head to head · open source
shannon vs SkillSpector
shannon has 48,105 GitHub stars, 5,515 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. SkillSpector has 17,624 stars, 1,504 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shannon leads on adoption by 173% (48,105 vs 17,624 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; SkillSpector is written in Python under Apache-2.0. shannon has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, SkillSpector 9%. SkillSpector 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 | SkillSpector | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 18K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shannon if
- You weight community size — 48K 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 SkillSpector if
- You want the SkillSpector 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 SkillSpector fits your workflow better
About shannon
Shannon is an autonomous AI pentester for web applications and APIs that reads an application's source code, identifies attack paths, and executes real exploits so that only vulnerabilities with a working proof of concept are reported, built for AppSec, DevSecOps, and security engineering teams that ship code continuously.
read the full shannon overview →
About SkillSpector
SkillSpector is an open source security scanner for AI agent skills that detects vulnerabilities, malicious patterns, prompt injection, data exfiltration, and supply chain risk in Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, and MCP skills before they are installed — built for developers who install agent skills and for security teams that vet or publish them.
read the full SkillSpector overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or SkillSpector more popular?
shannon has 48,105 GitHub stars and SkillSpector has 17,624. shannon has the larger community by that measure.
Are shannon and SkillSpector free?
Both are open source. shannon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SkillSpector under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shannon and SkillSpector?
shannon is written in TypeScript and SkillSpector 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 SkillSpector?
Choose shannon if you want the larger community (48,105 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SkillSpector if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.