head to head · open source
SkillSpector vs garak
SkillSpector has 23,981 GitHub stars, 2,070 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped yesterday. garak has 9,834 stars, 1,436 forks, 429 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SkillSpector leads on adoption by 144% (23,981 vs 9,834 stars). SkillSpector is written in Python under Apache-2.0; garak is written in Python under Apache-2.0. SkillSpector has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, garak 15%. SkillSpector was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| SkillSpector | garak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 9.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SkillSpector if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick garak if
- You want the garak 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 garak fits your workflow better
About SkillSpector
SkillSpector Security scanner for AI agent skills. Detect vulnerabilities, malicious patterns, and security risks before installing agent skills. Overview AI agent skills (used by Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, etc.) execute with implicit trust and minimal vetting. In the 31,132 skill analyzed subset of the research dataset, 26.1% of skills contain vulnerabilities and 5.2% show likely malicious intent . SkillSpector helps you answer: "Is this skill safe to install?" SkillSpector is part of the NVIDIA Verified Skills pipeline, which scans, evaluates, and signs agent skills before publication. Skills that…
read the full SkillSpector overview →
About garak
garak, LLM vulnerability scanner Generative AI Red teaming & Assessment Kit garak checks if an LLM can be made to fail in a way we don't want. garak probes for hallucination, data leakage, prompt injection, misinformation, toxicity generation, jailbreaks, and many other weaknesses. If you know nmap or msf / Metasploit Framework, garak does somewhat similar things to them, but for LLMs. garak focuses on ways of making an LLM or dialog system fail. It combines static, dynamic, and adaptive probes to explore this. garak 's a free tool. We love developing it and are always interested in adding functionality to…
read the full garak overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SkillSpector or garak more popular?
SkillSpector has 23,981 GitHub stars and garak has 9,834. SkillSpector has the larger community by that measure.
Are SkillSpector and garak free?
Both are open source. SkillSpector is licensed under Apache-2.0 and garak under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SkillSpector and garak?
SkillSpector is written in Python and garak 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, SkillSpector or garak?
Choose SkillSpector if you want the larger community (23,981 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose garak if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.