head to head · open source
rowboat vs cli-agent-orchestrator
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars, 1,784 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cli-agent-orchestrator has 1,320 stars, 272 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rowboat leads on adoption by 1,257% (17,914 vs 1,320 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 | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 272 |
| 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 is an open source desktop AI coworker, licensed Apache 2.0 and written in TypeScript, that maintains a memory of your work as a local Markdown knowledge graph and provides built in surfaces — email, notes, browser, code mode, meeting notes — for acting on that memory.
read the full rowboat overview →
About cli-agent-orchestrator
CLI Agent Orchestrator (CAO) is an Apache 2.0 Python tool that runs a local cao server and coordinates multiple AI coding CLIs, such as Claude Code, Kiro, Codex and Cursor CLI, as supervisor and worker agents inside isolated tmux sessions, and it is aimed at developers and teams who already have at least one of those provider CLIs installed and authenticated and want them working together.
read the full cli-agent-orchestrator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or cli-agent-orchestrator more popular?
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars and cli-agent-orchestrator has 1,320. 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 (17,914 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.