head to head · open source
shannon vs lean-ctx
shannon has 49,125 GitHub stars, 5,628 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. lean-ctx has 3,890 stars, 353 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shannon leads on adoption by 1,163% (49,125 vs 3,890 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; lean-ctx is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. shannon has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, lean-ctx 9%. lean-ctx 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 | lean-ctx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 353 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 49K 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 lean-ctx if
- You want the lean-ctx 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 lean-ctx 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 lean-ctx
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read the full lean-ctx overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or lean-ctx more popular?
shannon has 49,125 GitHub stars and lean-ctx has 3,890. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and lean-ctx free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and lean-ctx under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and lean-ctx?
shannon is written in TypeScript and lean-ctx 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, shannon or lean-ctx?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (49,125 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lean-ctx if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.