head to head · open source
obsidian-mind vs iwe
obsidian-mind has 5,503 GitHub stars, 611 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. iwe has 1,815 stars, 94 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. obsidian-mind leads on adoption by 203% (5,503 vs 1,815 stars). obsidian-mind is written in TypeScript under MIT; iwe is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. obsidian-mind has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, iwe 5%. iwe was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, knowledge-management), 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
| obsidian-mind | iwe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.5K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-17 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 611 | ⑂ 94 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obsidian-mind if
- You weight community size — 5.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick iwe if
- You want the iwe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and iwe fits your workflow better
About obsidian-mind
🌐 English 日本語 中文 한국어 Obsidian Mind An Obsidian vault that gives AI coding agents persistent memory. Built for Claude Code, with working hooks for Codex CLI and Gemini CLI. Start a session, talk about your day, and the agent handles the rest — notes, links, indexes, performance tracking. Every conversation builds on the last. 🔴 The Problem AI coding agents are powerful, but they forget. Every session starts from zero — no context on your goals, your team, your patterns, your wins. You re explain the same things. You lose decisions made three conversations ago. The knowledge never compounds. 🟢 The Solution Give…
read the full obsidian-mind overview →
About iwe
IWE Memory system for you and your AI agents Turn your thinking into queryable context IWE turns a directory of markdown files into a knowledge graph — a connected structure you browse from your editor and your AI queries from the command line. Same files, same links, two interfaces. No cloud, no database, no lock in. Version everything with git. IWE is for people who want database style queries on their notes — "all drafts under this subtree", "every accepted decision in Q1" — without moving them into an actual database. Write in Markdown , structure with links, give AI agents the tools to navigate your…
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Frequently asked questions
Is obsidian-mind or iwe more popular?
obsidian-mind has 5,503 GitHub stars and iwe has 1,815. obsidian-mind has the larger community by that measure.
Are obsidian-mind and iwe free?
Both are open source. obsidian-mind is licensed under MIT and iwe under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between obsidian-mind and iwe?
obsidian-mind is written in TypeScript and iwe in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, obsidian-mind or iwe?
Choose obsidian-mind if you want the larger community (5,503 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose iwe if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.