Fastest-rising open-source AI projects of 2026

The year’s fastest-growing new projects.

1. OpenClawopenclaw/openclaw★ 393kMITTypeScript

   A self-hosted personal AI assistant you command through chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord; it can operate your computer and browser and run scheduled tasks.

   One of the fastest-growing GitHub projects of 2026, with a large skill and plugin ecosystem. It has broad permissions, so run it on a separate machine or in a container.

   npm install -g openclaw@latest && openclaw onboard --install-daemonCopy
2. Matt Pocock's Skillsmattpocock/skills★ 303kMITShell

   TypeScript educator Matt Pocock's personal agent skills, covering engineering workflows like writing PRDs, splitting issues, TDD, refactoring and code review.

   Short and practical; pick the skills you need and install them into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents.

   npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skillsCopy
3. DeepSeek Harnessdeepseek-ai/deepseek-harness★ 261kMITTypeScript

   An open-source agent framework DeepSeek released in August 2026. Models, tools, skills, sandboxes and UIs are all composed as plugins; it launches a local Web UI by default.

   Passed 240,000 stars in just over a month and can load plugins from the Claude Code and Codex ecosystems. Still a developer preview, so the interface may change.

   npx @deepseek-ai/dsh webCopy
4. Hermes AgentNousResearch/hermes-agent★ 257kMITPython

   Nous Research's always-on agent that builds memory from use and generates its own skills; works in the terminal and many chat platforms.

   Built around self-improvement — it learns you over time. Supports many models; another popular self-hosted agent besides OpenClaw.

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bashCopy
5. claude-memthedotmack/claude-mem★ 103kApache-2.0TypeScript

   Automatically records what an agent did in each session, compresses it into AI summaries, and injects relevant context into your next conversation.

   Fixes the "forgets everything each session" problem in Claude Code and similar tools; now supports Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI and other agents.

   InstallIn Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add thedotmack/claude-mem, then /plugin install claude-mem
6. nanobotHKUDS/nanobot★ 49.3kMITPython

   An ultra-lightweight personal agent framework from the University of Hong Kong's Data Intelligence Lab, providing memory, tools, MCP and chat-app integrations in a small amount of Python.

   Far less code than OpenClaw, so it's easy to read and modify. Good for self-hosting or learning agent architecture; built by a Hong Kong team.

   pip install nanobot-ai && nanobot onboardCopy

Updated Oct 25, 2026 · ★ GitHub