head to head · open source
compose vs harmonist
compose has 38,195 GitHub stars, 5,825 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. harmonist has 2,257 stars, 206 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. compose leads on adoption by 1,592% (38,195 vs 2,257 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; harmonist is written in Python under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, harmonist 9%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (orchestration), 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
| compose | harmonist | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-06-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 206 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick harmonist if
- You want the harmonist feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and harmonist fits your workflow better
About compose
Docker Compose is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go tool that defines and runs multi container applications on Docker from a single Compose file, aimed at developers and operators who need several containers to start together as one isolated application.
read the full compose overview →
About harmonist
harmonist is an MIT licensed, dependency free Python framework that adds multi agent orchestration and mechanically enforced protocol to AI coding assistants such as Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, Windsurf, and Aider, and it serves individual developers and teams who need agent workflows to obey engineering rules rather than merely be asked to follow them.
read the full harmonist overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or harmonist more popular?
compose has 38,195 GitHub stars and harmonist has 2,257. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and harmonist free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and harmonist under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and harmonist?
compose is written in Go and harmonist 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, compose or harmonist?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,195 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose harmonist if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.