head to head · open source
rowboat vs cli-agent-orchestrator
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars, 1,817 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cli-agent-orchestrator has 1,510 stars, 313 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rowboat leads on adoption by 1,101% (18,131 vs 1,510 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; cli-agent-orchestrator is written in Python under Apache-2.0. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, cli-agent-orchestrator 21%. cli-agent-orchestrator was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, 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
| rowboat | cli-agent-orchestrator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 313 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rowboat if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cli-agent-orchestrator if
- You want the cli-agent-orchestrator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and cli-agent-orchestrator fits your workflow better
About rowboat
Rowboat A desktop AI coworker with a memory of your work and built in surfaces to act on it. 简体中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Español · Français · Português Rowboat indexes your work into a living knowledge graph and uses that to get work done on your machine. It includes work surfaces for collaborating with AI: email client, notes, browser, code mode, meeting note taker, and workspaces for different projects. Download latest for Mac/Windows/Linux: Download Demo apps to code · Demo knowledge graph ⭐ If you find Rowboat useful, please star the repo. It helps more people find it. Overview Brain Rowboat indexes email, meetings…
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About cli-agent-orchestrator
CLI Agent Orchestrator (CAO) English 简体中文 CLI Agent Orchestrator (CAO) coordinates multiple AI coding CLIs so a supervisor can delegate work to specialist agents in parallel or sequence. 📚 Documentation — guides, reference, and two interactive courses. What CAO does CAO runs a local cao server , starts provider CLIs in isolated terminal sessions, and gives a supervisor tools for coordinating workers. The agents remain full CLI processes with their native authentication and capabilities. See CODEBASE.md for the runtime architecture and package layout. Prerequisites Install: Python 3.10 or later tmux 3.3 or later…
read the full cli-agent-orchestrator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or cli-agent-orchestrator more popular?
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars and cli-agent-orchestrator has 1,510. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and cli-agent-orchestrator free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cli-agent-orchestrator under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and cli-agent-orchestrator?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and cli-agent-orchestrator 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, rowboat or cli-agent-orchestrator?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (18,131 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cli-agent-orchestrator if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.