Living documentation that stays in sync, automatically.
Swimm moved toward agentic modernization. repowise reclaims living docs: an auto-generated wiki that rebuilds on every commit with freshness and confidence scoring, plus health, decisions, git intelligence, and agent-native MCP, all open source and self-hostable.
Swimm helped popularize documentation that stays in sync, then shifted its emphasis toward agentic modernization, leaving the living-docs lane open. The question is who keeps your documentation true to the code now.
repowise reclaims that lane and automates it. The wiki is regenerated on every commit with freshness and confidence scoring, so documentation tracks the code without manual authoring, and the same index also carries health, decisions, git intelligence, and ten MCP tools.
Which one is right for you?
Choose repowise if
- You want documentation that stays in sync automatically, with no snippets to hand-author
- You want an auto-generated wiki that rebuilds on every commit with freshness and confidence scoring
- You want docs plus a defect-validated health score, decisions, and git intelligence in one tool
- You want multi-repo workspaces so services in separate repos share one connected index
- You want to give AI coding agents real codebase context through MCP
- You want it open source and self-hostable under AGPL-3.0, with public pricing
Choose Swimm if
- You need IDE-coupled, hand-authored doc walkthroughs tied to specific code, with auto-sync of those snippets
- You need enterprise modernization services and consulting
- You want a sales-led engagement with senior engineers driving the migration
- You are running a large-scale legacy or mainframe modernization program
repowise vs Swimm
| Capability | repowise | Swimm |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation that stays in sync with coderepowise auto-generates; Swimm auto-syncs hand-authored snippets | Included | Included |
| Auto-generated wiki, no manual authoring | Included | Not included |
| Rebuilds on every commit with freshness scoringSwimm keeps authored snippets current as code changes | Included | Partial support |
| Confidence scoring on generated docs | Included | Not included |
| IDE-coupled, hand-authored doc walkthroughs | Not included | Included |
| Defect-validated code-health score | Included | Not included |
| Architectural decision records (get_why) | Included | Not included |
| Git intelligence: hotspots, ownership, coupling | Included | Not included |
| Agent-native MCP context (overview, answers, risk, why)Swimm exposes its context layer to MCP | Included | Partial support |
| Dead code detection | Included | Not included |
| Multi-repo workspaces (one index across services) | Included | Not included |
| Open source and self-hostable | Included | Not included |
| Public, self-serve pricingSwimm is sales-led | Included | Not included |
| Enterprise modernization services | Not included | Included |
Self-assessed against publicly documented features as of June 2026. A dash means partial or limited support. Vendor capabilities change, so please verify against Swimm's current docs before deciding.
Docs that stay true to the code, without the upkeep.
The living-docs promise, automated, plus the context layer a documentation tool was never built to provide.
A wiki you never have to write or maintain
repowise parses the codebase into structured entities and synthesizes wiki pages, then rebuilds them on every commit with freshness and confidence scoring. Documentation tracks the code instead of drifting from it, and nobody has to author or babysit it.
- Auto-generated wiki, rebuilt on every commit
- Freshness and confidence scoring on every page
- Covers 16 languages from one index
- No snippets to write, no walkthroughs to maintain
Docs, decisions, health, and agent context together
Swimm is a documentation and modernization product. repowise puts the wiki alongside a defect-validated health score, architectural decision archaeology, git intelligence, and ten MCP tools, so the same index serves your readers and your AI agents.
- Architectural decisions mined from eight sources, served via get_why
- Code health from 21 biomarkers, ROC AUC 0.74 (up to 0.90 per repo)
- 35.6x fewer tokens loading one commit's context vs a raw file dump
- MCP tools for Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, and Codex
Your docs and your code stay yours
repowise is free and open source to self-host under AGPL-3.0, with public pricing. Swimm is a commercial, sales-led product. With repowise you can inspect every heuristic, run fully offline, and keep your code on your own infrastructure.
- Self-host the full platform at no cost under AGPL-3.0
- Bring your own LLM key or run fully offline
- Zero telemetry, code never leaves your infrastructure
- Commercial license available when you need it
Our own repo, public and free.
Every claim on this page is checkable on a real, live index: repowise's own OSS repository, indexed by repowise itself and open to anyone.
The living, auto-generated wiki for this exact repo, rebuilt on every commit and free to browse.
Every file scored 1 to 10 across defect, maintainability, and performance, something Swimm does not ship.
Unreachable files and unused exports, tiered by confidence, alongside the docs rather than a separate tool.
Docs that cross service boundaries.
Swimm's snippets and walkthroughs are scoped to the repo you are in. repowise's index can span the services a real system is actually made of.
Multi-repo workspaces
Connect the repositories that make up one system and repowise builds a single index across them, so a question about how one service calls another gets answered from real cross-repo context instead of two separate wikis.
