head to head · open source
gentle-shell vs roam-code
gentle-shell has 934 GitHub stars, 138 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. roam-code has 518 stars, 50 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gentle-shell leads on adoption by 80% (934 vs 518 stars). gentle-shell is written in TypeScript under MIT; roam-code is written in Python under Apache-2.0. gentle-shell has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, roam-code 10%. gentle-shell was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (ai-agents, ai-coding, 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 | roam-code | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 934 | ★ 518 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 138 | ⑂ 50 |
| 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 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 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 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 gentle-shell or roam-code more popular?
gentle-shell has 934 GitHub stars and roam-code has 518. gentle-shell has the larger community by that measure.
Are gentle-shell and roam-code free?
Both are open source. gentle-shell is licensed under MIT and roam-code under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gentle-shell and roam-code?
gentle-shell is written in TypeScript 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, gentle-shell or roam-code?
Choose gentle-shell if you want the larger community (934 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.