head to head · open source
rtk vs headroom
rtk has 81,060 GitHub stars, 5,138 forks, 1,642 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom has 73,130 stars, 5,624 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rtk leads on adoption by 11% (81,060 vs 73,130 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%. rtk 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rtk | headroom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 73K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 5.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rtk if
- You weight community size — 81K 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
rtk is an Apache 2.0 Rust CLI proxy that sits between an AI coding agent and the shell, filtering and compressing command output so 60 90% fewer tokens reach the model, and it is built for developers running agentic coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex against real repositories.
About headroom
Headroom is an Apache 2.0 Python library, local proxy, agent wrapper and MCP server that compresses tool outputs, logs, files, RAG chunks and conversation history before they reach an LLM, and it is built for developers running AI coding agents or LLM applications who want to cut token usage without changing the answers they get.
read the full headroom overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More AI Assisted Coding projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Assisted Coding field.
Frequently asked questions
Is rtk or headroom more popular?
rtk has 81,060 GitHub stars and headroom has 73,130. 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 (81,060 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.