Three co-equal health signals
Code health is not one blended number. Defect risk, maintainability, and performance are scored and reported separately, so a file can be low-defect-risk but still flagged for a maintainability or performance smell, and you see both.
Git intelligence beyond the doc
Hotspots, ownership, bus factor, and hidden coupling come from the same index that builds the wiki, so onboarding and architecture review draw on git history a documentation tool does not surface.
Dead code alongside the docs
Unreachable files and unused exports show up next to the pages that describe the code they belong to, instead of requiring a separate static-analysis tool.
The honest version
Swimm is a capable product with real strengths, and its focus has moved toward enterprise modernization. If you need IDE-coupled, hand-authored doc walkthroughs, snippets tied directly to code with auto-sync of those snippets, Swimm does that well and repowise does not author walkthroughs for you. Swimm also offers enterprise modernization services and a consulting motion, with senior engineers driving large-scale and mainframe migrations, which is outside what repowise sets out to do. repowise wins when you want documentation that stays in sync automatically, a wider context layer, and agent-native access, open source and self-hostable.
What repowise costs.
The repowise core is open source under AGPL-3.0 and free to self-host, with every heuristic public. Hosted tiers: Free for public repos, Pro at $15 per month, Teams at $60 per month, and custom enterprise licensing when you need it. Swimm's pricing changes, so verify it on their site, then compare it with a tier you can read line by line.
Questions, answered
Is repowise a good Swimm alternative?
Yes, if you want documentation that stays in sync with your code without manual authoring. Swimm has shifted its focus toward agentic modernization, while repowise leans into living documentation: an auto-generated wiki that rebuilds on every commit, with freshness and confidence scoring so every page stays true to the code. It also bundles a defect-validated health score, architectural decisions, git intelligence, and ten MCP tools. Swimm remains the better fit if you need IDE-coupled, hand-authored doc walkthroughs or enterprise modernization services.
Does repowise keep documentation in sync automatically?
Yes, and this is the core difference. repowise regenerates the wiki on every commit and attaches freshness and confidence scoring to what it produces, so documentation tracks the code without anyone writing or maintaining it by hand. There are no snippets to author and no walkthroughs to babysit as the codebase changes.
How is repowise different from Swimm's doc snippets?
Swimm's strength is IDE-coupled, hand-authored walkthroughs: snippets you write that are tied to specific code, with auto-sync to keep those snippets current. repowise authors the documentation for you. It parses the codebase into structured entities and synthesizes wiki pages, so the starting point is a complete auto-generated wiki rather than a blank walkthrough.
Is repowise open source? What license?
Yes. The repowise core is open source under AGPL-3.0, so you can self-host the whole platform, inspect every heuristic, and keep your code on your own infrastructure. Swimm is a commercial, sales-led product with no public pricing.
Does repowise give AI coding agents codebase context?
Yes. repowise exposes its index through ten MCP tools (get_overview, get_answer, get_context, get_risk, get_why, and more) so Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, and Codex answer from a real model of your code. It mines architectural decisions from eight sources and serves them through get_why, which a documentation tool was never built to do.
How efficient is repowise's context for agents?
Loading one commit's context through get_context costs 35.6x fewer tokens than reading every changed file, with the wiki and decisions already structured. That is a single-payload measurement; in a real agent loop against a bare-agent control it holds up as a measured 31.6% fewer output tokens on Codex.
Does repowise do code-health analysis Swimm does not?
Yes. repowise scores every file 1 to 10 from 21 deterministic biomarkers with no LLM, in under 30 seconds on a typical repo, and publishes the score's predictive performance: cross-project ROC AUC 0.74 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.79, up to 0.90 per repo). Swimm is a documentation and modernization product and does not ship a validated health score.
Does repowise document more than one repo at a time?
Yes. repowise supports multi-repo workspaces, so services that live in separate repositories get one connected index instead of a wiki per repo you have to cross-reference by hand. Swimm's documentation is scoped to individual repos and their IDE-coupled snippets.
Can I see repowise's own docs and health before installing anything?
Yes. repowise's own OSS repository is indexed publicly, with its wiki, code-health breakdown, and dead-code report all live and free to browse, generated by the same engine that would document your repo. It is linked below so you can check the claims on this page against a real index.
Living docs, rebuilt on every commit.
Why the code is shaped this way, via get_why.
Shared, always-fresh context for the whole team.
How the wiki is generated and kept fresh, in depth.
Where repowise and Swimm rank among docs tools.
Self-hosting and licensing, compared.
The mechanics behind an automatically synthesized wiki.
Why docs go stale and how freshness scoring fixes it.
Browse real indexed repos before you install anything.