Deep-Research-skills vs k-dense-byok

The two are close in size: 2.4k stars for Deep-Research-skills, 1.4k for k-dense-byok. Over the days we have tracked them Deep-Research-skills moved +38.7% and k-dense-byok +48.5%, so k-dense-byok is growing faster right now.

k-dense-byok leads on context depth and privacy and model freedom and setup ease. Deep-Research-skills 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

Provides a structured two-phase (outline then deep investigation) human-in-the-loop research workflow packaged specifically as skills for Claude Code / OpenCode / Codex, including parallel web research modules and report generation.

Stars
2.4k
Tracked growth
+38.7%
Maturity
●●●●●
Last commit
58d ago
Language
Python
License
MIT
Cost to run
Depends on model provider

A local-first, bring-your-own-keys AI research assistant that runs on your computer and bundles domain-specific scientific skills, workflows, and a living lab notebook.

Stars
1.4k
Tracked growth
+48.5%
Maturity
●●●●●
Last commit
3d ago
Language
TypeScript
License
MIT
Cost to run
Your API key (pay-per-use) or free local models
0%+48%90 tracked days
Weizhena/Deep-Research-skillsK-Dense-AI/k-dense-byok

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.

AxisDeep-Research-skillsk-dense-byok
Context depth
How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository.
●●●●●
Web-only
●●●●●
Whole-project access
Noise control
How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only.
●●●●●
Human-in-the-loop
●●●●●
Clarifying prompts & review
Customization
How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config.
●●●●●
Config file options
●●●●●
Configurable skills & presets
Privacy
Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only.
●●●●●
Cloud APIs
●●●●●
Fully local optional
Model freedom
Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one.
●●●●●
Specific providers
●●●●●
BYOK + local models
Setup ease
What it takes to get a first useful run out of it.
●●●●●
Manual install steps
●●●●●
Quick local start

Which one to pick

Pick Deep-Research-skills if…

Claude/OpenCode/Codex integration — choose this when you run those agent clients and want an extensible, human-in-the-loop two-phase workflow (outline + deep web research) that outputs organized markdown reports.

Runs in coding-agent-plugin, cli. Works with anthropic, other-fixed.

Pick k-dense-byok if…

Privacy-first — run a full scientific assistant locally or use your own OpenRouter key while keeping projects and data on your machine, with many prebuilt scientific skills and workflows.

  • Context depth: Whole-project access (5/5 against 1/5)
  • Privacy: Fully local optional (5/5 against 3/5)
  • Model freedom: BYOK + local models (5/5 against 3/5)
  • Setup ease: Quick local start (5/5 against 3/5)
Runs in cli, web-app. Works with byok, local-ollama.

What people want from each one

K-Dense-AI/k-dense-byok

Most-wanted open issues

Questions people ask

Is Deep-Research-skills better than k-dense-byok?

k-dense-byok leads on context depth and privacy and model freedom and setup ease. Deep-Research-skills does not take any axis by a clear margin. Deep-Research-skills is worth picking when claude/OpenCode/Codex integration — choose this when you run those agent clients and want an extensible, human-in-the-loop two-phase workflow (outline + deep web research) that outputs organized markdown reports.

Which of Deep-Research-skills and k-dense-byok keeps my code private?

Deep-Research-skills: Cloud APIs (3/5). k-dense-byok: Fully local optional (5/5).

What does each one cost to run?

Deep-Research-skills: Depends on model provider. k-dense-byok: Your API key (pay-per-use) or free local models.

Full profiles: Weizhena/Deep-Research-skills and K-Dense-AI/k-dense-byok. Everything else in Research agents.