head to head · open source
rtk vs headroom
rtk has 85,499 GitHub stars, 5,470 forks, 1,642 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom has 78,773 stars, 6,155 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped today. rtk leads on adoption by 9% (85,499 vs 78,773 stars). rtk is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0. rtk has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, headroom 8%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (anthropic, claude-code, llm), 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
| rtk | headroom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 79K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 6.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rtk if
- You weight community size — 85K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick headroom if
- You want the headroom 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 headroom fits your workflow better
About rtk
High performance CLI proxy that cuts up to 90% of the bash output your agent reads Website • Install • Troubleshooting • Architecture • Discord English • Francais • 中文 • 日本語 • 한국어 • Espanol • Português rtk filters and compresses command outputs before they reach your LLM context. Single Rust binary, 100+ supported commands, Full explanation: How RTK Savings Work Installation Homebrew (recommended) winget (Windows) Easiest way to install on Windows — one command, no PATH setup needed: Quick Install (Linux/macOS) Installs to /.local/bin . Add to PATH if needed…
About headroom
Quickstart · Install · Proof · Agents · Docs · Discord · llms.txt AI agents / LLMs: read /llms.txt here, or fetch the live index · full docs blob . Headroom compresses everything your AI agent reads — tool outputs, logs, RAG chunks, files, and conversation history — before it reaches the LLM. Same answers, fraction of the tokens. Compression runs on your machine; no prompt or file content is sent anywhere to be compressed. 10,144 → 1,260 tokens. The same FATAL found. What it does Library — compress(messages) in Python or TypeScript, inline in any app. Proxy — headroom proxy port 8787 , zero code changes, any…
read the full headroom overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rtk or headroom more popular?
rtk has 85,499 GitHub stars and headroom has 78,773. rtk has the larger community by that measure.
Are rtk and headroom free?
Both are open source. rtk is licensed under Apache-2.0 and headroom under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rtk and headroom?
rtk is written in Rust and headroom 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, rtk or headroom?
Choose rtk if you want the larger community (85,499 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose headroom if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.