head to head · open source
Tailcall vs CliRelay
Tailcall has 7,637 GitHub stars, 1,467 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CliRelay has 1,021 stars, 122 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tailcall leads on adoption by 648% (7,637 vs 1,021 stars). Tailcall is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; CliRelay is written in Go under MIT. Tailcall has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, CliRelay 12%. Tailcall was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| Tailcall | CliRelay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 122 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tailcall if
- You weight community size — 7.6K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CliRelay if
- You want the CliRelay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and CliRelay fits your workflow better
About Tailcall
Tailcall is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Rust based developer tool listed in this registry whose repository (tailcallhq/forgecode) and README present it as Forge, an AI enhanced terminal development environment: a command line coding agent that works against Claude, GPT, O Series, Grok, Deepseek, Gemini and, per its own description, more than 300 other models.
read the full Tailcall overview →
About CliRelay
CliRelay is a self hosted AI gateway that turns AI CLI subscriptions, OAuth credentials, API keys, and compatible upstream services into one managed endpoint, built for teams rather than solo users.
read the full CliRelay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailcall or CliRelay more popular?
Tailcall has 7,637 GitHub stars and CliRelay has 1,021. Tailcall has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailcall and CliRelay free?
Both are open source. Tailcall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and CliRelay under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tailcall and CliRelay?
Tailcall is written in Rust and CliRelay in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tailcall or CliRelay?
Choose Tailcall if you want the larger community (7,637 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose CliRelay if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.