head to head · open source
obsidian-mind vs iwe
obsidian-mind has 4,658 GitHub stars, 536 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. iwe has 1,703 stars, 86 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. obsidian-mind leads on adoption by 174% (4,658 vs 1,703 stars). obsidian-mind is written in TypeScript under MIT; iwe is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. obsidian-mind has attracted 12% 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 | ★ 4.7K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-02 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 536 | ⑂ 86 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick obsidian-mind if
- You weight community size — 4.7K 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
obsidian mind is a self organizing Obsidian vault template that gives AI coding agents persistent memory, built for developers and knowledge workers who run Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Gemini CLI and want every session to build on the last.
read the full obsidian-mind overview →
About iwe
IWE is a local first Rust tool that turns a directory of Markdown files into a knowledge graph, serving the same notes to your editor through a language server and to AI agents through a CLI and MCP server — it is built for anyone who wants database style queries over plain notes they continue to own.
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Frequently asked questions
Is obsidian-mind or iwe more popular?
obsidian-mind has 4,658 GitHub stars and iwe has 1,703. 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 (4,658 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose iwe if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.