head to head · open source
shannon vs SkillSpector
shannon has 50,964 GitHub stars, 5,926 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. SkillSpector has 23,981 stars, 2,070 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shannon leads on adoption by 113% (50,964 vs 23,981 stars). shannon is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; SkillSpector is written in Python under Apache-2.0. shannon has attracted 12% 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 | ★ 51K | ★ 24K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-27 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| 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 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
[!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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shannon or SkillSpector more popular?
shannon has 50,964 GitHub stars and SkillSpector has 23,981. 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 (50,964 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.