head to head · open source
lean-ctx vs pentest-ai-agents
lean-ctx has 3,890 GitHub stars, 353 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pentest-ai-agents has 2,352 stars, 463 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. lean-ctx leads on adoption by 65% (3,890 vs 2,352 stars). lean-ctx is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; pentest-ai-agents is written in Shell under MIT. lean-ctx has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, pentest-ai-agents 20%. lean-ctx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai-agents, ai-security, claude-code), 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
| lean-ctx | pentest-ai-agents | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.9K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-10-19 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 353 | ⑂ 463 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lean-ctx if
- You weight community size — 3.9K 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 pentest-ai-agents if
- You want the pentest-ai-agents feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and pentest-ai-agents fits your workflow better
About lean-ctx
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read the full lean-ctx overview →
About pentest-ai-agents
pentest ai agents 50 Claude Code subagents for penetration testing. Quick Start Cheatsheet Coverage Agents Examples Table of Contents What's New in v3.3 What's New in v3.2 Agent Map What's New in v3.1 Quick Start Cheatsheet Coverage Agents Tier 1 vs Tier 2 Examples Running Tools in a Container Findings Database Token Optimization Local Models Documentation MCP Server Prerequisites Legal License pentest ai agents is a collection of 50 Claude Code subagents that turn Claude into an offensive security research assistant. Each agent carries deep domain knowledge in a specific area: recon, web, Active Directory…
read the full pentest-ai-agents overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lean-ctx or pentest-ai-agents more popular?
lean-ctx has 3,890 GitHub stars and pentest-ai-agents has 2,352. lean-ctx has the larger community by that measure.
Are lean-ctx and pentest-ai-agents free?
Both are open source. lean-ctx is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pentest-ai-agents under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lean-ctx and pentest-ai-agents?
lean-ctx is written in Rust and pentest-ai-agents in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lean-ctx or pentest-ai-agents?
Choose lean-ctx if you want the larger community (3,890 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pentest-ai-agents if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.