openbot vs skill-recorder

The two are close in size: 5.2k stars for openbot, 4.0k for skill-recorder. Over the days we have tracked them openbot moved +398.2% and skill-recorder +237.6%, so openbot is growing faster right now.

They split the axes: openbot leads on context depth and customization and model freedom, skill-recorder on setup ease.

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

Runs each agent in an isolated, browser-backed per-agent 'computer' with a central gateway that enforces CEL policies and records an auditable trail of every action.

Stars
5.2k
Tracked growth
+398.2%
Maturity
Last commit
6h ago
Language
TypeScript
License
MIT
Cost to run
Requires CopilotKit license and your model API key.

Converts a single on-screen recording (clicks, window switches, URLs, and optional narration) into a generalized, reusable Skill or scheduled Automation using the GitHub Copilot CLI.

Stars
4.0k
Tracked growth
+237.6%
Maturity
Last commit
4h ago
Language
TypeScript
License
MIT
Cost to run
Requires GitHub Copilot access
0%+398%48 tracked days
CopilotKit/openbotmicrosoft/skill-recorder

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.

Axisopenbotskill-recorder
Context depth
How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository.
Workspace access
Recording only
Noise control
How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only.
Policy and audit
Manual review/edit
Customization
How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config.
YAML & UI configs
Manual edits only
Privacy
Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only.
Cloud APIs w/ key
Copilot cloud required
Model freedom
Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one.
Multiple providers
Copilot only
Setup ease
What it takes to get a first useful run out of it.
Config + API key
One-command install

Which one to pick

Pick openbot if…

Privacy-first — runs on your machine with per-bot containers, encrypted credentials, and a policy-enforced gateway for auditable, controllable agent actions.

  • Context depth: Workspace access (3/5 against 1/5)
  • Customization: YAML & UI configs (4/5 against 2/5)
  • Model freedom: Multiple providers (3/5 against 1/5)
Runs in web-app, cli, ci. Works with byok, openai, anthropic, gemini.

Pick skill-recorder if…

Privacy-aware — captures and processes recordings locally and only uploads event data and images to GitHub Copilot when you explicitly choose Analyze, making it easy to create real-world reusable agent skills from one run.

  • Setup ease: One-command install (5/5 against 3/5)
Runs in cli. Works with other-fixed.

What people want from each one

Questions people ask

Is openbot better than skill-recorder?

They split the axes: openbot leads on context depth and customization and model freedom, skill-recorder on setup ease. openbot is worth picking when privacy-first — runs on your machine with per-bot containers, encrypted credentials, and a policy-enforced gateway for auditable, controllable agent actions.

Which of openbot and skill-recorder keeps my code private?

openbot: Cloud APIs w/ key (3/5). skill-recorder: Copilot cloud required (2/5).

What does each one cost to run?

openbot: Requires CopilotKit license and your model API key.. skill-recorder: Requires GitHub Copilot access.

Full profiles: CopilotKit/openbot and microsoft/skill-recorder. Everything else in Computer use.