head to head · open source
loopx vs shepherd
loopx has 5,903 GitHub stars, 559 forks, 102 open issues and last shipped today. shepherd has 2,432 stars, 211 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. loopx leads on adoption by 143% (5,903 vs 2,432 stars). loopx is written in Python under Apache-2.0; shepherd is written in Python under MIT. loopx has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, shepherd 9%. loopx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (workflow-automation), 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
| loopx | shepherd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 559 | ⑂ 211 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick loopx if
- You weight community size — 5.9K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick shepherd if
- You want the shepherd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and shepherd fits your workflow better
About loopx
LoopX is an open, provider neutral, local first control plane for long horizon AI agents that preserves objectives, gates, todos, evidence, quota, and handoffs across turns for developers and teams running durable, governed work on harnesses such as Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor.
read the full loopx overview →
About shepherd
Shepherd is a Python runtime substrate that records an agent's execution as a reversible, Git like trace so that meta agents can observe, fork, replay, and revert any run — built for engineers and researchers who supervise, optimise, or train other agents.
read the full shepherd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is loopx or shepherd more popular?
loopx has 5,903 GitHub stars and shepherd has 2,432. loopx has the larger community by that measure.
Are loopx and shepherd free?
Both are open source. loopx is licensed under Apache-2.0 and shepherd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between loopx and shepherd?
loopx is written in Python and shepherd 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, loopx or shepherd?
Choose loopx if you want the larger community (5,903 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose shepherd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.