head to head · open source
rowboat vs munder-difflin
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars, 1,817 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. munder-difflin has 9,336 stars, 1,311 forks, 172 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 94% (18,131 vs 9,336 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; munder-difflin is written in JavaScript under MIT. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, munder-difflin 14%. rowboat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agents, 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 | munder-difflin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 munder-difflin if
- You want the munder-difflin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and munder-difflin 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…
read the full rowboat overview →
About munder-difflin
Munder Difflin Agent harness to run an office of your clones Free, open source and performant — a multi agent harness that works with the subscriptions you already pay for, on their hourly limits. It turns the terminal coding CLI you already run into a clone of you, one that keeps working while you're away and coordinates a whole office of agents on your own machine. Wraps Claude Code, Antigravity (Gemini), OpenAI Codex, xAI Grok , Kimi Code , Gemini CLI , Qwen , OpenCode , Crush , pi.dev , GitHub Copilot CLI , and Cursor — with bring your own keys and local LLMs. Agents that message, route, and remember…
read the full munder-difflin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or munder-difflin more popular?
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars and munder-difflin has 9,336. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and munder-difflin free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and munder-difflin under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and munder-difflin?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and munder-difflin in JavaScript. 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 munder-difflin?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (18,131 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose munder-difflin if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.