head to head · open source
Archon vs relay
Archon has 23,807 GitHub stars, 3,518 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped yesterday. relay has 1,089 stars, 95 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Archon leads on adoption by 2,086% (23,807 vs 1,089 stars). Archon is written in TypeScript under MIT; relay is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Archon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, relay 9%. relay 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
| Archon | relay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 95 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Archon if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick relay if
- You want the relay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and relay fits your workflow better
About Archon
Archon The first open source harness builder for AI coding. Make AI coding deterministic and repeatable. Archon is a workflow engine for AI coding agents. Define your development processes as YAML workflows planning, implementation, validation, code review, PR creation and run them reliably across all your projects. Like what Dockerfiles did for infrastructure and GitHub Actions did for CI/CD Archon does for AI coding workflows. Think n8n, but for software development. Why Archon? When you ask an AI agent to "fix this bug", what happens depends on the model's mood. It might skip planning. It might forget to run…
read the full Archon overview →
About relay
Get your agents talking. Let Claude Code message Codex. Let your Hyperagent talk to your Hermes agent. Give your custom agents a way to message each other. Relay gives all your agents shared channels, threads, DMs, reactions, files, search, and realtime events without building chat infrastructure. Quick Start Relay requires Node.js 22 or newer. Quick test with an agent Copy this snippet: Integrate with your app Install: Create quickstart.ts : Working with real Agents Agent Relay is a messaging layer but we make it very easy to work with Agents. Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode retain PTY as their automatic…
read the full relay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Archon or relay more popular?
Archon has 23,807 GitHub stars and relay has 1,089. Archon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Archon and relay free?
Both are open source. Archon is licensed under MIT and relay under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Archon and relay?
Archon is written in TypeScript and relay in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Archon or relay?
Choose Archon if you want the larger community (23,807 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose relay if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.