head to head · open source
langchain vs claude-skills
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars, 24,504 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. claude-skills has 26,077 stars, 3,677 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 19 days ago. langchain leads on adoption by 462% (146,538 vs 26,077 stars). langchain is written in Python under MIT; claude-skills is written in Python under MIT. langchain has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, claude-skills 14%. langchain 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
| langchain | claude-skills | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 147K | ★ 26K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 3.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick langchain if
- You weight community size — 147K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick claude-skills if
- You want the claude-skills feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and claude-skills fits your workflow better
About langchain
LangChain is an open source framework for building agents and LLM powered applications, written in Python and released under the MIT license. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically among AI development platforms, and it works by chaining together interoperable components and third party integrations so that AI application development becomes simpler. The project describes itself as the agent engineering platform, and its abstractions are designed to keep applications working as the underlying technology evolves.
read the full langchain overview →
About claude-skills
claude skills is an MIT licensed library of 388 Claude Code skills, plugins, and agent skills that packages domain expertise for AI coding agents, aimed at developers and teams running Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and nine other coding agents.
read the full claude-skills overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is langchain or claude-skills more popular?
langchain has 146,538 GitHub stars and claude-skills has 26,077. langchain has the larger community by that measure.
Are langchain and claude-skills free?
Both are open source. langchain is licensed under MIT and claude-skills under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between langchain and claude-skills?
langchain is written in Python and claude-skills 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, langchain or claude-skills?
Choose langchain if you want the larger community (146,538 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose claude-skills if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.