head to head · open source
SkillSpector vs ship-safe
SkillSpector has 17,624 GitHub stars, 1,504 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ship-safe has 844 stars, 112 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. SkillSpector leads on adoption by 1,988% (17,624 vs 844 stars). SkillSpector is written in Python under Apache-2.0; ship-safe is written in JavaScript under MIT. SkillSpector has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, ship-safe 13%. SkillSpector was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (agent-security, agentic-ai, ai-security, mcp), 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
| SkillSpector | ship-safe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 844 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 112 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SkillSpector if
- You weight community size — 18K 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 ship-safe if
- You want the ship-safe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and ship-safe fits your workflow better
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 →
About ship-safe
Ship Safe is a local first security agent for AI written software that finds issues across a repository, investigates whether each finding is real, and shows the evidence behind its conclusion — it is built for developers and security teams who ship code written by or with AI agents.
read the full ship-safe overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SkillSpector or ship-safe more popular?
SkillSpector has 17,624 GitHub stars and ship-safe has 844. SkillSpector has the larger community by that measure.
Are SkillSpector and ship-safe free?
Both are open source. SkillSpector is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ship-safe under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between SkillSpector and ship-safe?
SkillSpector is written in Python and ship-safe in JavaScript. 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 ship-safe?
Choose SkillSpector if you want the larger community (17,624 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ship-safe if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.