head to head · open source
rancher vs CodeMachine-CLI
rancher has 26,035 GitHub stars, 3,227 forks, 3,371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CodeMachine-CLI has 2,512 stars, 234 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. rancher leads on adoption by 936% (26,035 vs 2,512 stars). rancher is written in Go under Apache-2.0; CodeMachine-CLI is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. rancher has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, CodeMachine-CLI 9%. rancher was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (orchestration), 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
| rancher | CodeMachine-CLI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-02-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 234 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rancher if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CodeMachine-CLI if
- You want the CodeMachine-CLI 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 CodeMachine-CLI fits your workflow better
About rancher
Rancher Rancher is an open source container management platform built for organizations that deploy containers in production. Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams. Stable Release v2.15.1 rancher/rancher:v2.15.1 / rancher/rancher:stable Read the full release notes. To get automated notifications of our latest release, you can watch the announcements category in our forums, or subscribe to the RSS feed Quick Start sudo docker run d restart=unless stopped p 80:80 p 443:443 privileged rancher/rancher Open your browser to Installation See…
read the full rancher overview →
About CodeMachine-CLI
npm i g codemachine CodeMachine is an open source tool that orchestrates AI coding agents into repeatable, long running workflows. ⚡️ Every time you use an AI coding agent, you're running a workflow. Fix a bug? You ask questions, reproduce, analyze, plan, implement, test. Build a feature? You research, design, code, review. The workflow lives in your head. You guide the agent through it, step by step, session by session. But every time you start, you rebuild it from scratch. You re explain the process. You remember to ask the right questions. You manage when to clear context, when to push forward, when to loop…
read the full CodeMachine-CLI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rancher or CodeMachine-CLI more popular?
rancher has 26,035 GitHub stars and CodeMachine-CLI has 2,512. rancher has the larger community by that measure.
Are rancher and CodeMachine-CLI free?
Both are open source. rancher is licensed under Apache-2.0 and CodeMachine-CLI under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rancher and CodeMachine-CLI?
rancher is written in Go and CodeMachine-CLI 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, rancher or CodeMachine-CLI?
Choose rancher if you want the larger community (26,035 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose CodeMachine-CLI if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.