head to head · open source
OpenViking vs pdoc
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars, 3,362 forks, 999 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pdoc has 1,187 stars, 146 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. OpenViking leads on adoption by 3,386% (41,383 vs 1,187 stars). OpenViking is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; pdoc is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. OpenViking has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pdoc 12%. OpenViking 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
| OpenViking | pdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 146 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenViking if
- You weight community size — 41K 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 pdoc if
- You want the pdoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pdoc 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 pdoc
pdoc ==== Auto generate API documentation for Python 3+ projects. Project website [Documentation] [Documentation]: Installation $ pip install pdoc3 Usage Pdoc will accept a Python module file, package directory or an import path. $ pdoc your project See pdoc help for more command line switches and the [documentation] for more usage examples. Features Simple usage. Generate sensible API (+ prose) documentation without any special configuration. Support for common [docstrings formats] (Markdown, numpydoc, Google style docstrings), LaTeX math, and some [reST directives]. Support for [PEP 484] and [PEP 526] type…
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenViking or pdoc more popular?
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars and pdoc has 1,187. OpenViking has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenViking and pdoc free?
Both are open source. OpenViking is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pdoc under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenViking and pdoc?
OpenViking is written in Python and pdoc 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, OpenViking or pdoc?
Choose OpenViking if you want the larger community (41,383 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pdoc if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.