head to head · open source
llama.cpp vs claude-context
llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars, 23,334 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. claude-context has 12,537 stars, 923 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 926% (128,581 vs 12,537 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; claude-context is written in TypeScript under MIT. llama.cpp has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, claude-context 7%. llama.cpp 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
| llama.cpp | claude-context | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 129K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 923 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick llama.cpp if
- You weight community size — 129K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick claude-context if
- You want the claude-context feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and claude-context fits your workflow better
About llama.cpp
llama.cpp is a C/C++ library and set of command line tools for running large language models (LLMs) and vision language models (VLMs) locally. It enables inference without external dependencies, targeting diverse hardware including Apple Silicon, x86 CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs (via CUDA), AMD GPUs (via HIP), and other accelerators. The project lives in the ggml ecosystem, leveraging the ggml tensor computation library for low level operations and quantized model execution.
read the full llama.cpp overview →
About claude-context
Claude Context is an open source Model Context Protocol (MCP) plugin that adds semantic code search to Claude Code and other AI coding agents. It is written in TypeScript, licensed under MIT, and published to npm as @zilliz/claude context core and @zilliz/claude context mcp . The project lives in the AI coding agent ecosystem, where it plugs into MCP compatible clients such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex CLI, Cursor, and Gemini CLI. A companion VS Code extension is distributed through the Visual Studio Marketplace as zilliz.semanticcodesearch .
read the full claude-context overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is llama.cpp or claude-context more popular?
llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars and claude-context has 12,537. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.
Are llama.cpp and claude-context free?
Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and claude-context under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between llama.cpp and claude-context?
llama.cpp is written in C++ and claude-context in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, llama.cpp or claude-context?
Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (128,581 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose claude-context if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.