caveman vs claude-code
The two are close in size: 113.8k stars for caveman, 152.9k for claude-code. Over the days we have tracked them caveman moved +7.6% and claude-code +10.2%, so claude-code is growing faster right now.
caveman leads on context depth and noise control and privacy and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
Compresses both what the agent writes (a caveman-style skill) and what it reads (a local proxy) to cut token usage while keeping originals accessible.
- Stars
- 113.8k
- Tracked growth
- +7.6%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 1d ago
- Language
- Go
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Free to install — uses your AI provider's billing
A terminal-first agent that executes routine coding tasks and integrates git workflows, plus @claude GitHub tagging.
- Stars
- 152.9k
- Tracked growth
- +10.2%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 12h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- none declared
- Cost to run
- Anthropic cloud; see docs
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | caveman | claude-code |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Diff + related files | ●●●●● Diff / file only |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● Basic filters & dry-run | ●●●●● No noise controls |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Configurable rules & modes | ●●●●● Plugins & config |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Self-hostable | ●●●●● Cloud service only |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Many specific providers | ●●●●● Anthropic only |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● One-command install |
Which one to pick
Pick caveman if…
Token-savings — use Caveman when you want an easy, local install that meaningfully reduces model input and output tokens without changing correctness.
- Context depth: Diff + related files (3/5 against 1/5)
- Noise control: Basic filters & dry-run (3/5 against 1/5)
- Privacy: Self-hostable (4/5 against 2/5)
- Model freedom: Many specific providers (3/5 against 1/5)
Pick claude-code if…
Easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
What people want from each one
JuliusBrussee/caveman
anthropics/claude-code
Hacker News: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates drew 1364 points and 753 comments.
Questions people ask
Is caveman better than claude-code?
caveman leads on context depth and noise control and privacy and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin. caveman is worth picking when token-savings — use Caveman when you want an easy, local install that meaningfully reduces model input and output tokens without changing correctness.
Which of caveman and claude-code keeps my code private?
caveman: Self-hostable (4/5). claude-code: Cloud service only (2/5).
What does each one cost to run?
caveman: Free to install — uses your AI provider's billing. claude-code: Anthropic cloud; see docs.
Full profiles: JuliusBrussee/caveman and anthropics/claude-code. Everything else in CLI coding agents.