sverklo
v0.20.0
/* comparison */

Sverklo vs Greptile

Greptile is a hosted PR-review bot — a comment-on-every-PR product that uploads your repository to its own cloud and charges roughly $30 per developer per month. Sverklo is a local-first MCP server (MIT, free) that gives your AI agent the same symbol graph and risk scoring at edit time, not just at review time, with zero bytes of code leaving the machine. This page explains what each does best, where they differ, and when to use them together.

Feature comparison

Sverklo Greptile
Type Local MCP server (37 tools) Hosted PR-review SaaS bot
License / Price MIT Free for all use ~$30/dev/mo Hosted SaaS
Where your code lives 100% on your machine — never uploaded Uploaded and stored in Greptile's cloud
Surface to the AI agent Continuous: 37 MCP tools at edit time, search time, and review time Review-only: bot comments after PR opens
Client support Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, any MCP client GitHub PRs (Slack, Linear integrations)
Symbol graph Hybrid BM25 + vector + PageRank at the symbol level Proprietary embedding-based search
Blast-radius analysis sverklo_impact shows callers, callees, test coverage Not exposed as a separate primitive
PR review Risk-scored diff (importance × coverage × churn) + CI gate (--fail-on high) Inline review comments + summary on every PR
Memory of past decisions Bi-temporal, git-pinned, queryable at any past commit Not available
Privacy 100% local, no telemetry, no API keys, MIT SOC 2 hosted, but your code lives in Greptile's infrastructure
Inline PR comments Single sticky comment via GitHub Action (no per-line review yet) Per-line review comments on every PR
Setup npm install -g sverklo && sverklo init — 30s Auth GitHub app, contract, onboarding
Open source Yes (MIT) No (proprietary, hosted)

When to use each

Choose Sverklo when

  • Your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed) needs to reason about your codebase, not just be reviewed by a bot
  • Your code can't leave the machine — compliance, contract, or just preference
  • You want a one-time install instead of a recurring per-developer SaaS bill
  • You need risk-scored CI gates (--fail-on high) that fail builds locally without a cloud round-trip
  • You want a queryable memory of past decisions (bi-temporal, git-pinned)
  • You're comfortable with a single sticky PR comment instead of inline review (for now)

Choose Greptile when

  • Per-line inline review comments on every PR are non-negotiable
  • You don't have an AI coding agent in the loop and only want a bot that comments on PRs
  • Your team is OK uploading the codebase to a SaaS vendor
  • You'd rather pay $30/dev/mo than run a local indexer
  • You want hosted analytics and a customer-success team

Different jobs, different surfaces

Greptile is a PR-review bot: a hosted comment-on-every-diff product that reads your repo from its own cloud and posts inline reviews after a PR opens. It's a great fit for teams who want a managed reviewer with no install, accept the SaaS price, and are comfortable uploading their code.

Sverklo is an agent-grounding layer: a local MCP server that gives Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf a real symbol graph the moment the agent starts reasoning — at edit time, search time, and review time. The PR is just one of many surfaces; the engine runs continuously inside your editor. Same intelligence, different point in the loop.

They're not mutually exclusive. Run sverklo locally to ground your agent and gate your CI; let Greptile post the inline PR comments your team's reviewer flow expects. Or pick sverklo if uploading the codebase isn't an option.

Try Sverklo

MIT licensed. One command. Works with every MCP client.

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