#218218th of 218 in Coding agents and AI editors

hephaestus

Multi-agent orchestrator where agents spawn tasks across phases on a Kanban board

Documentation ↗ Website ↗ Repository on GitHub ↗

Stars: 1.2k
License: custom license
Last commit: Nov 2025
Language: Python

Stars, last 29 weeks+64

1,124 on 22 Apr 20261,188 on 11 Nov 2026

From GitHub's daily star counts.

Checked 12 Nov 2026 on GitHub.

Overview

Hephaestus runs CLI coding agents (Claude Code, OpenCode, Droid, Codex) in isolated tmux sessions. You define phase types such as analysis, implementation and validation, and agents create new tickets in any phase as they discover work. A Guardian process monitors agents against phase instructions, and a web UI shows the Kanban board and dependency graph. Hephaestus Dev adds five preset software-development workflows. Status is alpha.

Who it is for: Engineers experimenting with multi-agent coding workflows across CLI agents

Strengths

Agents create tasks in any phase, so workflows branch without predefined instructions
Isolated tmux sessions per agent, coordinated by Kanban tickets with blocking dependencies
Works with Claude Code, OpenCode, Droid or Codex as the agent CLI
Ships five preset dev workflows: PRD-to-software, bug fix, repo indexing, features, docs

Weaknesses

Alpha status and no tagged release
AGPL-3.0 per the README, which restricts closed-source network use
Heavy setup: tmux, Docker for Qdrant, Node.js, git repo and several API keys
Setup validation script is macOS only

What it needs

no GPU
Docker + Compose
Needs tmux, Git, Docker, Qdrant, Node.js, npm, Claude Code, OpenCode, Droid or Codex CLI
Models: OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Azure OpenAI, Google AI Studio

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How to choose

Check which models it can use: your own keys, local models, or only the vendor's.
See what it may do without asking (edit files, run shell, push) and how you approve.
Prefer agents that work in a branch or worktree you can throw away.

Health

Releases: No GitHub releases
Top contributor: 100% of commits7 of 7 in the last 12 months
Security advisories: NoneOn GitHub, in the last 12 months
OpenSSF Scorecard: Not checked

Read from GitHub, deps.dev and OpenSSF on 12 Nov 2026. Bots and coding-agent accounts are left out of the commit counts. Not part of the score: how we check.

License in plain words

custom license Custom terms

Use it at work: Check
Change it and rebrand it: Check
Sell it or host it for others: Check

Your part: GitHub could not match these terms to a standard license. Read the license before you use it at work, rebrand it or host it for others.

A plain summary, not legal advice. Read the license on GitHub ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Ask your AI assistant

The rankings as an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT and any MCP client. Free, no key, read-only.

Setup for other apps

Claude Codeclaude mcp add archestack -- npx -y @archestack/mcp

Connector URLhttps://mcp.archestack.com/mcp

Then ask: Compare hephaestus with its top alternatives on Archestack

#218 of 218 in Coding agents and AI editors on Archestack, as of 12 Nov 2026.

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README (Markdown)

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Site or blog (HTML)

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