head to head · open source
odysseus vs mercury-agent
odysseus has 87,371 GitHub stars, 907 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. mercury-agent has 3,158 stars, 340 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. odysseus leads on adoption by 2,667% (87,371 vs 3,158 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; mercury-agent is written in TypeScript under MIT. odysseus has attracted 1% as many forks as stars, mercury-agent 11%. odysseus 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
| odysseus | mercury-agent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 907 | ⑂ 340 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick odysseus if
- You weight community size — 87K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mercury-agent if
- You want the mercury-agent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mercury-agent fits your workflow better
About odysseus
Odysseus is a self hosted AI workspace written in Python and released under the AGPL 3.0 or later licence, built for people who want chat, agents, research, documents, email, notes, tasks, and calendar in one deployment on infrastructure they control.
read the full odysseus overview →
About mercury-agent
mercury agent is an open source AI agent written in TypeScript and licensed under MIT. It lives in the AI & Machine Learning / AI Interaction & Interfaces ecosystem, with topics ai agent, ai assistant, and llm. The project provides a soul driven agent that uses tools, keeps memory, and connects through CLI, Telegram, or Web.
read the full mercury-agent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is odysseus or mercury-agent more popular?
odysseus has 87,371 GitHub stars and mercury-agent has 3,158. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and mercury-agent free?
Both are open source. odysseus is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mercury-agent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between odysseus and mercury-agent?
odysseus is written in Python and mercury-agent 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, odysseus or mercury-agent?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (87,371 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose mercury-agent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.