head to head · open source
shannon vs ADR
shannon has 50,964 GitHub stars, 5,926 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. ADR has 2,093 stars, 226 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. shannon leads on adoption by 2,335% (50,964 vs 2,093 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; ADR is written in Python under Apache-2.0. shannon has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, ADR 11%. ADR was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-security), 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
| shannon | ADR | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 226 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 51K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ADR if
- You want the ADR 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 ADR fits your workflow better
About shannon
[!NOTE] Shannon 3.0 is live: deeper security code analysis, more thoroughly vetted findings, a rebuilt CLI, native CI/CD, professional PDF reports, and SARIF. Shannon is an autonomous, AI pentester for web applications and APIs. It analyzes your source code, identifies attack paths, and executes real exploits to prove vulnerabilities before they reach production. No exploit, no report. This repository is Shannon Open Source: the full agent, run locally from your command line. Launch Shannon The interactive launcher will guide you through setup and your first pentest. [!TIP] AI agents and LLMs: start with…
read the full shannon overview →
About ADR
ADR: Agentic AI Detection and Response ADR (Agentic AI Detection and Response) is an enterprise security system for AI agents. It helps organizations secure employee facing agents such as Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI, and DeepSeek Harness, as well as customer facing agents such as AI support agents. ADR is deployed in production at Uber , and the accompanying paper was accepted to MLSys 2026 : Paper PDF · Slides PDF How ADR secures enterprise AI agents ADR secures enterprise AI agents through five complementary capabilities: discovering unsanctioned AI tools, observing agent activity…
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or ADR more popular?
shannon has 50,964 GitHub stars and ADR has 2,093. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and ADR free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ADR under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and ADR?
shannon is written in TypeScript and ADR 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, shannon or ADR?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (50,964 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ADR if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.