 stars). gentle-shell is written in TypeScript under MIT; claude-code-skills is written in PowerShell under MIT. gentle-shell has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, claude-code-skills 15%. gentle-shell was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (agent-skills, ai-agents, code-review, developer-tools), 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
| gentle-shell | claude-code-skills | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 934 | ★ 566 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PowerShell |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 138 | ⑂ 84 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gentle-shell if
- You weight community size — 934 stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick claude-code-skills if
- You want the claude-code-skills feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PowerShell
- You evaluated both and claude-code-skills fits your workflow better
About gentle-shell
gentle shell is a senior architect development harness for the Pi platform that turns a terminal coding agent into a controlled workspace with spec driven development, focused subagents, strict TDD evidence, review guardrails, and skill discovery.
read the full gentle-shell overview →
About claude-code-skills
Claude Codex Skills is an MIT licensed collection of installable agent skills for Claude Code and Codex that gives an AI agent a clear finish line: establish the intended outcome, work within scope, verify the result, and make remaining gaps explicit.
read the full claude-code-skills overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gentle-shell or claude-code-skills more popular?
gentle-shell has 934 GitHub stars and claude-code-skills has 566. gentle-shell has the larger community by that measure.
Are gentle-shell and claude-code-skills free?
Both are open source. gentle-shell is licensed under MIT and claude-code-skills under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gentle-shell and claude-code-skills?
gentle-shell is written in TypeScript and claude-code-skills in PowerShell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gentle-shell or claude-code-skills?
Choose gentle-shell if you want the larger community (934 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose claude-code-skills if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.