head to head · open source
OpenViking vs jsdoc
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars, 3,362 forks, 999 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jsdoc has 15,471 stars, 1,493 forks, 459 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenViking leads on adoption by 167% (41,383 vs 15,471 stars). OpenViking is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; jsdoc is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. OpenViking has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, jsdoc 10%. jsdoc 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
| OpenViking | jsdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 15K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenViking if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick jsdoc if
- You want the jsdoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and jsdoc fits your workflow better
About OpenViking
The Context Database for AI Agents English / 中文 / 日本語 Website · Live Demo · GitHub · Issues · Docs · Blog Lark · WeChat · Discord · X What is OpenViking OpenViking is an open source context database for AI agents — one filesystem for everything an agent knows: knowledge, memory, and skills. Most agent memory is a black box: text goes in, embeddings come out, and nobody can see what was actually stored. OpenViking organizes context as a virtual filesystem under viking:// instead. Agents navigate it like files — ls , tree , read , write , grep — and you can open any directory to inspect and edit what your agent…
read the full OpenViking overview →
About jsdoc
JSDoc An API documentation generator for JavaScript. Want to contribute to JSDoc? Please read CONTRIBUTING.md . Installation and Usage JSDoc supports stable versions of Node.js 8.15.0 and later. You can install JSDoc globally or in your project's node modules folder. To install the latest version on npm globally (might require sudo ; learn how to fix this): npm install g jsdoc To install the latest version on npm locally and save it in your package's package.json file: npm install save dev jsdoc Note : By default, npm adds your package using the caret operator in front of the version number (for example, ^3.6.3…
read the full jsdoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenViking or jsdoc more popular?
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars and jsdoc has 15,471. OpenViking has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenViking and jsdoc free?
Both are open source. OpenViking is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and jsdoc under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenViking and jsdoc?
OpenViking is written in Python and jsdoc in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenViking or jsdoc?
Choose OpenViking if you want the larger community (41,383 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose jsdoc if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.