head to head · open source
open-claude-cowork vs shepherd
open-claude-cowork has 4,308 GitHub stars, 702 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. shepherd has 2,504 stars, 219 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. open-claude-cowork leads on adoption by 72% (4,308 vs 2,504 stars). open-claude-cowork is written in JavaScript under MIT; shepherd is written in Python under MIT. open-claude-cowork has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, shepherd 9%. shepherd 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
| open-claude-cowork | shepherd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.3K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-05-23 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 702 | ⑂ 219 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-claude-cowork if
- You weight community size — 4.3K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- 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 open-claude-cowork
Open Claude Cowork An open source desktop chat application powered by Claude Agent SDK and Composio Tool Router. Automate your work end to end across desktop and all your work apps in one place. Get your free API key to get started → Pst. hey, you, join our stargazers :) What's Inside This repo includes two powerful AI tools: Both include 500+ app integrations via Composio (Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Google Drive, and more). Quick Start Open Claude Cowork Then run in two terminals: 🦑 Secure Clawdbot Select "Terminal chat" to test, or "Start gateway" to connect WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/iMessage. See Secure Clawdbot…
read the full open-claude-cowork overview →
About shepherd
Shepherd: Programmable Meta Agents via Reversible Execution Traces [!IMPORTANT] Shepherd is in early alpha and under active development. APIs may still change between releases. Feedback and issues are very welcome! Install Quickstart Permissions Examples Docs Citation Shepherd is a runtime substrate for agent work that needs inspection, reversibility, and supervision. It records agent runs as durable, inspectable execution traces, with retained workspace outputs that can be reviewed before they are selected, applied, released, or discarded. Platforms. Shepherd requires Python 3.11+ . OS level grant enforcement…
read the full shepherd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-claude-cowork or shepherd more popular?
open-claude-cowork has 4,308 GitHub stars and shepherd has 2,504. open-claude-cowork has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-claude-cowork and shepherd free?
Both are open source. open-claude-cowork is licensed under MIT and shepherd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-claude-cowork and shepherd?
open-claude-cowork is written in JavaScript 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, open-claude-cowork or shepherd?
Choose open-claude-cowork if you want the larger community (4,308 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose shepherd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.