head to head · open source
ponytail vs oh-my-hermes
ponytail has 182,779 GitHub stars, 10,094 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. oh-my-hermes has 5,053 stars, 408 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ponytail leads on adoption by 3,517% (182,779 vs 5,053 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; oh-my-hermes is written in Python under MIT. ponytail has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, oh-my-hermes 8%. oh-my-hermes 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
| ponytail | oh-my-hermes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 183K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 408 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 183K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick oh-my-hermes if
- You want the oh-my-hermes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and oh-my-hermes fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail He says nothing. He writes one line. It works. 54% less code (up to 94%) · 20% cheaper · 27% faster · 100% safe Measured on real Claude Code sessions editing a real open source repo (FastAPI + React), against the same agent with no skill. 54% is the mean across 12 feature tasks (Haiku 4.5, n=4); it reaches 94% where an agent over builds (a date picker) and is near zero where the code is already minimal. ponytail keeps every safety guard while a bare "write one liners" prompt drops one. (The earlier single shot benchmark reported 80 94% as a flat figure; against a fair agentic…
read the full ponytail overview →
About oh-my-hermes
All in one package for Hermes Agent. Install once, then just type dag ulw . English 简体中文 日本語 Русский 한국어 Español Français Deutsch Português (Brasil) Italiano oh my hermes is an operating layer for Hermes Agent. You keep talking to Hermes. OMH picks the skill and a model for each lane, and runs the work in parallel. It never patches or replaces Hermes, and it never reports planned work as done. Install Windows and other options → What you get The right model for every lane. Each lane is tagged with a work category: ultrabrain , deep , visual engineering , quick and more. The category picks that lane's model chain…
read the full oh-my-hermes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or oh-my-hermes more popular?
ponytail has 182,779 GitHub stars and oh-my-hermes has 5,053. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and oh-my-hermes free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and oh-my-hermes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and oh-my-hermes?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and oh-my-hermes 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, ponytail or oh-my-hermes?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (182,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose oh-my-hermes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.