head to head · open source
Grok Build vs SWE-agent
Grok Build has 26,820 GitHub stars, 5,048 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SWE-agent has 20,344 stars, 2,224 forks, 102 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Grok Build leads on adoption by 32% (26,820 vs 20,344 stars). Grok Build is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; SWE-agent is written in Python under MIT. Grok Build has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, SWE-agent 11%. Grok Build was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Grok Build | SWE-agent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 20K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grok Build if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick SWE-agent if
- You want the SWE-agent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and SWE-agent fits your workflow better
About Grok Build
Grok Build is a terminal based AI coding agent developed by SpaceXAI, distributed as the grok CLI/TUI. It operates as a fullscreen, mouse interactive interface that integrates with the user’s codebase to perform code editing, command execution, web search, and long running task orchestration. The project lives in the Rust ecosystem and is licensed under Apache 2.0.
read the full Grok Build overview →
About SWE-agent
SWE agent is a Python, MIT licensed open source project in the AI assisted coding and agent ecosystem. It is an agent based model for developer tools that takes a GitHub issue and tries to automatically fix it using a chosen language model. The project is associated with NeurIPS 2024 and is maintained by researchers from Princeton University and Stanford University.
read the full SWE-agent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grok Build or SWE-agent more popular?
Grok Build has 26,820 GitHub stars and SWE-agent has 20,344. Grok Build has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grok Build and SWE-agent free?
Both are open source. Grok Build is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SWE-agent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grok Build and SWE-agent?
Grok Build is written in Rust and SWE-agent 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, Grok Build or SWE-agent?
Choose Grok Build if you want the larger community (26,820 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SWE-agent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.