head to head · open source
rowboat vs sre
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars, 1,817 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sre has 1,302 stars, 204 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 1,293% (18,131 vs 1,302 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; sre is written in TypeScript under MIT. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, sre 16%. rowboat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (agents, ai, ai-agents, chatgpt), 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 | sre | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 204 |
| 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 sre if
- You want the sre feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sre 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 sre
SmythOS The Linux of AI Agents Reliable Agent Engineering starts with great, open source infrastructure. This repository contains the Smyth Runtime Environment Kernel (SRE), the Software Development Kit (SDK) and Command Line Interface (CLI) for running agents and creating them with code. If you prefer visual drag & drop agent interfaces instead, check out our open source SmythOS Visual Agent Studio! Great community, support, tutorials. Start in minutes! SmythOS Runtime Environment (SRE) SRE is an open source runtime and SDK for production AI agents. It provides OS level abstractions for AI resources—LLMs…
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or sre more popular?
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars and sre has 1,302. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and sre free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sre under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and sre?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and sre 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, rowboat or sre?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (18,131 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sre if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.