head to head · open source
Paperclip vs Jean
Paperclip has 110,292 GitHub stars, 18,270 forks, 5,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jean has 1,387 stars, 172 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Paperclip leads on adoption by 7,852% (110,292 vs 1,387 stars). Paperclip is written in TypeScript under MIT; Jean is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Paperclip has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, Jean 12%. Paperclip was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (claude-code), 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
| Paperclip | Jean | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 172 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Paperclip if
- You weight community size — 110K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Jean if
- You want the Jean feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Jean fits your workflow better
About Paperclip
Quickstart · Docs · GitHub · Discord · Twitter · Website Paperclip is the app people use to manage AI agents for work. Open source orchestration for teams of AI agents. If OpenClaw is an employee , Paperclip is the company . Paperclip is a Node.js server and React UI that orchestrates a team of AI agents to run a business. Bring your own agents, assign goals, and track work and costs from one dashboard. It looks like a task manager. Under the hood: org charts, budgets, governance, goal alignment, and agent coordination. Manage business goals, not pull requests. Works with…
read the full Paperclip overview →
About Jean
Jean A desktop AI assistant for managing multiple projects, worktrees, and chat sessions with Claude CLI, Codex CLI, Cursor CLI, OpenCode, PI, Command Code, Grok, and Kimi Code. Tauri v2 · React 19 · Rust · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS v4 · shadcn/ui v4 · Zustand v5 · TanStack Query · Pierre Diffs · xterm.js About the Project Jean is an opinionated native desktop app built with Tauri that gives you a powerful interface for working with Claude CLI, Codex CLI, Cursor CLI, OpenCode, PI, Command Code, Grok, and Kimi Code across multiple projects. It has strong opinions about how AI assisted development should work…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Paperclip or Jean more popular?
Paperclip has 110,292 GitHub stars and Jean has 1,387. Paperclip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Paperclip and Jean free?
Both are open source. Paperclip is licensed under MIT and Jean under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Paperclip and Jean?
Paperclip is written in TypeScript and Jean 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, Paperclip or Jean?
Choose Paperclip if you want the larger community (110,292 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Jean if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.