head to head · open source
OpenViking vs agent-beacon
OpenViking has 41,653 GitHub stars, 3,401 forks, 999 open issues and last shipped today. agent-beacon has 3,314 stars, 292 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenViking leads on adoption by 1,157% (41,653 vs 3,314 stars). OpenViking is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; agent-beacon is written in Go under MIT. OpenViking has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, agent-beacon 9%. OpenViking was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (knowledge-base), 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
| OpenViking | agent-beacon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 292 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenViking if
- You weight community size — 42K 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 agent-beacon if
- You want the agent-beacon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and agent-beacon fits your workflow better
About OpenViking
The Context Database for AI Agents English / 中文 / 日本語 Website · Live Demo · GitHub · Issues · Docs · Blog Lark · WeChat · Discord · X What is OpenViking OpenViking is an open source context database for AI agents — one filesystem for everything an agent knows: knowledge, memory, and skills. Most agent memory is a black box: text goes in, embeddings come out, and nobody can see what was actually stored. OpenViking organizes context as a virtual filesystem under viking:// instead. Agents navigate it like files — ls , tree , read , write , grep — and you can open any directory to inspect and edit what your agent…
read the full OpenViking overview →
About agent-beacon
Website · Docs · Discord · Install · Commands Beacon captures agent session history across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and 20+ other harnesses, then turns useful workflows, corrections, and debugging patterns into reusable knowledge for future agents. A problem solved by one agent shouldn't need to be learned from scratch by another. Beacon Overview Beacon is an open source memory layer for AI coding agents that learns from your work across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and 20+ other harnesses. It captures full session history, identifies useful workflows, corrections, and debugging patterns…
read the full agent-beacon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenViking or agent-beacon more popular?
OpenViking has 41,653 GitHub stars and agent-beacon has 3,314. OpenViking has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenViking and agent-beacon free?
Both are open source. OpenViking is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and agent-beacon under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenViking and agent-beacon?
OpenViking is written in Python and agent-beacon in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenViking or agent-beacon?
Choose OpenViking if you want the larger community (41,653 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose agent-beacon if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.