head to head · open source
pi vs rtk
pi has 119,586 GitHub stars, 15,353 forks, 202 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rtk has 85,327 stars, 5,462 forks, 1,642 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pi leads on adoption by 40% (119,586 vs 85,327 stars). pi is written in TypeScript under MIT; rtk is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. pi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, rtk 6%. pi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| pi | rtk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 120K | ★ 85K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 5.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pi if
- You weight community size — 120K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rtk if
- You want the rtk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and rtk fits your workflow better
About pi
New issues and PRs from new contributors are auto closed by default. Maintainers review auto closed issues daily. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Pi Agent Harness This is the home of the Pi agent harness project including our self extensible coding agent. @earendil works/pi coding agent : Interactive coding agent CLI @earendil works/pi agent core : Agent runtime with tool calling and state management @earendil works/pi ai : Unified multi provider LLM API (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, …) To learn more about Pi: Visit pi.dev, the project website with demos Read the documentation, but you can also ask the agent to explain…
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…
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Frequently asked questions
Is pi or rtk more popular?
pi has 119,586 GitHub stars and rtk has 85,327. pi has the larger community by that measure.
Are pi and rtk free?
Both are open source. pi is licensed under MIT and rtk under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pi and rtk?
pi is written in TypeScript and rtk in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pi or rtk?
Choose pi if you want the larger community (119,586 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rtk if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.