head to head · open source
shannon vs pentest-ai-agents
shannon has 50,964 GitHub stars, 5,926 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. pentest-ai-agents has 2,400 stars, 452 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. shannon leads on adoption by 2,024% (50,964 vs 2,400 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; pentest-ai-agents is written in Shell under MIT. shannon has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, pentest-ai-agents 19%. shannon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-security, cybersecurity, ethical-hacking, offensive-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 | pentest-ai-agents | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 452 |
| 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 pentest-ai-agents if
- You want the pentest-ai-agents feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and pentest-ai-agents 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 pentest-ai-agents
pentest ai agents 50 Claude Code subagents for penetration testing. Quick Start Cheatsheet Coverage Agents Examples Table of Contents What's New in v3.3 What's New in v3.2 Agent Map What's New in v3.1 Quick Start Cheatsheet Coverage Agents Tier 1 vs Tier 2 Examples Running Tools in a Container Findings Database Token Optimization Local Models Documentation MCP Server Prerequisites Legal License pentest ai agents is a collection of 50 Claude Code subagents that turn Claude into an offensive security research assistant. Each agent carries deep domain knowledge in a specific area: recon, web, Active Directory…
read the full pentest-ai-agents overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or pentest-ai-agents more popular?
shannon has 50,964 GitHub stars and pentest-ai-agents has 2,400. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and pentest-ai-agents free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pentest-ai-agents under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and pentest-ai-agents?
shannon is written in TypeScript and pentest-ai-agents in Shell. 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 pentest-ai-agents?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (50,964 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pentest-ai-agents if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.