head to head · open source
RWKV-Runner vs CliRelay
RWKV-Runner has 6,482 GitHub stars, 601 forks, 178 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. CliRelay has 1,021 stars, 122 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. RWKV-Runner leads on adoption by 535% (6,482 vs 1,021 stars). RWKV-Runner is written in TypeScript under MIT; CliRelay is written in Go under MIT. RWKV-Runner has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, CliRelay 12%. CliRelay was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| RWKV-Runner | CliRelay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.5K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-04 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 601 | ⑂ 122 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick RWKV-Runner if
- You weight community size — 6.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CliRelay if
- You want the CliRelay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and CliRelay fits your workflow better
About RWKV-Runner
RWKV Runner is a management and startup tool for RWKV, an open source large language model that is available for commercial use. It ships as a lightweight executable of only a few megabytes and automates the work of getting a model running, so that the user does not have to assemble the runtime, dependencies, and serving stack by hand. The project is written in TypeScript and built with Wails, and it is distributed under the MIT license from the josStorer repository. It lives in the RWKV ecosystem and in the broader local inference tooling space, with a companion site at rwkv.com.
read the full RWKV-Runner overview →
About CliRelay
CliRelay is a self hosted AI gateway that turns AI CLI subscriptions, OAuth credentials, API keys, and compatible upstream services into one managed endpoint, built for teams rather than solo users.
read the full CliRelay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is RWKV-Runner or CliRelay more popular?
RWKV-Runner has 6,482 GitHub stars and CliRelay has 1,021. RWKV-Runner has the larger community by that measure.
Are RWKV-Runner and CliRelay free?
Both are open source. RWKV-Runner is licensed under MIT and CliRelay under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between RWKV-Runner and CliRelay?
RWKV-Runner is written in TypeScript and CliRelay in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, RWKV-Runner or CliRelay?
Choose RWKV-Runner if you want the larger community (6,482 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose CliRelay if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.